This concept has received a lot of press because of its demonstrated ability to break the traditional limits of resolution as a function of wavelength. A conceptually simple flat flab of this stuff (with very well polished surfaces) can effectively copy a high resolution image from one point to another, using light whose wavelength is very large in comparison to the copied resolution.
That's the good news.
The bad news is that this is a near-field effect. It only works if you can get the slab of RI=-1 material within a small wavelength of the image to be copied.
This effect may be phenomenally effective when applied to new high-density DVDs.
But in terms of making significant improvement in traditional photomacrography & photomicroscopy, I won't be holding my breath. At 1:06:50 of the streaming video, Pendry answers a question by saying (in part) "you're not going to use this lens to build better spectacles". At 1:07:08 he adds that "if you were considering it as part of a far-field system you'd throw it in the bin straight away."
The way I read the papers (and hear Pendry's talk), these new negative RI materials promise to be very interesting for near-field applications, but to have no noticeable effect on the far-field applications that pretty much cover all of our forums' activities.
Sorry for the bleak report, but I thought some of you would like to know.
--Rik
