An integrated and fruitful journey of an Optical Flow Velocimetry system in various fluid mechanics study cases is presented: From its development and benchmarking, to the application of its results in instability analysis, modelling, dynamics prediction and control of shear flows. Regarding development, the software (algorithm, Graphics User Interface) and hardware parts (camera, workstation, laser) part of the system are presented and discussed.Furthermore, the system is benchmarked on various experimental and synthetic fluidic datasets. We explore its spatial precision from simple step displacements test-cases, to synthetic homogeneous isotropic turbulence datasets and then grid-generated turbulence and finally a bluff body turbulent wak...