Spatial Resolution
Definition
The finest detail a camera system can record, determined by pixel size and lens quality, measured in line pairs per millimetre or pixels per inch. Detail below the resolution limit is never captured.
- Definition
- Finest detail a camera system can record
- Determinants
- Pixel size and lens quality
- Units
- Line pairs per millimetre or pixels per inch
- Limit
- Detail below the resolution limit is never captured
Common questions
Why can't image enhancement software recover detail lost to low spatial resolution?+
If detail was never captured because it fell below the system's resolving limit, no amount of software sharpening or upscaling can reconstruct information that was not recorded, since enhancement can only manipulate the data that exists, not invent detail the camera never resolved, a limit sometimes called the resolution barrier.
How does lens quality interact with pixel size to set overall system resolution?+
Even a high pixel-density sensor is limited by the sharpest detail its lens can project onto it, so overall resolution is set by whichever of the two, sensor pixel size or lens resolving power, is the weaker link, and matching lens quality to sensor density is necessary to realise the sensor's full potential.
Related terms
- CLAHE
- Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalisation. Divides the image into local tiles, equalises each tile's contrast separately, and blends results. Recovers shadow detail...
- Deconvolution
- A computational technique that estimates the PSF and inverts its effect to recover a sharper image. The quality depends entirely on how...
- Nyquist Limit
- The sampling theorem's constraint: to faithfully record a feature, the sensor must sample it at least twice per cycle. A feature smaller...
- Point Spread Function (PSF)
- A mathematical description of how the imaging system spreads the light from a single point source across neighbouring pixels. Defocus, diffraction, and...
- Super-Resolution
- Methods that attempt to produce an image with higher pixel density than the source. Interpolation-based SR fills in values by estimation; learning-based...