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----------------- Actually, film resolution is based on multi-molecule crystals (typically made of silver halide). If a crystal gets hit by a few photons, the developing process will change the entire crystal to metallic silver and make a dark spot. If the crystal is not hit by enough photons, developing does not change it to metallic silver. Fixing the film washes away the untransformed silver halide crystal. Fast film uses big crystal, thus lowering the resolution of the film. As you noted, film resolution seems to still exceed current digital arrays. For reference, Sony's latest imaging arrays yield a 3000x2000 pixel image from an array that is about the size of an APS negative. This is somewhere around 3000 DPI, or around 120 pixels per millimeter. I'm pretty sure that this still lagging behind Velvia by quite a bit. Regarding lenses, Nikon and Canon both build imaging systems for semiconductor manufacturing called steppers. The resolving of these steppers basically hits the theoretical limit for the wavelengths of light that they focus. So it's not a question of how much research has been done. The big question is, "What will sell at a profit?" Nikon, Canon, Olympus, Sony, Pentax, etc. can all field lenses that will match the quality of the sensors out there. Their goal, however, is to keep the manufacturing cost down enough to make money selling their cameras. I think that they all compromise their optical designs to hit particular price points. Some (like Sony) seem to do it better than others. --Mark ------------------Brendan wrote------------------ I was just talking to a co-worker with a new digi cam and something dawned on me, while film has a resolution based on molecules, and digital multi molecule sized pixels, lenses can only capture and transmit so much light! Technically digital cannot or ever surpass film if only because the resolving ability of the optics has a finite limit of which some low speed films have already reached. In all the tests I have seen many 25 and 50 iso films are capable of more lpm than many lenses currently can resolve. Digital still hasn't reached there yet even with the X3 but yet they race ahead and try to develop better chips, yet there doesn't seem to be near as much research into improving optics. We all know the quality of the final image is directly related to the optics, yet these digi cams are being stricken with inferior lenses. Any one else see a problem here? - This message is from the Pentax-Discuss Mail List. To unsubscribe, go to http://www.pdml.net and follow the directions. Don't forget to visit the Pentax Users' Gallery at http://pug.komkon.org .
