We easily tend to think of Integral-Field Spectrographs (IFS) along two
opposing trends: as either the beautiful combination between photometry and
spectroscopy, or as our worst nightmare including the dark side of both worlds.
I favour a view where each IFS is considered individually, as one instrument
with specific performances which can be used optimally for a certain range of
scientific programs. It is indeed true that data-wise, IFS do sometime merge
the characteristics of classic (e.g., long-slit) spectrographs with annoying
issues associated with Imagers. This is in fact the price to pay to access a
drastically different perspective of our favourite targets. The challenge is
then to provide the necessary tools to properly handle the corresponding data.
However, this should certainly not be thought as something specific to IFS:
such a challenge should be accepted for any instrument, and most importantly
solved prior to its delivery at the telescope.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Invited talk, to appear in the Proceedings of
"The 2007 ESO Instrument Calibration Workshop", ESO Astrophysics Symposia,
Springe