Thanks! Those are some great answers. I really appreciate your insights.
The Media Division clip is inspiring; their take on the potential is pretty weird. Which is probably appropriate, given the level of creative excellence in how they carried out the test. It would not have occurred to me to keep a lens static and move only the sensor in quite that way. Perhaps that was driven by their decision to merge the elements in two dimensions within After Effects?
I think that I can test the concept by building a frame that will hold six inexpensive 1080p cameras, and then working with my collaborators to develop a workflow that merges and corrects their output in real time. -This would be in contrast to the way Media Division simply ensured that the camera maintained perfect alignment. Does anyone have suggestions for a camera to use for this? I'll freely share here whatever I may learn from this.
Ultimately, I think it would be useful to create a structure similar to an analog (5"x7")view camera, using a number of large inexpensive sensors, with automated controls moving front and back panels, as well as the lens. The two things that make this model especially appealing to me are: First, while it would be large, it could be quite lightweight, as the lenses required for this configuration can be very small, and lens' coverage of the sensor panel(s) would never be the issue it is with conventional digital cinema cameras. Additionally, the full control of optics planes would be fun, especially in integration with realtime 3D SFX. Second, it would be a lot cheaper than a conventional 6k+ camera.