Abstract: A dual-mode camera (DMC) was proposed based on liquid-crystal microlens array (LCMLA), which could be readily switched between the conventional planar imaging mode and the plenoptic imaging mode through turning on/off the low frequency voltage signal applied on the LCMLA. The LCMLA was fabricated by common UV-photolithography and wet etching. Through coupling the LCMLA with a main lens and a photosensitive sensor array, a DMC prototype was constructed. Experiments were conducted to acquire plenoptic imaging data and corresponding planar imaging data of objects. The issues of the aperture design and the depth of field in the two modes were discussed in detail. A computation method for three-dimensional (3D) information acquisition based on the plenoptic imaging mode was given. A high-resolution 3D reconstruction was implemented by fusing 3D plenoptic data and corresponding 2D high-resolution planar imaging data.