There’s a new type of photography making its way across the globe thanks to a new light-field camera known as the Lytro. This camera is different than all of its predecessors, but that’s not the only reason why we love it.
1. It has a simple design.
The Lytro may be stuffed full of innovation on the inside, but the outside is sweet and simple. There are no fancy additives to the exterior, no unnecessary buttons and no “I can do it all” advances. The Lytro contains only the essentials—that’s it. The designers left the bells and whistles at the factory.
The Lytro is made with a combination of rubber and metal and shaped like a rectangular cube. The camera contains an optical zoom lens, power button and USB door. In fact, the only fancy thing about it is the touch screen.
2. The battery lasts.
The battery life on the Lytro is impressive. It contains a lithium-ion battery that will allow the user to take a great amount of pictures before needing to recharge. The battery, though, can currently only be charged via USB, so you must have a computer handy to charge it. Rumor has it that a regular charger is currently in production.
3. It allows for after-picture focusing.
It seems like every time we think we take a great picture, it ends up being out of focus. This issue is unheard of with the Lytro, as it allows users to focus the picture after it has already been taken.
The Lytro works by capturing the entire light field in its view, so it allows the user to take “living pictures”. It doesn’t use face detection software or any other fancy focusing technology. Instead, it captures the entire shot and allows the user to select the focal point later. This also allows the user to show different images with one picture. For example, if you have a picture with one person in the foreground and one person in the background, the user can create one picture with the person in the foreground as the focal point and one picture with the person in the background as the focal point. Basically, they can create two separate photos with one capture.
4. It allows for sharing of experience.
After the Lytro takes a picture, it creates an .ifp file. This image can now be transferred to a Mac computer and placed on the Lytro website. You can then invite your friends to see all of your shots directly on the Lytro website, or you can embed them on your own website, including social media.
When these pictures are on the Lytro website or on Facebook, the viewers of your photo have the ability to change the focus of the picture too.
The Lytro is a unique experience that could change the face of photography’s future. Playing around with the images, especially without the use of photo-editing software, is one amazing feature. The “living picture” capability really brings the images to life, and this technology could be the start of something really groundbreaking.
About the Author:
Charlie Adams is a tech guru and internet expert who works as a consultant to telecommunications companies in the Las Vegas area. He is an outspoken advocate of grammar checkers and always proofs his work before letting anyone see it. In his off time he enjoys going out and experiencing Las Vegas nightlife.
I’m not sure about Lytro cameras, somehow the after-picture focusing bothers me, it’s like cheating. However, photographers play with RAW files to improve photographs every day…
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The main idea of this camera is that you do not need to focus! But I think the Lytro is not for pro users. This is more for random shots, for sharing moments.
wow! thanks for this tips. I’m a new in photography world so this is a big and useful tips for me.
Gonna try these camera if it will do good shots.
I am very skeptical of this technology. They claim to capture a “light field” at each pixel. That means light coming from multiple angles. Theoretically this would allow an image to be refocused after it was taken — however, capturing the photons from many angles would exponentially increase the amount of data needed to make an image, at least 2 orders of magnitude if not more. So an image that is 2 MB on a standard 5 MP camera would be at least 200 MB in a “light field camera, if not more. I’m calling Lytro’s bluff.