Based on all of the things I’ve been reading on the internet lately, everyone has assumed that sensors have exceeded, or are close to exceeding the resolution of the lens.  In this article by Ctein on Mike Johnston’s The Online Photographer blog, he pretty much debunks this, and concludes that it would take approximately 400 megapixels to fully resolve all of the detail available in many scenes.

Before you scoff and say he’s crazy, you may want to read it, remembering he is not only a skilled photographer, but has a degree in Physics from Caltech.  His reasoning is actually pretty simple ... images are composed of blur circles, and to represent accurately a blur circle takes many pixels (not just one the size of the “resolution” level of the lens).  This is especially true with current digital cameras and their Bayer sensors.

An interesting read.  Whether we actually need that much who knows, even he admits this.  But it doesn’t appear we are anywhere close to achieving maximum quality from even current high end lenses.

Check it out here ... The Online Photographer: Why 80 Megapixels Just Won't Be Enough...