I somehow expected to see the individual objects that make them up. If you were close enough, would that be visible? Or would they be so sparse - like clouds - that they become invisible at short distances?
Unfortunately not, the largest individual objects are ~10 m in size and these images have a spatial resolution of 550 m, so they can't be resolved (at least in this orbit). The particles range between 1 cm to 10 m, but what's interesting is that it's possible to measure these sizes without actually directly imaging them. The sizes can be inferred from how much of different radio transmissions get absorbed as they pass from Cassini, through the rings, and then to a receiver station on Earth. The basic principle is that a 1 cm wavelength radio transmission will get absorbed by all particles equal to or larger than 1 cm in size. With transmissions at 1, 4, and 13 cm, rings with different compositions can be distinguished.
This method of radio occultation can be used to make very accurate physical models of the ring systems. See this comparison image [1], and this helpful description of the method from NASA [2].
