Being able to image large fields at the diffraction limit of large telescopes is one of Astronomy's oldest dreams. The standard way toward achieving this goal is to throw lots of money at it and build ever more sophisticated adaptive optics (AO) systems. As an alternative way, I present an algorithm for speckle holography that has been optimised for diffraction limited imaging of crowded fields. I will present the exciting results of our tests and will discuss the virtues and vices of the technique that can emulate a multi-conjugate adaptive optics system. Holography can be used with many existing instruments, such as NACO, VISIR, or ASTRALUX. I will also briefly discuss the possibilities opened by a dedicated wide-field speckle camera that is optimized for proper motion and multiplicity surveys of embedded star clusters.