A system for robust disparity estimation in the presence of significant intensity variations for camera arrays is described herein. The system comprises a camera array, a memory and a processor. The memory is configured to store imaging data. The processor is coupled to the memory and the camera array. When executing instructions, the processor is to obtain a plurality of images and generate a sequence of color matched images, wherein the sequence includes each pair of images in the plurality of images. The processor is also to calculate a plurality of disparity points based on the sequence of color matched images.