Re: Digital Camera Resolution WAS: Warning of major NHS IT overspend

[Brian Morrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>]

On Wed, 3 Nov 2004 16:28:50 -0000 in
[EMAIL PROTECTED] "Owen Lewis"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>  > I think that the limiting factor is always going to be the lenses
>  > as the sensor technology is maturing more rapidly than the
>  > old-fashioned business of grinding and polishing.
> 
>  Somewhere I once picked up that, for the final stages of polishing
>  the 200in lens for the Mt Palomar refractor, some days had to pass
>  between each short polishing session. This was to avoid distortions
>  that would otherwise have become uncontrollable, due to local heating
>  of the glass during the polishing.

And we all know what happened to the Hubble ST due to a small area of
chipped black paint on a calibration piece.

In the world of consumer items though, I think any additional expense in
manufacture will be avoided entirely. The products only need to "just
good enough".

-- 

Brian Morrison

bdm at fenrir dot org dot uk

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