Patent ID: 8619177

Claim:
A plenoptic camera, comprising: a main lens; and a digital imaging system including a photosensor array comprising: (a) a plurality of photosensors arranged in a predetermined image plane, and (b) a hexagonal microlens array comprising a plurality of microlenses arranged for directing light from an object to the photosensor array, wherein the photosensor array and the hexagonal microlens array are arranged with a predetermined distance, a diameter of each of the microlenses is larger than the diameter of the photosensors such that each microlens can generate an image on a plurality of photosensors, the microlenses have different focal lengths varying over the microlens array, wherein a focal length of each of the microlenses differs from the focal length of each of the nearest neighboring microlenses thereof in the hexagonal microlens array, each of the microlenses provides an effective resolution ratio depending on the focal length of the respective microlens and a depth distance from the microlens array, and the focal lengths of the microlenses are selected such that the effective resolution ratios have complementary maxima in adjacent ranges of depth distances, and the image plane of the photosensor array is arranged such that the distance between the photosensor array and the microlens array does not equal the microlenses' focal lengths.