"DxO Analyzer is dedicated to photography journalists, consumer lab managers and camera manufacturers," explains Jerome Meniere, CEO of DO Labs. "The Digital revolution changes the image quality equation: image quality is affected by different parameters for digital cameras than for traditional film-based imaging devices and can no longer be judged the same way that film-based images are. DxO Analyzer fills the need for an easy-to-use, productive, laboratory-grade precision tool that is really focused on digital cameras and lenses".

"Evaluating and comparing digital cameras is high on everybody’s list of priorities," adds Luc Marin, Vice-President of Business Development for Photography at DO Labs. "With an extremely fast growing market, manufacturers are releasing an unprecedented number of digicams, digital bridge cameras and Digital SLR models. It is a big challenge both for the trade press and analysts, as well as consumers, to obtain quick, accurate and objective data on all these new cameras and objectively assess them relatively to each other."

How DxO Analyzer Works

DxO Analyzer helps professional users to easily and quickly obtain rich and detailed data relative to the optical characteristics and faults of digital cameras. DxO Analyzer consists of a Windows based application and a high precision test target. This DxO Target measures approximately 35 x 47 inches (900 x 1,200 mm) and is covered with a special pattern of more than 1,000 DxO Spots.

Digital images of the DxO Target are taken with the lens/camera that is being tested, then loaded into the DxO Analyzer software. A few clicks of the mouse then produce rich, detailed and objective information, as follows:

Distortion: DxO Analyzer provides local, maximum and average distortion levels with extreme precision. For example, with a 4 megapixel image, absolute precision is ±0.03% of the distortion vector. A full field representation of distortion is displayed, featuring each RGB channel.

Chromatic Aberrations (C.A.): DxO Analyzer provides local, maximum and average values for Chromatic Aberration. As with distortion, absolute precision is also ±0.03% for a 4 megapixel image. Additionally, DxO Analyzer provides C.A. information for each individual pixel location.

Vignetting: DxO Analyzer provides full field information for vignetting. DxO Analyzer also indicates the position of the vignetting center relative to the geometric center of the image.

Blur (Lack of sharpness): This is perhaps DxO Analyzer’s most revolutionary contribution to the measurement of optical quality for digital cameras. DxO Analyzer allows the user to measure the perceptual blur (or lack of sharpness) associated with a digital camera and lens and to express this in a new unit called BxUTM (for ‘Blur eXperience Unit’).

For more information - see specific PMA press release ‘DO Labs announces a new way to measure ‘blur’’.

Noise: DxO Analyzer provides a measure of noise for a given average grey level in the image.

DxO Analyzer Key Benefits

Key benefits of using DxO Analyzer for evaluating digital cameras and lenses are:

Laboratory-grade precision: DxO Analyzer produces results and measurements to a degree of precision that has been commonly unavailable until now. Distortion for example can be measured at a precision of roughly 10 times more than what the eye is able to detect (absolute error of +/- 0.03% on a 4 megapixel image). Similarly, Chromatic Aberrations, Vignetting, Blur and Noise can be measured with a precision generally unachievable until now.

Reproducibility: Removed from subjective and operator dependent interpretations, the scientific nature of DxO Analyzer means that for a given test, identical and comparable results will be obtained if the same test is reproduced at different times or in different places.

Depth of information: Compared to what has been commonly available until now, DxO Analyzer offers an extremely rich level of information:

Measures in DxO Analyzer are full field or at least multi-zone in all cases enabling the operator to study performance in many regions of the image; A variety of measures are plotted radially from the center of the image to the corner to establish an ‘image-to-edge’ profile of the phenomena; Where relevant, information is detailed per channel (Y, R, G, B);

Ability to sort performances: Comparisons between various settings and equipment can be carried out easily and rigorously – including once-subjective phenomena like perceptual lack of sharpness, thanks to the introduction of a new scientific unit, the BxU.

Ease of use: DxO Analyzer is designed to be operated even by non-expert staff, with minimal training and without overly demanding operating constraints.

Long term knowledge base: Each measure performed by DxO Analyzer is stored and can be viewed at any time allowing a knowledge base to be built over time. Results can be sorted and exported to MS-Excel for further data analysis.

System configuration and requirements

DxO Analyzer 1.0 software runs on a Pentium IV-based Intel based PC with 256 MB of RAM and a 30GB Hard Drive. A USB port on the computer is required.

DxO Target requires uniform illumination, which can be achieved with a pair of standard tungsten-based spotlights. A light-meter is required to ensure the uniformity of the lighting.

An Internet browser as well as Microsoft Excel 2003 must be installed on the PC for DxO Analyzer to operate.