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Lytro Camera is Ready to Go

By Rain Noe - October 20, 2011

in Tech | Object Culture

The web is abuzz with news of the Lytro "Light Field" camera we posted on back in June, as they've now set final prices and are accepting pre-orders. The revolutionary camera lets you shoot everything you point it at, depth-of-field be damned, and allows you to "focus after the fact" in post-processing.

Technology aside we're most impressed with the form factor of the device, which tosses out 100-plus years of camera body designs and opts for an axial shape that looks something like a nautical telescope from the future. We imagine uptake of the device will be polarized, with traditional shooters dismissing "focus after the fact" as an artless way to save processing time up front while adding work at the back end, and enthusiastic hobbyists with less time put into building up quick focusing skills will not be able to live without it.

Prices are $399 for the 8GB and $499 for the 16GB model, though there's no mention of hard delivery times.

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Brunneous

13 years ago

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So why would they go for a short awkward telescope? If you are going to tap into history, use a musket. You don't want a barrel on it or people will get nervous, but the pistol grip is annoyingly accurate and shake-free.
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Louis Lbnc

13 years ago

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Nice to see them trying something different. I've heard of this startup when they first showed off the technology, but without an actual product. I think they have a very cool technology which it's possibilities are much more than showed off by this camera.

Adam went around it but, namely, 3d, having a complete frame in focus and not having to worry about focus, not only while taking the picture, but you don't need a lens that focusses. I think that for this camera, they needed to be quick to market and make some capital for some further development. If they can get the pixel count up and get some nicer images they could become a contender. For example in video work, pulling focus manually is quite hard and usually is jittery when done by the camera, on top of having smooth focusing, a Lytro video camera could have cheaper optics that let more light in on top of being able to render in 3D with a single lens/sensor.

I'm not sure about the design, it does look good but I'm not sure about the usability, holding it like a flashlight would be nice but the screen looks a bit too small to see what you're framing when holding it at arms length. Won't diss until I actually try one.
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Duane Brown

13 years ago

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@ Tom.. are you serious about the guy holding it in the promo pic..
The guy in the promo pic is a PAID ACTOR told by the photographer/company to hold it that way. So that statement has no value.
He isn't actually what we would call an actual user.
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Adam

13 years ago

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Come on guys! You're thinking in current terms instead of future possibilities. Why focus after the fact? What if you took a photo really quickly, and your camera focused on the wrong subject, but everything was moving and you can't just take the shot again, so your photo is useless. What if you're taking a photo of two subjects, one in the foreground, and one in the background? Lets not forget the other benefit here, the ability to shoot at f/2 and get infinite depth of field (just needs some different processing). The photos all have depth data in them, so you can also theoretically make a 3D image using a single image from this technology. Infinite depth of field 3D movies will be a lot easier to watch, since right now if you look at anything the director doesn't want you to look at, it's out of focus, and that's just weird. The lack of a focusing motor/processing means much faster images as well. There are already software algorithms being worked on to eliminate motion blur, and combine that with this technology to eliminate focal blur, and you'll never have a blurry photo again. This is a first gen product, that in one year took the cost of this technology from $30,000 to $400. Obviously, it's not perfect. I can't wait to see what this can do in a few years.

Oh, and I like the form factor, it looks interesting. People are complaining that you can't take one handed photos with this form factor, and that makes no sense to me. If you take a one handed photo, it will be blurry, no matter what the form factor your camera is. You should always be using two hands to take your shots, maybe this new form will remind people of that.
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Tom

13 years ago

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I think a radical new design approach to cameras deserves a post on an ID blog. And the person holding it in the promo pic probably wouldn't pinch it unless that were in fact reasonably comfortable.
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Duane Brown

13 years ago

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Come on guys.. you are an ID blog. Don't say you love it because it is simply different. Have you used it? Let us know how this amazing new form factor transfers over to real life use.

From what I can tell it looks annoying/hard to use. But that's just by looking at it.
PS you can still have a pretty camera that doesn't make the user wimper in pain from having to pinch hold it while taking photos.
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Kevin

13 years ago

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I don't really see the point of this camera. Why would you want to focus after the fact? That's double the work! And why would you want to focus on something in the background when your subject is in the foreground? Also, most of the pictures in the living photos gallery are blurry. Cool technology but useless in my opinion.
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Mike Farnham

13 years ago

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Although I love the focusing technology, I think that is the only thing it has going for it. It looks more like a kaleidoscope than a camera, difficult to stabilize or use in any professional manner. are there tech specs on it?
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