Use of digital cameras for radiographs: how to get the best pictures

With their improved quality and declining price, digital cameras are increasingly attractive for both business and personal use. In medicine they have already found a place in emergency decision-making by allowing transmission of radiographic images over the Internet for specialist reviewl4; and they also allow archiving of radiological images for personal collections, teaching and publications5. However, when radiographs are photographed in this way, the quality of image can be disappointing. In this article I describe the problems from the viewing box through radiograph, camera and computer to final image and the solutions I have developed to get the best results. The article is illustrated with a radiograph of an extremely subtle pneumothorax, a rigorous test of any image reproduction. Many digital cameras are of the 'point-and-shoot ' type,