1. A method for determining limiting resolution of an optical device comprising the steps of: generating a modulation transfer function curve relating spatial frequency and modulation percentage for said optical device; forming a plurality of sinusoidal intensity modulated bar patterns of varied spatial frequency and intensity modulation percentage; recording said patterns of sinusoidal intensity modulated bars on photo-responsive media; determining from subjective observations of said media recorded patterns using said optical device, the pattern modulation percentage yielding a predetermined degree of visual resolution for each recorded spatial frequency pattern; establishing an image modulation curve function relating recorded bar pattern spatial frequency and determined modulation percentage values for said optical device; and identifying the limiting resolution determining common point intercept of said modulation transfer function curve and said image modulation curve function with respect to values of modulation percentage and spatial frequency.