What's Better? Image Based Links or Text Links? What About in H1 Tags?

A very interesting discussion has emerged on WebmasterWorld about link equity from images or text links. What's better? Do image links pass PageRank? Do they imply trust?

According to moderator pageoneresults, both links pass equity, but image links are not as efficient as text links.

Most all links pass value. Its the level of value that is in question. A textual link is at the top of the food chain, it doesn't get any better than that. Image links are okay and perform well. Image links that are formatted properly and utilize accessibility attributes like the alt attribute are going to perform better than those that don't.

But then pageoneresults goes on to say that links that are enclosed in <h#> tags are better than regular text links. And that response evokes harsh criticisms from other users that doing so would be purely to manipulate the search results.

The discussion gets heated with members on both sides of the argument claiming that it may or may not be an issue of ethics and manipulation. But what do you think?

Forum discussion continues at WebmasterWorld.