This, however, is really only noticeable in dark scenes. In lighter scenes, you’re unlikely to notice much of a difference in backlighting uniformity. So, edge-lit TVs like the Samsung CU7000, Samsung CU8000 and LG UR9000 are a solid low-cost alternative to some of the other local dimming technologies that cost more.

Micro-LED TVs, on the other hand, are a slightly different beast. Micro-LEDs are self-emitting — so there’s no backlight involved at all. These Micro-LEDs are controlled on a per-pixel level, like in OLED displays.

The number of zones that a TV offers as part of its local dimming is getting higher and higher, allowing for better and better backlighting control. Only a few years ago, it was more common to get up to 100 or so dimming zones,” however these days, it’s common to see several thousand zones in most mid-range TVs.

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Depending on how many LEDs there are around the TV, edge-lit TVs can create somewhat of a local dimming effect by turning certain LEDs on and others off. However, the main downside to edge-lit TVs is the fact that the backlighting isn’t very uniform. Most of the time, instead of creating actual black, they can only create a dark gray. Not only that, but the closer you get to the center of a display, the less uniform backlighting is, as less light is reaching those pixels.

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Instead of placing LEDs around the edge of an image, TVs with full-array dot LEDs around the entire back of the TV. These LEDs are arranged in a grid, and can be individually-controlled. The result, of course, is an image with much deeper blacks. With full-array local dimming, when there’s black in an image, the TV can turn off the LED or LEDs in that area, or those “zones,” off.

BSI CMOS

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Direct-lit TVs aren’t necessarily as common as they were a few years ago, but they do still exist, like in the form of the Toshiba C350 and the new Sony Bravia 3. These days, many manufacturers have moved to local dimming, even for their cheaper TVs — though keep in mind that even the best budget TVs probably won’t have as dimming dimming zones as more expensive ones.

Local dimming is a great way to get better image performance at a reasonable price, and the technology has come a long way in the last few years.

There are plenty of TVs that use local dimming these days. Examples include the likes of the Hisense U8K and newer Hisense U8N as well as the TCL QM8, all of which have Mini-LED backlighting.

BSI technology has generally been deployed for small sensors with very small pixels, where the lack of obstructive metal layers on top of the sensor allows an increase in light-gathering ability or quantum efficiency of those small pixels. While the new Sony sensor has many pixels, since it’s a large sensor the pixels are not small by the standards of those where BSI has traditionally been applied, and the performance degradation due to the metal layers is proportionally much smaller. Until performance tests are available, the increase in quantum efficiency won’t be known for sure, but I suspect that for this sensor, the aim of using BSI has been somewhat different.

Optical format

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When it comes to local dimming, the rule really is the more dimming zones, the better. More dimming zones allow TVs to better control backlighting and produce deeper, more natural black-levels. If you can avoid them, edge-lit TVs don’t perform anywhere near as well as TVs with full-array local-dimming, while direct-lit TVs can’t actually produce deeper black-levels at all — they just backlight the TV in a more uniform way. Our recommendation is to stick with full-array local-dimming TVs, especially ones that have several thousands zones and use Mini-LEDs.

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Local dimming has everything to do with attempting to create deeper, darker black levels — while retaining the high level of brightness that LED TVs are known for.

But there’s a little more to it than that — and there are multiple different local dimming technologies that can make for a better image overall.

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Such a sensor should be more immune to pixel-shading effects, and better suited to use with fast lenses – precisely the kind many of you will want to mount on it.

That being said, it's still not a perfect technology. When there’s a bright image on the screen, light can still find its way around the dimming zones — it’s not perfectly contained. The result is something called light blooming, or some light around a bright object, even if the scene is supposed to be dark. This blooming has become less of an issue as dimming zones have gotten smaller and smaller, and TVs are able to control them better.

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Back sideilluminated

Local dimming essentially does away with the single, massive backlight in an LED. Instead, local dimming utilizes multiple backlights, and turns them on and off depending on what’s in the image. The result? If an image is dark, with lots of black, the TV can turn sections of the backlight off for better contrast.

It has been discovered that manufacturers of cameras with this problem will often mask it by introducing a surreptitious boost to the ISO setting at wide apertures. This pixel-shading effect is worse at the edges of the frame, where the light is not perpendicular to the sensor. One major advantage of BSI is that the colour filter and micro lens ‘toppings’ sit directly on top of the photoreceptors, instead of being separated by a layer of metallisation. This means that their focal length is shorter, which in turn means that their f-numbers are smaller (remembering that f-number is the focal length divided by the aperture diameter, in this case the pixel width).

Conventional sensors have a layer of circuitry between the microlenses and photodiodes (above left), unlike the backside illuminated type (above right)

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If you really want perfect backlight control, however, there's always OLED TVs like the LG C3 OLED, newer LG C4 OLED, Samsung S95C OLED and the inimitable Sony A95L OLED.

Digital cameras suffer from what might be called a ‘pixel-shading’ effect. If one considers the objective lens and pixel micro lens as a combined optical system, the f-number is limited by the slower of the two. So, even if you have an f/1.4 lens attached, you won’t get the full effect if the micro lenses on the sensor are only f/2.

But there are ways around this — to the extent where some LED TVs are approaching OLED black-levels. How? With local dimming. Local dimming has allowed LED TVs to compete, and even exceed, OLED TVs in image quality.

Direct-lit TVs have LED backlights that are always on, but they’re dotted around the TV, like full-array local dimming. This allows for more uniform backlighting, but without the ability to turn them off, you won’t get the deeper black-levels on offer by actual full-array local dimming.

Unless you buy a MicroLED for tens of thousands of dollars, regular LED-LCD TVs don’t have the benefit of being able to switch off individual pixels, like OLED TVs. The result, unfortunately, is that LED TVs can’t achieve the same deep, inky black-levels that the best OLED TVs have on offer.

Edge-lit TVs, as the name suggests, place LEDs around the edges of a TV — and only along the edges of the TV. These LEDs face inward towards the center of a TV, lighting the image through color filters and other technologies.

Christian de Looper is a freelance writer who has covered every facet of consumer tech, including mobile, audio, home theater, computing, gaming, and even car tech. At Tom’s Guide, Christian covers TV and home theater tech, and has reviewed dozens of TVs, soundbars, and A/V receivers, including those from the likes of Samsung, Hisense, TCL, and Vizio.

The Mark II of the Alpha 7R carries across all those detail enhancements, but the big news is a brand new and groundbreaking sensor. Apart from a slight hike in pixel count (from 36.4 megapixels to 42.4 megapixels – I guess to make extracting 4K video from the sensor simpler), this sensor gains a unique attribute: it’s the first commodity full-frame sensor using backside illumination or BSI.

The natural advancement of this, of course, comes in the form of Mini-LED and Micro-LED TVs. Mini-LED TVs have LED backlights that measure between around 0.004 and 0.008 inches. There are thousands of these backlights in a Mini-LED TV, allowing for quite fine control of the backlighting.

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Direct-lit TVs emerged a little over 10 years ago as a way to backlight an image in a uniform way — but at a low price. We’re touching on them because they sometimes get confused with full-array local dimming — but on the contrary, they don’t dim at all.

Full-array local dimming has risen in popularity over the past few years as a way to more uniformly light an image — and gain more control over the backlighting.