A remarkable new camera from Lytro uses Light Fields (the gory details of how it all works are here) to capture images. The result is, you can focus the image after it has been taken. Try it on the image below.
Although the initial cameras are very much consumer products, they are only the beginning of what could be a radical change in digital photography.
Lytro is certainly getting media attention (and seems to have moved the image-processing yardsticks), but wasn’t the first to market a plenoptic camera.
Joseph S Wisniewski, who is one of the more technically savvy commenters on DPreview.com (and who can be much more acerbic than you), has posted some interesting analysis here and here.
Thom Hogan also pointed out some potentially problematic legal bits in the terms of use agreement.
Comments on DPreview range from “wave of the future” to a silly passing fad that yields lousy image quality. Time will tell.