At the present speed of development Canon maybe in a position to
create such a camera. However their is a technical problem, in that
the 1Ds is capable of resolving more detail than most optics can
provide at this format (so the boffins tell us).
I would say that a 1Ds can definitely tell the difference between
optics. Whether or not we've reached the LIMITS of those optics is
another question altogether. Keep in mind, for example, that a 10D
has higher pixel densities than a 1Ds.
Some people say that a REALLY good lens can easily resolve 80lpmm.
For a bayer-pattern DSLR to actually resolve 80lpmm you'd need
(80*2) 1.7=272 pixels per mm. That gives a resolution of 6528x9792,
or only 64MP.
Hey Michael.
You also have to consider that you don't just take an 80 LPM lens and an 80 LMP sensor and get 80 LPM.
The resolutions combine in a root sum of recoprocols of squares fashion.
So, for your example, the total resolution is
1/sqrt(1/80^2 + 1/80^2) = 56 LPM.
So, check this out. Holding the lens at a constant 80 LPM, and trying sensor resolutions of 20, 40, 80, 160, and 320 LPM, you see the following.
20 -> 19.4
40 -> 35.8
80 -> 56.6
160 -> 71.6
320 -> 77.6
So, in your case the 64MP camera is pulling a nice 56.6 LPM, when a 11 MP (35.4 LPM) camera would only be getting a system resolution of 32.4.
Now, the neat thing is that raising the MP by a factor of 5 has increased
the system resolution 74%. It's not the 120% that we would have hoped for from such a big increase in resolution, but it is substantial. And we get it for free, just by waiting a little over 3 years (resolution doubles about every 19 months).
We're on the verge of the transition from "sensor limited" systems to "lens limited systems".
When the lens has several times the resolution of the sensor, the "system" resolution looks like that of the sensor. This is a great formula, when the sensor cost is what drives the system cost. It also means that the difference between "great" lenses and "so so" lenses is not as much as it would be on high res film, because even some pretty crappy lenses can exceed the 35 LPM of current cameras.
When the sensor has several times the resolution of the lens, the system resolution reflects only the resolution of the lens. That is the direction we are moving in. And it will literally take 100MP + cameras to get us there. But that's only 5 or 6 years away.
Digital camera folk are used to very fast changes, the whole landscape of photography changes overnight, every night. Film photographers are used to slow changes, a good new lens design or really major improvment in film comes along every few years.
We're seeing a convergence on a middle point, now.
--
Ciao!
Joe
http://www.swissarmyfork.com 
