This paper characterizes an imaging x‐ray detector formed by coupling a gadolinium oxysulphide phosphor to the input of an optical imaging photon detector. The device is small, light, easy to use, and features a direct digital readout. It exhibits fairly high efficiency (40%–80%) and high resolution (160 &mgr;m‐width point spread function) near the center of its 40‐mm active area. There is a small amount of pincushion distortion which seems to be associated with a loss in resolution toward the edge of the active area. The device has very low noise and can be used at x‐ray fluxes down to about 0.1 x‐ray/mm2/s without loss of accuracy but it is count rate limited at 105x rays/s over the active area and so is not usable in high‐flux situations such as are often found at synchrotrons. We have used the device to record good diffraction patterns from striated rabbit muscle in 30 min on a rotating anode x‐ray generator: less than one tenth the time needed under similar conditions when using film.