ABSTRACT
The distinction between capability and performance has already been made several times in passing, and a number of examples of capability analyses were presented in the preceding chapter. This chapter provides a transition from a capability viewpoint to a performance viewpoint, the latter of which is emphasized in the remainder of the book. The transition is affected by consideration of an intermediate approach, namely, the development of metrics correlating with the yield of a photographic system. A system’s yield under specified conditions is defined as the fraction of images it produces that meet or exceed some minimum quality criterion. Although yield metrics will ultimately prove to be an incomplete substitute for full quality distributions, the intuition gained in their elucidation will be of considerable value in understanding factors affecting system performance.
