As photographers, we're acutely aware of resolving power; it's one of the fundamental measurements of a camera. Have you ever wondered what the resolution of the human eye is, though? It turns out that the answer to this question isn't as simple as quoting a figure. Check out this great video that explains how we should think about it.
Vsauce is one my favorite YouTube channels. Their quirky, but carefully presented videos condense some of the trickiest and most bizarre properties of our world and what lies beyond it into easily digestible and fascinating clips. In this video, they tackle the unwittingly tricky question of the resolving power of the human eye.
Measuring the resolution of a camera is easy, albeit incomplete. We simply count the total number of pixels on the sensor and label this as the "resolution." It turns out that this is a convenient stand-in for resolution in most cases. Nevertheless, this is not an actual measurement of resolving power, and as we see, this breaks down when we try to apply it to the human eye, because the way in which it forms images is not analogous to a camera. However, with some careful thought and rephrasing of the question, it turns out that the question is indeed answerable.
Lead image by Wikipedia user ROTFLOLEB, used under Creative Commons.
Interesting. I'm nearsighted and without glasses, I can recognize the blobs of family, friends, and coworkers. But as a photographer, I do need "on spot" vision; while I can trust the autofocus of my DSLR, I do need to see things clear for composition and I also shoot with two manual focus film SLRs.
In quantum, nothing exists unless you are viewing it. . . weird. . .
Thanks Alex!!
Interesting!
I wrote an article about the topic for Scientific American a while ago:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/designing-cameras-that-work-li...
It's stuck behind a paywall. It sounds interesting though - I wish I could read it.
great article