Lytro introduces world's first light-field camera!

Journey said:
Well all I can say is WOW, never thought I'd see this in my lifetime :eek:

Link to Engadgethttp://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/lytro-introduces-worlds-first-lightfield-camera/#comments

How long before this tech makes it's way in to Canon and Nikon's etc. ???
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You may get a version of this: http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/adobe-shows-off-plenoptic-lenses-that-let-you-refocus-an-image-a/
from Nikon or Canon, but probably just in the P&S type cameras.

As ever, there is a trade off and the best thing to do is to capture the best image at the time the photo was taken.

With all of these technologies you loose a massive amount of resolution. The prototype Lytro camera basically gave a VGA image, it would be interesting to know what their commercial version produces. They say 11million light rays, but that might only equate to something like an 800x600 image, fine for facebook and that s about it.
 
D.P. said:
With all of these technologies you loose a massive amount of resolution. The prototype Lytro camera basically gave a VGA image, it would be interesting to know what their commercial version produces. They say 11million light rays, but that might only equate to something like an 800x600 image, fine for facebook and that s about it.
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It's not going to be something that most people with an SLR are going to want to buy for printing from for sure. At least for now. But just like Apple with the iPhone and iPod, if this product just does what people want, simply and easily (which it appears to from the videos) then it has potential.

How many people with P&S cameras ever actually want an image for anything other than facebook or a 6x4 print these days? While hairy ass nerds like us can see that the image quality and resolution isn't there yet, average Joe doesn't care. That's why when their mate puts up an out of focus low light picture of his big toe, average Joe says "Wow, thats amazing, please do my wedding" lol. It doesn't need lots of buttons, it has no shutter lag, it apparently shoots well in low light, and it's been designed to look like something out of Cupertino. And that can't hurt.

And they have struck gold with the one thing that average Joe looks at when he buys a camera. The number on the box. 11 Megaray is the term they are using and that sounds massive for the size of the image you get.
 
Thom Hogan has some good insights as ever http://www.bythom.com/

...
What's missing in the details are a couple of things: angle of view of the lens, the number of focus zones, and the final pixel count of the images. What we get instead is a new marketing term: 11 Megarays. What that means in real pixels is currently unknown, but my best guess so far is something like 8 focus zones at a resolution of maybe 720x720 pixels.

...

But don't forget to check out the Terms of Use. A couple of the legal bits are potentially an issue to me (emphasis is mine):

* "Modifications, derivative works and printing for non-personal use (for example, commercial or political) require our explicit prior consent."
* "Unlisted pictures can be viewed and shared by the user who uploaded them and by others who know the link to the pictures"
* "but only by using our light field picture player or another player approved by us."
* "Display the Lytro trademark with such content."

Here's my problem: given a 1mp final image size, could I design a compact camera with virtually no controls that has some "focus magic" to it using a conventional design? Yes. So if there's a need for 1mp or smaller "social images" Lytro will end up with considerable competition. I'm actually surprised no one has gone there yet. I guess all that customer demand for more megapixels was a distraction ;~).
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Todge said:
It's not going to be something that most people with an SLR are going to want to buy for printing from for sure. At least for now. But just like Apple with the iPhone and iPod, if this product just does what people want, simply and easily (which it appears to from the videos) then it has potential.

How many people with P&S cameras ever actually want an image for anything other than facebook or a 6x4 print these days? While hairy ass nerds like us can see that the image quality and resolution isn't there yet, average Joe doesn't care. That's why when their mate puts up an out of focus low light picture of his big toe, average Joe says "Wow, thats amazing, please do my wedding" lol. It doesn't need lots of buttons, it has no shutter lag, it apparently shoots well in low light, and it's been designed to look like something out of Cupertino. And that can't hurt.

And they have struck gold with the one thing that average Joe looks at when he buys a camera. The number on the box. 11 Megaray is the term they are using and that sounds massive for the size of the image you get.
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I agree that this is definitely a facebook camera only so it may succeed.
 
Adrianr said:
11 megarays!!!????!!


That a lot?
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Basically to get the ability to shift focus in post you need to record a lot more information at each final pixel. With this camera there is an array of micro-lenses and each micro-lens directs light to something an array of 4x4 photodiodes, this they term light rays. This bock of 16 light rays will form a single pixel with enough information to vary focus to a a moderate degree. So really you divide the 11 megarrays by something like 16 to get the final image resolution and end up with something akin to a 0.5MP image.
 
D.P. said:
Basically to get the ability to shift focus in post you need to record a lot more information at each final pixel. With this camera there is an array of micro-lenses and each micro-lens directs light to something an array of 4x4 photodiodes, this they term light rays. This bock of 16 light rays will form a single pixel with enough information to vary focus to a a moderate degree. So really you divide the 11 megarrays by something like 16 to get the final image resolution and end up with something akin to a 0.5MP image.
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Sorry, I know. It was my very poor attempt at humor given the 'megapixel wars' and so such. Now we get a whole new term for consumers to confuse themselves with :D
 
I wonder if this tech could be reversed and implemented to 3D TV? I've not read the papers yet (so correct me if I'm wrong), but I understand it's an array of microlenses on top of a conventional CCD/CMOS, the lens directs the light onto different pixels depending on the angle of the light, the intensities on each pixel can then be used to calculate the direction of the light. My understanding's a little blurry(pun not intended) on how this used to change the focus...

Reverse this though, take a massive resolution TV, stick an array of microlenses on it and vary the intensity of each pixel under each lens, you could get a different image from different angles. You could even use it to obscure an image for those outside of the viewing point, which would be good for things like ATM screens. Just an idea, if it ever appears in a product I can say I thought of it first :p
 
It's certainly looks like a great product.
Has anyone got any decent reviews and comparisons.

Why doesn't it have a flash? Or would it not work with a flash. Any idea of megapixel and. How big you could blow pictures upto.

I wonder what they have in the pipeline for future releases.
One of the biggest problems I had when on Holliday with digital camera, is the shutter speed was two slow and that it focused on the wrong point. Or if you spent time focusing then the moment had passed.
 
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