If this shold become commercialy available, it would surely have a huge imact on the way photographers work.

http://audioblog.fr/archives/2007/10/02/ad...ve-story-future

In addition it would probably reduce the value of the traditional art/craft of photography. No more of "producing the final result in- camera".

It would of course also impact the value of all those expensive (non 3D) lens- collections out there.

- Rune Molnes

The sensor needed to collect enough data for all the lenses would be huge. If I understand this technology correctly then one must capture a LOT of data for even a moderate resolution final image.

By the way, Adobe is presenting this as something new that they have been working on. It is neither new nor their innovation.

Have a look at this Stanford University video, several years old:
http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/lfc … camera.wmv

Getting deja vu?

How about this? smile http://www.refocusimaging.com/

This was set up by the same Stanford student.

Yes, you've seen that sample before!

That is just SOOO cool! But so much for photorealism, eh?

As for how practical? Give it time. When Canon introduced the D30, people would have scoffed had you suggested a camera with the spec of the 1Ds MkIII. Sensors get better and cheaper, processing gets faster. In time, the electronics for this will be easily possible.

The first link, in the 2nd post above, didn't translate, btw. I wonder if the Stanford student who did that work is now the employee at Adobe?