We study the capability of the UBVRI photometric system to quantify star clusters in terms of age, metallicity, and color excess by their integrated photometry. The well known age-metallicity-extinction degeneracy was analyzed for various parameter combinations, assuming different levels of photometric accuracy. We conclude that the UBVRI photometric system enables us to estimate star cluster parameters over a wide range, if the overall photometric accuracy is better than ~0.03 mag.
@article{arxiv.0712.3959,
title = {Accuracy of Star Cluster Parameters from Integrated UBVRI Photometry},
author = {D. Narbutis and A. Bridzius and R. Stonkute and V. Vansevicius},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0712.3959},
year = {2008}
}