After talking to BenQ and being informed that Dynamic mode runs the color wheel at 6x instead of 4x, I tried using this mode for a calibration. You can get a pretty accurate image out of it that is good until 80% and then starts to lose red at the top end, but put out a remarkable 45 ftL of light on my screen. In order to get that grayscale to be totally linear, I had to reduce contrast to the point that the peak white level was 22 ftL, but I now had an image that was very accurate and using the faster color wheel for fewer rainbows. It wasn't quite as accurate as User mode, but if you see rainbows the lower light output and slight loss in color fidelity would certainly be worth it.
One issue I did have was getting the sharpness control set correctly on the BenQ. A setting of 0 was fuzzy, and above 5 there was edge enhancement setting in. Going to 5 was the best choice for me, but at that same level I noticed some color fringing on the screen as well and the finest detail in wedge patterns were still showing some edge enhancement artifacts. The lens or the sharpness control could introduce this, but there was certainly a purplish tint at certain points on the Spears and Munsil pattern. It seems there is no setting in the BenQ that results in exact 1:1 processing of the image with no enhancement at all, but I found 5 to be the best setting overall with the fewest artifacts.
On my 96", Screen Innovations 1.3 gain Solar HD screen I measured a peak light output of 29.42 fL in low lamp mode, and a pure black level of 0.031 fL. This would give me a lumens estimate of 600 lumens and approximate contrast of 935:1. If I enabled Dynamic Black the black level dropped to 0.01, raising the contrast ration to almost 3,000:1. Turning on high lamp mode the white output raised to 36.8 fL, for 770 lumens, with all values out to 255 still visible. There is plenty of light to spare here.
Measuring the contrast ratio straight from the gave me a reading of 890:1 with Dynamic Black off, and 2900:1 with Dynamic Black on which is almost identical to off the screen. I always focus on the number without the iris, as it is more applicable to actual content. These numbers are pretty low for a DLP and likely due to the choice of the DarkChip 2, but the very bright highlights in scenes helps make the blacks appear darker in content.
In the end you can get a well calibrated image from the BenQ, but you will have to be very careful in your choice of colorspaces, where to clip white, and striking a balance between Hue and Saturation to get the CMS points dialed in correctly. It's a bit finicky but it can get there with some work.
