An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power

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Publisher: SMPTE
Doc Type: Journal Article
Article Type: research-article
Abstract: It is often desirable to express the performance characteristics of electronic and photographic imaging systems in the same terminology. The photographic measures — resolving power, number of perceptible gray-scale steps, granularity and others — are shown to be system properties which can be computed from basic characteristics: the intensity transfer function, sine-wave response function and the noise level. Following a review of the quantum relations of signal and noise in a two-dimensional image, the concepts of sampling areas and equivalent passbands are introduced to compute the noise spectrum, equivalent grain size and quantum yield of the photographic process. Number and size of the grains in a sampling area are shown to be functions of exposure and amplification (development), which explains the nonlinear relation between optical density and total noise energy obtained with emulsions containing a range of grain sizes. General expressions are derived for calculating the resolving power of an imaging system for specific test objects. Threshold signal-to-noise ratios and corresponding probabilities for visual detection of 3-bar test objects and intensity steps are determined in Part II, illustrated by numerical examples and observations. Instrumentation and methods for photoelectric measurement of signals and noise, and in particular, the sine-wave response functions of microscopes, lenses and photographic emulsions, are discussed in Part III of the paper.
Publication Date: 1964-02-01
DOI: 10.5594/J06117
Link: https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117
Author(s): Otto H. Schade

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Otto H. Schade; An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 73, Issue: 2, February 1964); SMPTE, 1964. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117

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Otto H. Schade; An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 73, Issue: 2, February 1964); SMPTE, 1964. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117

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Otto H. Schade; An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 73, Issue: 2, February 1964); SMPTE, 1964. Available at https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117

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<span class="citation">Otto H. Schade; <cite>An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power</cite>, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 73, Issue: 2, February 1964); SMPTE, 1964. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117</a></span>

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Otto H. Schade; An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 73, Issue: 2, February 1964); SMPTE, 1964
doi: 10.5594/J06117
url: https://doi.org/10.5594/J06117

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Otto H. Schade; <cite id="bib-10-5594-j06117">An Evaluation of Photographic Image Quality and Resolving Power</cite>, Journal of the SMPTE ( Volume: 73, Issue: 2, February 1964); SMPTE, 1964
<span class="doi">10.5594/J06117</span>
</li>