Anyone who has ever photographed kids should be able to see the appeal of the Lytro... You can capture just the right moment, and then focus later. Kids are the ultimate test of any autofocus system.

But the potential of the Lytro goes beyond "focus after the fact." Because the camera captures a lightfield, you could simulate any lens with incredible accuracy. So you could shoot once, and then decide later if you want the look of a Petzval or a Summicron. It wouldn't just be a filter—you could actually model the way each lens interacts with the lightfield.

You could also do weird things, like bend the DOF range nonlinearly. So you could photograph people at a table sitting near and far, and make all of them in focus—but still throw the background out of focus.

Not only that, but you could shoot a scenic shot from behind a chain link fence or a net, and then remove the obstruction with one click. That's because lightfield cameras can see "around" foreground objects to some degree.

The big test will be resolution. They haven't specified anything yet, so I doubt this camera makes a file big enough for a 4x6" print.

I'm a little surprised they didn't go after video first, since video resolutions are so much lower. The biggest challenge in the video world today is getting that shallow DOF effect everyone likes, but with good autofocus. Lytro's tech sidesteps that problem neatly. They could use face detection to perfectly rack focus—and if you want to adjust the focus on the computer, you could.