Physics and Photography

Short review of a short but very well-written introduction to the principles of photography: Science for the Curious Photographer: An Introduction to the Science of Photography by Charles S. Johnson Jr (author's blog is here). This slim (180 p.) volume covers a lot of ground, not only the obvious topics such as image formation or the physiology of vision but also, for instance, the operation of CMOS and CCD detectors and a discussion of polarization. The presentation is fairly technical, so an adequate background in physics is necessary.

The only critique would be that, for an introduction, it is somewhat light on the references (many of which are simply Wikipedia articles).