Abstract

The degrees of freedom of an image formed by any real instrument are only a finite number, while those those of the object are an infinite number. Several different objects may correspond to the same image.

It is shown that in the case of coherent illumination a large class of objects corresponding to a given image can be found very easily. Two-point resolution is impossible unless the observer has a priori an infinite amount of information about the object.

© 1955 Optical Society of America

Photographic Resolving Power and Aberrations of Lenses

Neville Murcott and Hanna T. Gottfried
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(6) 434-440 (1955)

Method of Assessing Objectively the Photographic Resolving Power of a Lens

Hanna T. Gottfried and Neville Murcott
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(3) 141-145 (1955)

The Relation of Definition to Sharpness and Resolving Power in a Photographic System*

George C. Higgins and Robert N. Wolfe
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(2) 121-129 (1955)

Interferometer Quality and Its Relation to Photographic Resolving Power

Neville Murcott and Hanna S. Gottfried
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(8) 644-646 (1955)

Information Theory and Optical Images

E. H. Linfoot
J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45(10) 808-819 (1955)