[Daniel_Newby]

> For professionals this tech would also be useful in DSLRs - but ONLY for fixing perspective or composition.

I disagree. In a few years light field photography will be mandatory for professionals.

This technology lets you combine low light, long depth of field, and fast shutter speed in a single photograph. It lets you selectively blur distractions without tedious manual editing. Multiple cameras can be combined to extract 3D geometry and textures in a single snapshot, a tremendous time saver for CGI projects. Movies can move focus pulling to post.

The form factor is so they can make money, keeping them from having to trade company ownership for money. Other form factors are inevitable, just give it time.

[beering]

For these cameras to be taken seriously, I think megapixel count needs to be a factor higher.

Currently, in video, we're chasing higher and higher output resolutions, and a 10x drop in pixel count isn't feasible. Once the sensors reach 10x the pixel count we need for output, then we can take the resolution hit for the focal effects.

1080p-capable light field capture seems possible now, but 4k light field capture might need a 300 MP sensor.

[shuzchen]

Be careful not to think of megapixel count as the end-all of photo quality. While it is very important, the quality of the image sensor makes the biggest difference. You can buy some 16MP point and shoot, but the image quality isn't going to match a quality DLSR at 10MP (like the Nikon D80). Think of megapixel count as just the upper limit of image quality.

[objclxt]

I think the post you're replying to is referring to applying this technology to video. For feature films, 4K resolution would be highly desirable, and that's going to need some very large sensors.

[Daniel_Newby]

Or several smaller sensors and fancier software.

[SoftwareMaven]

I agree with both of you. For some professionals (sports photographers, journalistic photographers), this will be insanely useful (and maybe mandatory).

For artistic photographers, capturing the moment as seen in the mind's eye will continue to be critical, so this won't be useful.

The nice thing about the first group: they have the financial backing of large media companies (or contractors looking for ways to differentiate themselves). Seems like it might be a reasonable direction to go.

[Daniel_Newby]

Why will a magic camera be useless to artists?