Focus after you take the shot

I bet photographers said that when the first AF cameras appeared, and before that the first AE ones, and before that.... etc etc.

Eventually we will have a camera that only needs the photographer to be in the right place with the right light, having said that with advances in photoshop by that time will we even need good light

Or we won't even need to be there - lots of webcams of this type and who needs to fly around the world?

There is something fishy about this.

I have to say it's not somethign I'm interested in

If it is as revolutionary as it sounds I'm surprised that it's only venture capital backed (albeit with a lot of money) and has not been snapped up by one of the big players.

Low light capability, choose focal point after the event and stack from a single image. That would be really something. How easy would macro be?

Just received my "priority access link" to be one of the first in line to buy one of these "Light Field Cameras" from Lytro.

In all honesty, I don't think I'll be purchasing one anytime soon, but I am very interested in the technology, and am hoping it's not a "gimmick" that will fade away.

I think the way data is collected off this sensor yeilds a lower resolution image than other sensors of the same size.... I suspect this camera will be enjoyed by news photographers and amateurs.....
so I see many uses in robotics and machine vision, as well as surveilence but limited use for serious photographers... at least for the next five to eight years...

Photography has always been a mixture of art and craft. As the amount of craft required falls, the best images will be made by the best artists, not the best craftsmen.

Equally, at any given image quality level, more people will be able to make images at that level, since whatever artistic skill an image requires will be less likely to be prevented by insufficient craftsmanship.

If you enjoy the craft as well as the art, as most people that enjoy photography historically do, it's a bit inevitable that as the craft element falls, so will the enjoyment level.

I'm not particularly artistic, and I never had the patience to make my own images in the darkroom.

With digital, the amount of craft required is about right, since I'm very comfortable with the computer.

As the amount of craft required becomes even less, I expect I'll enjoy photography less, since I'll be limited by my art, and there's not much I can do about that.