New Lytro Camera

[canuckamuck]

Here is the link from CNN

Is this camera a game changer?

[canuckamuck]

Here is a link to their website where you can play with the pictures.

Lytro

[tw25rw]

Long term I think that is a game changer.. No more out of focus photos and you can choose which bits you want to be in 'bokeh' on your computer before you print.

Will take a while to become mainstream, but I expect it will be common to see embedded images on web pages using this technology.

[canuckamuck]

I think this really is an extraordinary piece of technology. I remember hours of fussing with the focal plane on food shots. With a view camera you lay the focal plane through the shot but you are still stuck with what you get. I can imagine the future when you could sit with the art director or client, going over the shots and altering the focus at will.

And what about the impact on spy imagery; just fire off a shot and then analyze later. It is like CSI where they magically take a few pixels and create a whole license plate or identify a face off a reflection in a kettle.

But I am concerned this is another tool to further level the playing field between pro and hack. The real art will all be done in the computer now. I would love to know how capturing the light field impacts exposure. What are the boundaries? will it be great in low light, will it make HDR seem natural? How will it work in Photoshop?

Pretty amazing stuff

[tw25rw]

Maybe they will build it into movie cameras so you can watch movies on a special view that tracks your eye and automatically adjusts the focus.

I wish I had invented it. Someone is going to get very rich from it!