To many Pixels is counter-productive!

There are (at least) two paths this discussion could take:

1. What are the theoretic limits for when you gain exactly nothing (or the gain is negative) by increasing sensel density for a given process technology. How does this "sweetspot" change as technology improves? Is there any fundamental limit?

2. What might my D800 have offered me in practical photography had they limited sensor density to 30MP or 24 MP, everything else equal?

In both cases, outside of the R&D labs of Canon, Nikon, Sony etc, it is hard to really know. We can speculate, apply theory and read papers on the subject. Or we can try to arrange semi-fair practical tests and try to learn from those. My impression is that a few forum members do that quite well, while most base their opinions on intuition. It can be hard to distinguish one from the other, but after a while you get to know the usernames.

-h