Edmund Optics Imaging Lab 1.3: Resolution

Hello, I am Greg Hollows and welcome to the Imaging Lab. We are going to talk about Resolution. Resolution is actually one of the most critical parameters of putting a system together. Resolution is that fine object detail that you can see with the system and it is usually the one piece of information that a customer really requires to see most accurately with the right amount of detail to get their system to work. There are a couple of different ways we can specify Resolution though. We can start with things as simple as actually calculating the Resolution of what the sensor can produce, or we can go all the way into the detail of what the lens is actually producing on to the sensor and thus what the system is able to achieve. And that's what is the most critical parameter in most cases, is making sure our lens is not limiting the camera system and what it is capable of doing. There are a couple different ways to calculate that and we will be looking at that in the next module on Resolution. But right now, I want to give you some ideas about what goes on with Resolution. We could have some different sized objects, like these golf balls here. They are of a finite size. They are very very large, and one of the things we want to think about though as they get closer together, is the ability to see the detail in between them and separate them. This really comes into play as an example here, if we look at the golf tees that go with them as smaller objects. We can see as they get closer and closer together, they are smaller spatially than the actual larger golf ball is, and they are harder to resolve. Probably in this video, they are a little difficult to see because they are so small. One of the things that we need to think about with Resolution now, is as these objects come close enough together when we get a nice high-resolution camera, can we actually still see the detail optically between them to actually separate what is going on there, to be able to see them as two distinctive sized objects. Again, later we are going to see how resolution and contrast come together and actually show this detail off. We are going to help you understand how to specify that and answer the right questions about lensing systems to be able to determine the right resolution for what you are trying to do. That is Resolution. The next topic is Depth of Field, or you can click any of the links to go to the topic that is most desirable for you.