  Recently it has been proposed that a planar slab of material, for which both
the permittivity and permeability have the values of -1, could bring not only
the propagating fields associated with a source to a focus, but could also
refocus the nonpropagating near-fields, thereby achieving a subdiffraction
image. In this work we discuss the sensitivity of the subwavelength focus to
various slab parameters, pointing out the connection to slab plasmon modes. We
also note and resolve a paradox associated with the perfect imaging of a point
source. We conclude that subwavelength resolution is achievable with available
technology, but only by implementation of a critical set of design parameters.
