Abstract

Partial coherence theory and the bilinear system method are applied to analyze a typical microdensitometer. Both the coherence of the illumination on a sample and the film-grain noise are taken into account. A bilinear transfer function for a microdensitometer, which is unambiguously defined, is determined by the influx, the efflux optics, and the illumination on the source-slit plane but is independent of the sample being measured. The expression for the mean measured value of light-intensity transmittance is obtained, in which the response to the mean amplitude transmittance of a sample can be linearized while the response to film-grain noise remains bilinear as the Callier effect term. Because of this, the consistency of light-intensity transmittance for the same photographic sample on different optical systems exists only when these systems have the same bilinear transfer function.

© 1986 Optical Society of America

Optical Analysis of a Microdensitometer System

Irene J. Kleinsinger, Albert J. Derr, and George J. Giuffre
Appl. Opt. 3(10) 1167-1170 (1964)

Partially Coherent Imaging in a Microdensitometer*

Robert E. Kinzly
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(3) 386-394 (1972)

Conditions for Microdensitometer Linearity*

Richard E. Swing
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 62(2) 199-207 (1972)

Practical Tests of a Microdensitometer System

W. N. Charman
Appl. Opt. 4(3) 289-294 (1965)

Noise power spectrum analysis of a scanning microdensitometer

Phillip C. Bunch and Richard Van Metter
Appl. Opt. 27(16) 3468-3474 (1988)