Question

What are the differences between the Standard Definition and High Definition whole slide image scans?

Answer

There are a number of differences between Standard (SD) and High Definition (HD) images. In addition to the visual differences (shown in this image) there are resolution, storage space, scan speed, and image dynamic differences you should consider.

Note
The image shown displays a scan taken in SD mode (on the left) and HD mode (on the right).

Image Resolution

• SD images are 960x540 pixels
• HD images are 1920x1080 pixels (4 times the resolution of an SD image)

Disk Requirements

HD images require more disk space than comparable SD images.

Scan Speed

Scanning in the HD camera mode may take up to 4 times longer than the SD camera mode.

Image Dynamics

• HD images are a little softer (less contrast) than SD images but they have higher resolution and better dynamic range.
• SD images have a little more contrast than HD images, but, of course, the resolution is not as good.

Visual Comparison

The following deep zoom image scans allow you to compare SD and HD image scans.