Make Your Own Digital Camera ISO Test Target

dpnow writes I run a digital photography site and came across what I thought might be an interesting story. It's about a Cornell university researcher that has reverse-engineered the design of the ISO 12233 resolution test target, used by all the best digital camera testers. These usually cost over $100 but a free pdf download of the target is available. Print it out on a good quality printer and you have your own ISO-spec test target so you can find out how good (or bad) your camera really is! "

Comments

Or...

[tomcio.s]

frequent www.dpreview.com and get professional reviews of cameras.

Dpreview carries digital camera reviews dating back to 1996. They are usually very detailed.

Re:Or...

[Zog The Undeniable]

At the risk of creating a "me too" thread, Steve's Digicams is also pretty good. If a camera is junk, he says so, but the full size sample pictures are the really useful feature.

Cost over $100 ???

[sbryant]

Somebody can't read! It said over 100 pounds ($180).

Insert comment here about people of a certain nationality making too many assumptions about units of various things...

-- Steve

Re:Cost over $100 ???

[erick99]

From the article:

The ISO standard for measuring resolution of "electronic still imaging"" cameras is 12233, available only from the International Standards Organization for only 116 Swiss Francs (about $US93 as of this writing)

Re:Cost over $100 ???

[Anonymous Coward]

2. If you RTFA, you'd learn that the target is available directly from ISO for "only 116 Swiss Francs (about $US93 as of this writing)".

No, the *text description of the target* is available from the ISO for $100. Actual constructed targets are only available from third parties and are more expensive.

Re:Cost over $100 ???

[JeremyALogan]

so... why would someone in the United States (as Corell University is) quote prices in GB Pounds?
Answer? They wouldn't... if you had read the real article (you know... the one that dpnow.com links to) you would have seen the following:

The proper way to perform these tests is to order both the ISO standard and a properly-made test chart. The latter are available, for example, from Sine Patterns LLC and Precision Optical Imaging, both in Rochester, New York. See the the I3A site for worldwide sources. Expect to pay more than $US100 for such a chart.

Did it occur to you that maybe the submitter based his facts on the source, not the hype?

Re:Cost over $100 ???

[jemfinch]

No, it said (and I quote from http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/res-chart. html):

The ISO standard for measuring resolution of "electronic still imaging"" cameras is 12233, available only from the International Standards Organization for only 116 Swiss Francs (about $US93 as of this writing)

Insert comment here about people of certain other nationalities applying rude, unfounded stereotypes to people of my nationality.

Jeremy

misdirection

[Anonymous Coward]

the article links to a story which links to the actual content you want. To get to the real content, thus bypassing the advertisements that they wanted you to view in the first place, go here:

http://www.graphics.cornell.edu/~westin/res-chart. html

Site

[WhatsAProGingrass]

Another site with better pictures

Re:Site

[Pieroxy]

Well, not printable size, and thus, not free. The link you point to is the very reason someone got through the trouble of redoing it by himself.

Thanks though, this is informative.

Re:Site

[WhatsAProGingrass]

Yes true, its not free, but just thought it had some more info people might be able to use.

Looks like you'd need a pretty expensive printer to print these out. Some of the images are 80 cm wide.

Bacground information

[Mstrgeek]

This is a great site dealing with Digital Camera ISO Test Targets

http://www.gpsinformation.org/jack/photo-test/pi cs/lens-tests.html

hope you are able to find to find the site a help

Another excellent source

[poszi]

With description of the optics and details of the resultion measurements is here. He created also his own chart which includes shades of grey for better measurements of MTF50.

Pwned.

[op00to]

Pwned.

Photography - Electronic still-picture cameras - Resolution measurements

ISO 12233:2000 paper version (en) CHF 116,00

116.00 CHF Switzerland Francs = 94.2233 USD United States Dollars

Re:Pwned.

[dirkx]

Right - but that is just the standard which described the card; not the actual card itself.

Re:Color Fidelity

[Henry Stern]

Someone obviously didn't even LTFA. The target is black and white.

Coralized link to pdf

[Anonymous Coward]

ISO 12233 Test Chart

How *real* photographers test a new lens/camera

[Zocalo]

1. Throw away any test charts into the corner of the room
2. Toss any rulers on top of the test charts
3. Newspapers? - on top of the rulers
4. Avoid any brick walls
5. Pick up camera (and attach lens if applicable)
6. Go outside (yes, it really does exist!)
7. Shoot numerous pictures of various subjects, at varying apertures, focal lengths and durations. Using a flash for some of the shots would be a good idea too.
8. Make some nice large prints of your efforts
9. Do the prints look OK to you? If they do, congratulations - consider the test passed, and you might even have a few prints you can actually use for something as well. If not *now* it's time to retrieve the test charts, rulers etc.

Seriously, the only people that really need these charts are people that are designing or calibrating imaging systems. A charming term that I think was coined over on DPReview to describe everyone else is "measurebator". Believe me, if you've got a lens bad enough to make a difference visible in a print, then you'll know it without any test charts. I had a lens that backfocussed, a Nikon zoom lens I got for my film camera some years ago. I picked up the problem without test charts just fine (I often focus on an eye in portraits), and so out came the rulers, or in my case a newspaper. The largest focussing error in the series of test shots that I took was less than 2mm at a range of 3m.

Needless to say, I've never touched a test chart, or any facsimilie thereof, since then. The *only* chart that I do have is a Gretag Macbeth colour chart (it's a grid of 24 coloured squares) to get colour balance correct. I also have a couple of Kodak Grey cards for setting white balance if you want to nit pick and call one of those a "chart".

Re:Tied to the quality of your printer?

[ajs]

Yep, I have a Canon E300 (AKA Digital Rebel, AKA Kiss), which, at 6MP and with my good macro lens (since I don't need any depth of field for taking a picture of a sheet of paper) can literally tell you how good your paper selection is, and that's the "prosumer" grade camera. Grab yourself one of the "professional" digital cameras (like the E20), and you're going to be able to determine the components of the ink, based on the way the paper separates it through capillary action.

These test sheets are fine for low-end cameras, but once you start dealing with professional lenses and high resolution CCDs you really need something printed by a professional printer, not some cheesy home unit (even if the home unit has the same resolution as the camera, it may not be capable of reproducing the image on paper with enough fidelity to test the camera.

Re:Copyright...

[swillden]

NKJV is NOT copyrighted. You can copy it as you please.

The NKJV is copyrighted, though the copyright holder's (Thomas Nelson) policies on the use of its material are fairly liberal. You can't print full copies, but you can quote lots of it.

Perhaps you're thinking of the KJV, which is actually copyrighted as well, but the copyright has no legal force outside of the UK and isn't, I don't believe, enforced there, either. See the Wikepedia article for more information.

Take it to a professional printer...

[Dr. Mu]

I printed this out on my HP4MV laser printer at 11 x 17 inches. Its 600 dpi are hopelessly inadequate for this test pattern. The best way to print this would be to take it to a print shop that has a good direct-to-film printer (2540dpi or better) and ask them to make a PMT (positive mat transfer) from the file at the highest resolution possible. You'll get a near-perfect print. But you'll pay about $25, and it may not be archival: some PMTs fade over time.