Download Lens Resolution Charts

[Paramvir Singh]

Get full information and downloads here

If you want to print out your own test pattern, you can download this scan of the EIA 1956 standard test pattern as a bitmap: 1440x1086 pixels  or better yet, as a vector format (Corel, Illustrator, and EPS) EIA1956-v3.zip or in PDF format EIA1956.pdf. Thanks to George Ou for an extremely accurate vector conversion! Note, you can download a PS/EPS/PDF viewer from the Ghostscript website, or use the Adobe Acrobat Reader for PDF files. (The resolution test PDF file may look poor in your browser window, but it will be clean on a high-resolution printer.)

Print out the pattern at a resolution that fills the page (without cropping off anything), tape to a wall, and frame it with your camera so the edge triangles just touch the borders of your image. If you do this, the point where the converging lines in the resolution wedges cannot be distinguished anymore, is the number of "lines of resolution" of your camera. (This would be the 0% modulation or limiting resolution point, where lines and spaces both become 50% grey. The more strict professional definition of resolution specifies the 50% modulation point, where instead of full white and full black, you have 75% and 25% video levels on the lines and spaces. Normally you use a waveform monitor to measure these video levels, although with digital video you could just compare pixel values from a still frame using a paint program.)

Video resolution is defined as number of (light+dark) lines resolved horizontally, divided by the image ratio which is here 4:3. The MiniDV format can, in theory, resolve 720 pixels / (4/3) = 540 lines. This resolution definition is independent of actual image scale, so you can do this test with any size printout at any distance/zoom setting and get comparable numbers, just as long as the pattern exactly fills the full frame. Remember that almost all camcorders, including the TRV900, do not quite show you the full image area on either viewfinder or viewscreen: there is a hidden "overscan" region of about 10% on each edge. The image captured via memory device or firewire does show the full area.

Where this file came from: I scanned the original at 600 dpi on my Microtek E6 flatbed. That gave me an image about 7000 by 5000 pixels (35 Meg). I fixed some dust spots, cut the resolution down, and converted to JPEG in Photoshop. I increased the contrast for the best looking thin lines in a JPEG image, so the greyscale blocks on the JPEG files is all wrong. However, the vector format files do have a useful greyscale progression. The lines aren't perfect but this version should be useful for testing most video cameras. The vector formats in the zip file were hand-matched to the bitmap scan, and a printout of that version is very close to the original film specimen (if your printer is good enough!). If you want the real thing, you can obtain it from Edmund Scientific (Industrial Optics Division): EIA resolution chart, 8.5x11.5", black on white film (0.2mm thick), part H52997, $80.

[Paramvir Singh]

for professional charts which you can purchase, built for specific purposes, visit Sinepatterns

Here are SOME of their charts:

The EIA grayscale pattern is a standard 2" square projection slide.  It contains two parallel gray scales.  The upper scale has nine nominally equal transmission steps while the lower contains the same number of nominally equal density steps.  The transmission values range from 3% to 60%, corresponding to density values of 1.52 and 0.22 respectively.  The slide is chrome on glass and densities are achieved by a fine halftone pattern.


I3A / ISO Camera Contrast Chart
Our Camera Contrast Chart conforms to International Standard ISO-14524, "Photography-Electronic still picture cameras - Methods for measuring opto-electronic conversion functions (OECF's)". This target's area measures 20 cm high by 35.6 cm wide and has 12 gray levels ranging from 0.10 to 2.30 density on a uniform gray background.