Conventional radiographs vs digitized radiographs:: image quality assessment

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare image quality characteristics of conventional radiographs and their digital counterparts. Methods: 100 conventional radiographs (E-speed) were used for the evaluation of density and contrast. The radiographs were made using a range of exposures under standardized conditions and were compared with digital images that resulted from scanning the above radiographs with a commercially available scanner. Resolution was evaluated with an experiment using 50 film packets and a resolution target exposed with different exposure times, using both the original radiographs and their scanned equivalents. Results: The digitized radiographs appeared to be of higher density than the conventional ones. Moreover, they demonstrated a narrower density range. Resolution was similar for both types of images. Conclusions: Although there is an agreement with the literature that the digitized radiographs are of higher density, further investigation is required to detect the various factors that may have an effect on the quality of the digitized images.