Pros and cons of video-camera input for digital radiography

The authors' experience with the Dage-MTI 81 camera and Tecon DVX frame grabber illustrates several advantages and limitations of video input for digital radiography. The camera is portable and about one-tenth the cost of a laser film scanner. Each 1,024 X 1,024 image is digitized in 3 seconds. Although light response curves are linear (r>.99) over a range of 0.2-2.2 od, contrast varies with automatic gain control and is reduced relative to the original film. Blurred edges on digitized phantoms suggest scatter. High-frequency noise is visible on magnified images. These factors should be evaluated for any choice of a video-based digital radiography system