I own the Z1/RS4500 and the X9900, and have had many of the previous E-Shift JVC,s. A friend who also has had several of the E-Shift JVC,s ..X5000,X7000,X7500 and lastly the X9500 decided to purchase the Sony 760ES, his "first " Sony .His decision was that he was so impressed with my Z1/RS4500, BUT couldn't quite afford the Z1/RS4500, so the Sony 760ES was the next best option.He was kind enough to "loan" me the 760ES for a couple of weeks ...we compared it directly against the Z1/RS4500 and the X9900 and X9500.The Z1/RS4500 is most definitely at another level. The 760ES is hands down "sharper" more "detailed" in every way than ANY of the E-shift projectors... I dont know if this is due to its lens or processing, but on my 143" scope screen its VERY apparent!The 760ES does struggle for contrast in some instances, BUT overall the image from it is terrific...my friend has NO regrets on going from the X9500 to the 760ES.I am definitely NOT a Sony "Fanboy" , but i do think the 760ES copes more "flak" than is justified.
I never said the JVC's lens is "best", but definitely better than the Sony's. I'm sure JVCs lens could be improved in certain areas like optical coatings to improve ANSI contrast. With that said, I would take Kris's report from when he spoke to the Sony reps at CEDIA saying they could not confirm a new lens over anecdotal evidence (spread by pro-Sony people) where they took one line from a CEDIA report and ran away with wild fantasies about what that ambiguous line actually meant. The line that was reported by Scott Wilkinson where all of these "new lens" rumors came from says:"Finally, an improved lens offers even better focus and stability than before."What this is in reference to are issues with previous VW3xx and VW5xx models. See here where Ekki of cine4home goes over the focus and uniformity issues that a large percentage of lenses that made it into previous models had. You'll need to translate it into english:http://cine4home.de/sony-vpl-vw520-in-der-cine4home-highend-edition/Ekki states (translated):"Unfortunately, it does not look that good in terms of optical clarity: Four projectors we viewed did not allow optimal sharpness and were not able to bring the full 4K brilliance to the screen...the large series variance in the optical sharpness did not meet us in the predecessor generations so. This is particularly annoying since affected devices there is no fix."So this statement that Scott made was in reference to better quality control, NOT a new lens design. The very fact that the 285ES I had here, which has this supposed "new" lens, looked subjectively worse off for uniformity and pixel delineation compared to the 665ES I had the previous year, I can't help but conclude that this is not in fact a new lens design that improves optical performance. So while very far from spec lenses may not make into projectors, there still seems to be a decent amount of variance among the lenses that do make it into projectors. I've compared this "new" lens to two different JVC eshift units and objectively and subjectively the JVCs is nicer. JVCs lens has better focus uniformity, better pixel delineation and is all-glass. There seems to be very little variance with the JVCs lens. I've seen around a dozen JVCs with this lens and have seen very little variance in optical performance. I've spent just as much time comparing them as I'm sure most people who've had two of these projectors here have. That is my take on the matter. If you get specific confirmation from Sony themselves that says otherwise, please be sure to post that here. Otherwise I'm sticking to my quality control mentality. The reports of a new lens stems from two people who are Sony fanboys taking one ambiguous line on a forum post. and somehow making it into claims of a totally new lens. It's a game of telephone gone wild and now tons of people assume there is a new lens in these projectors. I'm sure Sony is very happy about that.
Dear me, its only the JVC fanboys without real experience with the subject matter that come up with such negativity. I was such a JVC fanboy until I did what most have not - compared projectors side by side! Any other form of comparison or speculation is worthless. This applies for referencing 2018 model Sony's and the 885ES in particular.
I only add Ekki's information to give some objective facts on the matter but also to prove why this is not a "new" lens.
Firstly Ekki's comments are irrelevant - irrespective of the reason for the improvement in Sony lenses, Ekki's review is for a 2015 projector, and not the 2018 models so it cannot be used as a basis for comparison of current Sony PJ's.Secondly, I truly dont care whether or not the Sony lens is a new design or just improved quality in the 885ES, I just much prefer what I see compared to JVC's best globe based projector which I also owned. Quite frankly, there could be a number of reasons for differences in perceived sharpness between projectors and I cant see how a realistic 1:1 comparison between different projectors' lenses can be made without removing them and testing the optics on their own. My whole point in posting is that I purchased the X990 after listening to all the stories about how JVC was superior to Sony in so many ways including superior lens. This led me to believe that on 1080p material ( if not 4k) JVC should be better- this has not been supported by direct comparisons. Of course this does not take into account the potential for so many other factors such as panel alignment , image processing etc that can play a role in perceived resolution but it does reinforce the position that discussions on comparative lens quality are highly speculative at best. Of more interest to me ( and I suspect to a number of others) is the picture quality actually delivered, which IMO is really what purchasing decisions should be based on.
