How would lens optics/engineering drive toward an optimal sensor/film size?

Hi all,
I have learned a lot as the practitioners and engineers and such (you know who you are :-) have debated sensor size, physics, angles, and limits.

The related question I have is, if we started with some goals for the glass and worked toward a sensor what kind of system would we end up with?

Is a 50mm 1.8 35mm lens a great lens optically, and for moderate cost, because its in the sweet spot for the 'physics of glass' or is just the most engineered / largest selling lens and market size reduced the cost?

For wide angle for a given field of view, is a 24m easier to get 'good' (distortion, flair, etc) vs an 18mm lens? So body and sensor wars aside, if we could start over and pick a format driven by optics what would it be?

If, optically, bigger is always better (e.g. 200 inch in some fields is nice) then is this just a size/quality/cost/preferences trade-off debate?
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Focal Length and Angles
    ... that give a unitary lens factor but, ... angles are quite distinctive and informative. ... particular camera and a 85mm lens, ... will have to learn the specifics of the sensor dimensions for that camera ...
    (rec.photo.digital)
  • Re: Light fall off on dSLRs - an experiment
    ... That is correct, I have measured the difference between two angles of incidence on the detector, the extreme conditions. ... You and others made repeated claims that this was an effect of the sensor, and that the effect was different on digital sensors to film. ... The test shows it clearly isn't present on digital sensors, can only come from the lens, and must therefore also be present to exactly the same degree on film. ... Now you claim need to add a lens to show that sensor defect because the sensor on its own is defect free. ...
    (rec.photo.digital.slr-systems)
  • Re: Switching to a Canon digital SLR
    ... Your lenses will "behave somewhat differently" on a 350D, ... "angles of view has shifted UP towards the telephoto ... "OK, firstly, when you put a 300mm lens on a D60 you do NOT get a ... This smaller-than-film sensor chip is giving your lenses ...
    (alt.photography)
  • Re: How would lens optics/engineering drive toward an optimal sensor/film size?
    ... I have learned a lot as the practitioners and engineers and such have debated sensor size, physics, angles, and limits. ... Is a 50mm 1.8 35mm lens a great lens optically, and for moderate cost, because its in the sweet spot for the 'physics of glass' or is just the most engineered / largest selling lens and market size reduced the cost? ... Small sensor format has more depth of field and is easier to get long focal lengths and a large sensor format has very limited depth of field, and is impractical to make long focal lengths for but has room for more pixels and larger pixels with less noise but again it's impractical to make large sensors because the drive behind technology these days is miniaturization. ...
    (rec.photo.digital.slr-systems)
  • Re: description of camera design I would like to have
    ... element and the sensor than is current practice with DSLRs. ... The specifics are that when Leica decided ... Leica is the only major manufacturer of interchangeable lens 35mm ... on their specific design. ...
    (rec.photo.digital)