J. C. O'Connell wrote:
I disagree with this assessment. The reason is that lenses can only put out
so many lines per mm and once the sensors become dense enough
the only way to increase captured resolution is to increase the
sixe of the sensor and use longer lenses with bigger image circles
at same lines/mm lens resolution.
Yes, and there is a theoretical limit to how small you can make a sensor
element, too. It's quantum mechanics; a CCD/CMOS sensor element (and I
guess a grain on film, too) is essentially a device that counts photons
hitting an area, and there's a limit to how small you can make that area
and still catch enough photons to be able to distinguish between
different colour levels. I've read that the smallest sensors today are
pretty close to those limits, but I'm not sure if that information is
actually correct.
- Toralf
