Here is an article about the limits of digital photography using current technology. I was going to post this in the Camera Corner, but this has some major geek stuff going on like quantum physics. The author is both a photographer and a physicist. Check out this quote:
Thus today’s equipment is sufficiently powerful to allow a physicist to see directly—without the need for instruments and calculation/interpretations beyond the camera itself and a computer monitor– the effects of both the photon nature of light and the wave nature of light. A single picture taken at f/22 and ISO 3200 will display uniform unsharpness unrelated to motion blur or focus error and the noise patterns of each primary color as well as overall brightness that reflect the statistical nature of photon detection.
With modern digital cameras we can now actually see both the photon and wave natures of light. Wild stuff!
Read the paper Physical Limits in Digital Photography: How does the physics of light limit camera design? by David B. Goldestein. You can also download a pdf file.
