Why did Nikon choose 36 megapixels ? - why not larger ?

exRhodesian wrote:

Hi,

if Nikon is successful with a 36mg in a DSLR then surely in the next year or so other manufacturers will come out with 40mg-50mg DSLRs and each year make them larger and larger. Perhaps one reason could be Marketing/ Sales where they are already working on the new 40-60 mg DSLRs hoping by 2014 all D600 / D800 owners will sell their cameras and upgrade to the new higher resolution bodies. If so, then in the same sized DSLR would it be possible to have 80-100 megapixel ? - I doubt it as surely there must be a "limit' to the size for DSLRs.

I relate the same as, for example, to let's take High-Jump at the Olympics where each time they try to break the previous record. So suppose the current record for High-Jump is 3.5m and each time they jump higher and higher. Does this indicate that in a few centuries time the High-Jump record could be 10 metres ? Absolutely not as there must be a limit.

What's the limit for DSLR megapixels size ?

Thanks,

Adrian