Fluorescence studies using potentiometric dyes to optically measure the action potential of cardiac cells constitute an important tool to better understand the electrophysiology of the heart. However, in many experimental setups, the finite sensing area of optical detectors cannot be neglected. As a consequence, the detected fluorescence signal may effectively correspond to the sum of the electrical activity of a group of adjacent cells, and variations observed in the fluorescence signal may be strongly influenced by the spatial resolution of the optical instrumentation employed in the experiment. In addition, the optical action potential and the visualization of its propagation may be distorted by inadequate temporal resolution when recording optical maps. In this work, we present simulated and experimental studies demonstrating the effects of both temporal and spatial resolutions of the fluorescence detection system on electrophysiological parameter estimates obtained from optical action potential recordings. The analysis of the influence of the spatial and temporal resolutions of the optical fluorescence mapping detection system on the optical action potential morphology were performed by means of experimental optical mapping recordings, action potential simulations, and digital processing of the simulated and experimental signals.