This chart does not conform to the updated ISO standard. We recommend thePhotographic ISO E-SFR chart for testing that does not specifically require the old chart.

The ISO standard for measuring resolution of “electronicstill imaging”' cameras is 12233, available only from theInternational Standards Organization for only 116 Swiss Francs(about $US93 as of this writing) and under copyright protection. Butthe design of the test chart seems not to be protected; itsdescription has been available on the Web in an Excel spreadsheet. Ihave semi-manually converted this to an Adobe Illustrator file whichis displayed here.

The display to the left is an SVG document. If you see text instead of the chart, you probably are using Internet Explorer or an outdated version of another browser. Either update or wait for Internet Explorer 9, which is expected to support SVG. If something shows up, but seems to be missing something, it's possible your browser has bugs in rendering SVG.

Click here for a printable PDFversion. The size is 15.75×8.45 inches (400×240mm); youwill probably have to resize to fit your printer.

In principle, you should be able to print this chart and performresolution tests on your camera. The reality isn't that simple; thereare lots of subtleties having to do with focus distance, quality andcontrast of your printer, evenness of illumination, surfacereflections, etc. Teco servo model jsma pmb10 abk dimensions 1.

Advanced resolution tests

It seems that most folks, for example ImagingResource, use this chart for visual assessment of resolution, butit's designed to do more. See those funny crooked “H”' shapes andsquares? These provide data for computational analysis ofresolution; tools are available at this site to performthis analysis; for more information, see thispage.There is at least one companyselling a low-cost (<$US100) kit for measuring resolution by meansof this slanted-edge technique.For more info, I suggest a Googlesearch or the Wikipedia article on optical resolution.

Buying a real ISO 12233 chart

The proper way to perform these tests is to order both the ISOstandard and a properly-made test chart. The latter are available,for example, from PrecisionOptical Imaging in Rochester, New York. See the I3A site forworldwide sources. Expect to pay more than $US100 for such a chart.The alternative is to do it on the cheap: take the PDF file, print itin an appropriate size, download the code, and start testing. I thinksome people have posted raster images (e.g. JPEG files) of the charton the Web; the outline description here should produce a better testchart, as it isn't limited to pixel-level resolution.

DISCLAIMER

I have tried to reproduce the ISO standard test chart using theofficial ISO data, but neither I nor Cornell University guaranteescompliance with ISO 12233 or any other standard, nor do we take anyresponsibility for the quality of results based on this chart.

Stephen H. Westin westin@graphics.cornell.eduLast modified: Wed Apr 21 12:11:27 EDT 2010