Photography Takes A Giant Leap with Lytro

This picture was taken by the new Lytro Camera, which captures all the light field within its frame, allowing you to do some magical things you've always wished you could do. Try this: Point your curser to Mommy's face and click on the square that appears. Now, point at Baby's hand and do the same. Now, back to Baby's eyes, nose, or mouth. Tell me, how cool is that?

Play with this shot, choosing as many focuses as you can find to get a feel for this photographic miracle. These  focus changes are available AFTER the shot has been taken and can be manipulated by both the photographer and anyone seeing the picture, so that each photograph is customizable to suit the viewer.



From today's NYTimes:

Lytro’s founder and chief executive is Ren Ng, 31. His achievement, experts say, has been to take research projects of recent years — requiring perhaps 100 digital cameras lashed to a supercomputer — and squeeze that technology into a camera headed for the consumer market later this year.

Mr. Ng explained the concept in 2006 in his Ph.D. thesis at Stanford University, which won the worldwide competition for the best doctoral dissertation in computer science that year from the Association for Computing Machinery. Since then Mr. Ng has been trying to translate the idea into a product that can be brought to market — and building a team of people to do it.

The Lytro camera captures far more light data, from many angles, than is possible with a conventional camera. It accomplishes that with a special sensor called a microlens array, which puts the equivalent of many lenses into a small space. “That is the heart of the breakthrough,” said Pat Hanrahan, a Stanford professor, who was Mr. Ng’s thesis adviser but is not involved in Lytro.

But the wealth of raw light data comes to life only with sophisticated software that lets a viewer switch points of focus. This allows still photographs to be explored as never before. “They become interactive, living pictures,” Mr. Ng said. 

Hard to leave alone, huh? From the Lytro FAQ page, look at what else this baby can do!

Shoot now, focus later: Because the camera captures the entire light field, there is no need to focus ahead of time. You can simply capture the moment, and adjust the focus later. This means you can concentrate on what’s happening in the scene, not fiddle with your camera. Lytro pictures can be  focused to your liking days, weeks, even years after they’re taken.

Unparalleled speed: This is fast. Since the camera doesn’t focus before a photo is taken, you don’t miss important moments due to autofocus shutter lag.

Living pictures. When shared online, both the photographer and viewer can play with Lytro pictures, including changing the focus.

Low-light sensitivity: Everyone knows low light pictures are usually very entertaining, but they’re also pretty difficult to capture with a regular camera or cell phone. By using all of the available light in a scene, Lytro cameras capture great pictures in low light environments without use of a flash – from clubs to concerts to candlelit dinners.

Immersive 3D: Using the full light field, Lytro cameras will allow you to easily switch between 2D and 3D views or shift the perspective of the scene.

You can reserve a camera on the website without committing yourself to anything; you'll receive an email when the camera is available and be invited to purchase one.

Price? Not known, but the company states that they will be priced for the consumer, which I would guess would put it between $300-800. Lytros will be produced by the California company, not sold to the big names in photography, and will be manufactured in Taiwan. Cameras will initially be marketed through the Lytro website and retailers like Amazon.

One more?