The current prevailing method of acquiring images yields a limited view, two-dimensional image with a radiometric range reduced to the sensor’s dynamic range. The large number of sensor pixels available in imagers today merely leads to large data files but limited information about the environment it seeks to represent. This project seeks to (1) investigate the use of commercial off the shelf optical components such as microlens arrays to assemble imagers capable of capturing in a few snapshots, multidimensional information of the original environment such as depth of field, spectra, time, and the light field or plenoptic function; (2) explore available algorithms for image post-processing to recover original information about the visual environment; (3) explore scientific applications of new imaging methods; and (4) develop calibration strategies.