by Jackson K.M. Roland

Abstract

The slanted-edge method of measuring the spatial frequency response (SFR) as an approximation of the modulation transfer function (MTF) has become a well known and widely (more…)

Managing Supply Chain Image Quality

Imatest just released the white paper Managing Supply Chain Quality with Imatest to outline best practices for putting in place a rigorous manufacturing quality control regime. (more…)

Imatest is proud to announce the official release of its new 4.0 image quality testing software. The Imatest 4.0 upgrade includes a number of refinements including enhanced automation capabilities and a more robust image quality testing experience. (more…)

This post addresses concerns about the sensitivity of slanted-edge patterns to signal processing, especially sharpening, and corrects the misconception that sinusoidal patterns, such as the Siemens star (included in the ISO 12233:2014 standard), are insensitive to sharpening, and hence provide more robust and stable MTF measurements. (more…)

We are happy to announce that Imatest Master 3.10-Beta is now available for Mac OS X

Click here to download

We are confident in the stability of the image quality testing algorithms in this version, but have kept the Beta tag on this release since there may be some minor issues that remain to be resolved before we remove the Beta tag. (more…)

Imaging-resource.com publishes images of the Imatest Log F-Contrast* chart in its excellent camera reviews. These images contain valuable information about camera quality— how sharpness and texture response are affected by image processing— but they need to be processed by Imatest to reveal the important information they contain.

*F is an abbreviation for Frequency in Log F-Contrast.

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Roger Cicala of LensRentals.com has completed the second part of his two part series investigating lens testing. (more…)

The release of version 3.10 of Imatest brings a host of improvements to make image quality testing faster and more relevant to advances in cameras. Look for performance, stability, interface and measurement improvements across the board as well as some excellent new modules and features. (more…)

Imatest currently sells several transmissive (backlit) test charts, which have a range of substrates, each with specific properties and qualities that are in process of being quantified. The following comparison of the most important of our transmissive substrates was prepared in response to several customer inquiries.

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Using Babelcolor Patch Tool or SpectraShop 4

This post describes how to measure color and grayscale patches on a variety of test charts, including Imatest SFRplus and eSFR ISO charts, the X-Rite Colorchecker, ISO-15729, ISO-14524, ChromaDuMonde CDM-28R, and many more, using a spectrophotometer and one of two software packages.

• Babelcolor PatchTool  which works with reflective test charts
• Robin Myers SpectraShop 4  which works with both reflective and transmissive (backlit) test charts

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Imatest 3.9 was released on December 14th 2012.   Please contact sales@imatest.com for purchase or renewal information.

Here is a complete list of changes:

Imatest main window: Explore image file folder and Explore recent save folder have been added to the File dropdown. INI File Settings have been given their own dropdown to minimize clutter. Explore INI file folder has been added. The INI file Editor (useful for fixing errors and for setting up INI files for the Functional Interface and IT) has been greatly enhanced. (more…)

Summary: The physical lens-to-sensor tilt angle is difficult to measure from images, but the effects of tilt on image quality are highly measurable, and can be included in pass-fail criteria.

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Update

You can find the latest Skype/Lync standards documents here:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dn788953

The Skype Hardware Certification Specifications version 5.0 recommends imatest for sharpness testing.

You can find us mentioned on pagees 23, 85, 86

For Acuity testing, Skype recommends our SFRplus test chart, 24X40″, 5X7, semi-gloss, black&white, 2-tone

For >1.5m depth of field testing, Skype recommends our SFRplus test chart, 40X60″, 5X7, semi-gloss, black&white, 2-tone

The skype certification test charts are available for purchase in the Imatest Store.

Imatest 3.8 was released on May 14th 2011.   Please contact sales@imatest.com for purchase or renewal information.

Here is a complete list of changes:

I3A CPIQ (Camera Phone Image Quality) enhancements: The Dot Pattern module has been added for analyzing distortion and lateral chromatic aberration (LCA). The Dot pattern and ISO-15739 charts have been added to Test Charts. The CPIQ Acutance measurement (similar to SQF) has been added to SFR and SFRplus. The CPIQ color uniformity metric (ΔC_max) has been added to Light Falloff and Uniformity Interactive.

Noise analysis has been added to Multicharts. Support for extremely distorted SFRplus charts has been improved.

Changes released in other versions are available on our Changelog

Imatest is the standard test software used in the recently published Microsoft USB peripheral requirements specification entitled “Optimized for Microsoft Lync Logo”, which can be downloaded here.

For measurement of sharpness, the main driver of variation is noise. A powerful noise reduction technique called modified apodization is available for slanted-edge measurements (SFR, SFRplus, eSFR ISO and SFRreg). This technique makes virtually no difference in low-noise images, but it can significantly improve measurement accuracy for noisy images, especially at high spatial frequencies (f > Nyquist/2). It is applied when the MTF noise reduction (modified apodization) checkbox is checked in the SFR input dialog box or the SFRplus or eSFR ISO More settings window. (more…)

New infrared test charts and analysis software modernize testing of infrared cameras

Once viewed as exotic devices, infrared camera systems have moved into the mainstream in many industries, particularly in security and defense. From night-vision helmets, scopes, and security cameras to ballistic missile tracking telescopes, IR cameras have become as commonplace as they are mission-critical. As with other advanced technologies, quality control is key to successful development and application of IR camera systems, with the quality of the image itself being paramount to most organizations. (more…)

The Infrared SFRplus test chart enables accurate, objective testing of infrared camera systems and supports wavelengths from visible light through MWIR.

Details here .

Purchase here .

Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. (TAEC), a committed leader that collaborates with technology companies to create breakthrough designs, and Imatest LLC, maker of the world’s most popular image quality testing software, have teamed up to enhance Imatest’s Image Sensor (IS) Edition, a highly anticipated and powerful tool to help engineers responsible for configuring Toshiba image sensors.

Details here

Join the new Imatest users group to share questions and answers with other image quality testing professionals. Join here