The availability of accurate photometric data is crucial for the development of lighting technology components. Especially in the course of the displacement of the classical lamps by solid-state lighting (SSL) technologies and the resulting increased range of lighting applications, the requirements for these measurement data have increased. Here, optical simulation programs based on ray tracing algorithms (Computer-Aided Lighting – CAL) open up new development processes. State-of-the-art is the use of ray files measured by camera-based near-field goniophotometers. Some of those systems also offer measurements of the luminous intensity distribution, luminous flux and goniospectrometric data in conformity with IES LM-79-08, EN 13032-4 and CIE S 025, and can thus also take over the classical measurement tasks of far-field goniophotometers. This paper illustrates applications of the data measured with near-field goniophotometers and luminance measuring cameras in the field of simulation, glare evaluation and luminaire characterization.