To your next point about the 885ES having better image quality, have you seen this thread?http://www.avsforum.com/forum/24-digital-hi-end-projectors-3-000-usd-msrp/2937682-great-jvc-vs-sony-projector-shootout-dec-9-10-no-price-talk-please.htmlEvery person there, except one person, thought the JVC models at the shootout put up a better image overall compared to 885ES. This includes a model costing less than half of what the 885ES does. Overall, this happens to be my opinion as well after having many of these recent JVC and Sony models here. That doesn't make your opinion on the matter any less factual as you're entitled to your own opinion, I just think it's fair to point this out that *most* people currently prefer a JVCs image due to the many inherent strengths they possess over the Sony's. If the tables were turned I'd have a Sony projector here (or a projector from any other manufacturer) if it possessed the better image overall. Enjoy your 885ES, it's a great machine overall and it seems you find aspects of its image better than the current JVCs. That just doesn't seem to be the norm with most people who've compared them.
Not so.Clearly you have not done the comparison, as I and others have done. With respect, your opinion on the subject does not carry weight where you simply interpret and interpolate others comments from one thread on the internet. In fact the misinformation being spread about the 885ES was the reason I suggested to Kris Deering that 885ES should be reviewed against E-Shift, not just RS-4500, to better reflect real world purchasing decisions. In my buying decision, I spoke to 2 other JVC E-Shift owners who had switched to 885ES before me and I read professional reviews. With forum comments I ignore negative comments from both owners and non-owners who appear to be more interested in brand promotion than assisting others in an unbiased manner.For the record, and based on my own experience, the difference Between E-Shift and Sony 885ES is not even close. While on its own it produces very fine images, next to the Sony Laser, E-shift produces visible video noise and the image has less overall stability, Sony light distribution is more even from centre to edge of screen, Sony Colours look superior ( as you should expect with laser ) , Sony motion is superb and E-shift motion is jittery by comparison. And of course, resolution on all material on 885ES is superior while 4K on 885ES is simply stunning. Black levels on JVC are better as we know, however contrast on 885ES is so good, most would find it easy to live with. I certainly do. These are only things you notice when living with both of them side by side for a while. However all the reviews have been 885ES vs RS4500 to date where the RS4500 is vastly superior to E-shift.I dont think there is much point in me continuing this exchange since I have explained what I know through experience, and hopefully that can balance the comments that have been made by those with no experience of the subject matter. I sincerely hope you can see this as a comparison of technologies at different price points, which is how I like to look at it and leaving brand names out of it. With a bit of luck and in time, we might see a JVC 4k laser at the same price point as 885ES and a new Sony at the same price as RS-4500.
Agreed with Craig, I don't see how you can compare a $25,000 Sony to an eshift JVC when talking price. The only valid comparison would be more a purely technical academic type of comparison, but certainly not price. The Sony 285 and 385 would be the models to compare to the JVC eshift units in terms of price range.
Just going to correct a couple things...The colour is not superior on laser. How are you even quantifying that? Calibration will put both machins into a state where colour is statistically impossible to tell apart. Also, the Sony does not reach 98/99% of the P3 gamut last I checked, where the JVC does.Sony appears to have less video noise because of its undefeatable processing. The mico eshift mosquito noise is not visible from a distance on a normal screen size since its about the same size as pixels, you are seeing film grain which the Sony subdues.Sony's greyscale uniformity is very bad compared to JVC also. So, its not exactly even there either. The other points are accurate though.
You would qualify his statement on 'jittery' motion to be accurate as well?
Missed that one.There was a post on AVS just this morning relating to the motion:" I attended a shootout with a Sony 385 and RS640 JVC earlier this year and native motion (no FI) was one of the things we compared and I could not see any difference doing instant A/B back and forth between the two. I was surprised by this as I was expecting to see a difference from what I'd read, but it just wasn't there to my eyes."There is a raw panel response difference though between the brands (2.5ms vs 4ms), any observable difference in motion is probably down to that.
On my old JVC LCOS (RS1) the motion performance is pretty horrible. Does anybody know what the response times of those olders units are? I'm hoping it has been improved with the latest incarnation