Forgive me if someone has posted on this already, but I thought this might be good information for POTN members. There's an article in this month's Popular Science (April, 2007) regarding a 5" lens referred to as a "light field" lens that was manufactured by Adobe. The lens has 19 different "eyes" that take a single photo with 19 different focal points. The article explains that Adobe's software then analyzes the 19 captured pics and morphs them into one, allowing the photographer to bring selected details from each of the layers into focus. They have a pic of the lens in the article and also explain today's limitations of the glass in lenses as being the reason why camera sensors can't increase in megapixels.
"...within a few years 300-megapixel sensors could be common. But lenses, ground from glass, can't focus light sharply enough to take advantage of this windfall."
"Each image uses a piece of the sensor, so a 100-megapixel camera will yield 19 5.2-megapixel shots."
Interesting...
