Re:Start of Lightning Bolt Caught on Camera
by InclinedPlane on Friday October 23, 2015 @09:08PM
(#10442020)
Ultimately, sure, you run out of photons.
Let's start off with a baseline image resolution of 1 megapixel.
1 Joule is about 6E18 visible light photons, give or take. So that's then 6E12 photons per pixel.
Full sunlight on Earth has an intensity of around 1400 Watts (Joules/second) per square meter, or 0.14 Watts per square cm.
So achieving a frame rate in the trillions of fps would likely run into some limits relative to the size of your optics, the intensity of light coming from the scene, or the bulk quantum efficiency of the sensor.
And, of course, if you try to achieve quintillions of fps then you start dumping in nearly an entire Watt in photons into every single pixel on your sensor, which rapidly becomes a very big problem re: everything melting.
Additionally, modern electronics has trouble operating above the low GHz range, beyond that you'd need to move to superconductors or some such to keep up with the data.
Let's start off with a baseline image resolution of 1 megapixel.
1 Joule is about 6E18 visible light photons, give or take. So that's then 6E12 photons per pixel.
Full sunlight on Earth has an intensity of around 1400 Watts (Joules/second) per square meter, or 0.14 Watts per square cm.
So achieving a frame rate in the trillions of fps would likely run into some limits relative to the size of your optics, the intensity of light coming from the scene, or the bulk quantum efficiency of the sensor.
And, of course, if you try to achieve quintillions of fps then you start dumping in nearly an entire Watt in photons into every single pixel on your sensor, which rapidly becomes a very big problem re: everything melting.
Additionally, modern electronics has trouble operating above the low GHz range, beyond that you'd need to move to superconductors or some such to keep up with the data.