News Lytro - Shoot now, focus later

It really is a cool idea if it floats In another interview I loved how broad their projections were. When asked when the process would be available and what the cost was the answer was, soon and between $1 and $10,000.
 
Wow. This has the potential to be quite amazing. Here's a direct link to the company's site: Light Field camera | Lytro

The NY Times article says
Lytro is not saying what the price of its first camera will be, but insists it will be for the consumer market, which suggests a price of a few hundred dollars. The company is also not being more precise about when the camera will ship. It will initially be sold through online retailers like Amazon.com and Lytro’s Web site.

This could give the bokeh lovers a field day and I'd think that for those of us without the best eyesight, it could prove to be very exciting, too.
 
While it is cool, it will be some time before major manufacturers take on the idea. Several years ago a company invented a flexible sensor. the idea was that the sensor could take into account field curvature. Most lenses do not provide a true flat field, and the larger the sensor, the worse the problem. The easy way to fix this is to have the sensor "flex" or curve to the know curvature of a particular lens. I have yet to see it in any cameras, however.

Thom Hogan had an opinion about this tech and the company. I rarely agree with him, but on this, I do agree with him.

Thom Hogan's Nikon Field Guide and Nikon Flash Guide


The sensor to start will be small. The expense to make such a sensor and associated software will be expensive. Can they really recover thier R&D costs? What I see is that the company will eventually sell its patents to a larger company down the road.

Just think, an mFT camera with the DOF of a FF camera!
 
Hmmmmm. Maybe a bit too far for me. I actually enjoy the process of photography. If is became the norm I'd probably just give it away and find something else to do with my time.

Where's the fun/challenge/sense of accomplishment if you can't get it wrong?

Gordon
 
Beyond having no AF lag, and presumably no actual physical AF system, must mean lens design will be much simpler, lighter and cheaper?

This technology also has issues for the photographers intention: what if you meant only to have the flower in the foreground in focus- can you lock the image to one focus point?
If you do a slide show of these images, would it also rack through the near-to-far focus range for each image?

The full size images on the site appear to be square format and about 900 * 900 pixels. A bit small, but frankly if it delivers a 6-8 MP image would be fine for me, and most snap-shooters.
 
Hmmmmm. Maybe a bit too far for me. I actually enjoy the process of photography. If is became the norm I'd probably just give it away and find something else to do with my time.

Where's the fun/challenge/sense of accomplishment if you can't get it wrong?

Gordon

Gordon, you and I are on the same page kind sir.
That might not be a good thing for you but it sure works for me...
Don
 
I'm not so sure that this thing would give you the opportunity to "not get it wrong". Focus points won't matter if it's a boring picture.

Right now, this seems more like a novelty item, but it will be interesting to see how it develops - yes, pun intended.:D
 
BB, the first firmware update will be an image generator.
Like picture styles, you can choose say, Walker Evans or Robert Frank... then just point the darn camera anywhere. It will give you an Evans or Frank type image and you don't have to focus at all...
This will be a great asset for times when alcohol is on the scene. You can dial in your alcohol level, say 3.2 and then the camera will adjust like ISO for shakiness, blur etc.

I hear tell Gordon is loving this new technology and Grant also..... there's others amongst us but I dare not speak their names.... David....
 
Dave, Dave, Dave...ye of little faith...
I wait for the day things get to a point that all I have to do is....think an image hanging on the wall and let it be done.... who needs this camera stuff and software stuff... it gets in the way of thinking an image into existence...oh' and also you can think that the money is in your account at the same time....

Me , I still have several hundred rolls of Tri-X (ASA) not ISO in my freezer in the darkroom....just waiting for the day above......
 
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