You want to find the 1973 edition of Photographic Lenses by CB Neblette.At a normal viewing distance sometimes I’ll see a photograph that looks very sharp and detailed, but on closer inspection it is not as sharp as I thought, it doesn’t have the resolution I thought. I’ve also seen high resolution low contrast images. What I don’t understand is why a higher contrast image doesn’t have the same or higher resolution. Is it that fine grain detail is lost when the exposure produces higher contrast - that fewer grains contribute to the resolution? What about digital - can contrast be increased without losing resolution?
But this one is free:
The 1931 edition.