Physicians, financial sponsors or administrators, and public opinion make different demands on a working place concerned with chest radiography. The article describes how these demands are translated into reality by present-day equipment setups and systems. In particular, attention is paid on the basis of a slit type radiographic method to present technical possibilities in respect of image quality, dosage and running costs. Modern X-ray systems can produce a high-quality and low-cost X-ray image with an extremely minimal dose that is nearly no longer measurable (3% of the previously employed dose). The image obtained in this manner is of a diagnostic value comparable to that of the conventional large-size X-ray images.