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Author Topic: Latest Moore's law article  (Read 7666 times)

Nemo

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Latest Moore's law article
« Reply #20 on: August 10, 2009, 11:41:08 am »

In the discussions in The Luminous Landscape about this subject there are two different points of view.

The first one (1) considers the pixel as the minimum circle of confussion. Systems should be evaluated considering the pixel size (and 100% magnification on screen) as the point of reference. This line of reasoning can be seen in the discussions about diffraction limit and pixel resolution. The only problem here is how to relate pixel size and Airy disk diameter, because it depends on the nature of the real detail to be photographed. Isolate points have different requirements than line pairs, etc.

The second one (2) considers the circle of confusion (depending on human visual accuity, viewing distance, size of the print, etc.). This line of rasoning puts the limits below that of the first way of thinking. The point here is the final output (the print), and not the matrix input (the sensor, or the RAW file), is that counts.

The two arguments are valid to some extent.

Where is the limit in total number of pixels? Is it determined by diffraction limits (1) or by print size/resolution convenience (2)?

I think the first approach (1) is more rigorous for technical discussion, but the second approach (2) can be the relevant one for market discussion.

The idea is, even if you can have a 100Mp camera not limited by diffraction (thanks to a highly corrected lens), what is the practical utility of so high resolution? I am not thinking on special applications, but on the typical professional applications of photography, with a printed output (magazines, books) or published online (internet). Considering the maximum size of the publication, and the maximum resolution (pixel per milimeter), you have a maximum useful resolution (with a margin for crops, etc.). A way for improvement would be more information per pixel (full color information instead of an interpolated result, more bit depth, etc.), but no more pixels. The only practical utility of 100Mp would be the use of 4 bayer (input) pixels for getting 1 output pixel...

There are technical limits to the increase in resolution (diffraction is one of them), but I think there are also market/practical limits. Even if computers get more and more powerful and storage space gets cheaper, the practical utility of larger and larger pictures is doubtful.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2009, 11:41:34 am by Nemo »
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