Film vs CR vs DR (for Radiologic Technologists)

A comparison between Film vs Computed Radiography vs Direct Digital Radiography (DR) as imaging technologies for Radiography.

These x-ray imaging options are compared based on:
Cost
Speed of Imaging (Through-put)
Dynamic Range
Dose

For all the fun that is radiology physics related for x-ray and CT see our site:
https://howradiologyworks.com .

For more details on the physics of CR and DR please see our videos focusing on those topics.
CR:   • Computed Radiography How it Works (fo...  
DR:   • Direct vs Indirect Digital Radiograph...  

The overall winner is clearly the direct digital radiography (DR) for sites looking to optimize the speed and the ease of achieving low dose imaging. However, for many sites it still may make sense financially to use CR as it is often a more direct replacement for film based systems.

We focus the discussion on the significant increase in dynamic for CR and DR in comparison with film. Also the counterintuitive fact that CR can lead to dose increases as the images that were previously saturated with film are now readable (i.e. patients may receive wasted radiation dose).

Also in less affluent regions of the world, and in many dental practices even in the United States film is still used significantly. While film presents challenges in storing images and fast workflows it can still generate good image quality when used well.