Lytro has up for preorder their Light Field Camera.
“Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space. Since you’ll capture the color, intensity, and direction of all the light, you can experience the first major light field capability – focusing after the fact. Focus and re-focus, anywhere in the picture. You can refocus your pictures at anytime, after the fact. And focusing after the fact, means no auto-focus motor. No auto-focus motor means no shutter delay. ”
The camera comes with an 8 X optical zoom at a constant f/2 aperture to allow for maximum light across the focal range and focusing is done in post processing via software. At this point the software is only Mac compatible however a Windows version is in development.
The only controls on the camera itself are a “shutter” release and a swipe bar for the optical zoom. The unit has a touchscreen that allows you to view and focus and refocus your pictures on the internal screen like you would on your workstation.
Is this truly the “idiot-proof” camera that will eliminate blurry photos for ever? 🙂
Available for preorder in 3 colours in 8 and 16GB variants from $399 and $499 the cameras will ship in early 2012.
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Good proof-of-concept device utilizing the available technology. However, there are some shortcomings one should be aware of:
http://support.lytro.com/entries/20558086-what-options-do-i-have-for-printing-my-living-pictures
Note: This is a one (1) megapixel image. You will not be printing images larger than 5×7 without significant image quality issues.
Topic discussing the Good, Bad, and Ugly of Lytro:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/1673023@N25/discuss/72157628107876226/
@Gabe – Yes I agree that this is only a first release but to me it has a lot of potential. Imagine later down the track this technology in mobile phones or tablets or p&s cameras. No more blurry out of focus pictures posted onto Facebook or websites or not missing that “perfect” shot ’cause you’re still playing around with apertures and shutterspeeds working out DOFs. 🙂 Of course no camera will be “idiot-proof” until you can stop people from putting their finger over the lense when taking the shot and you’ll never stop the subjects blinking or pulling silly faces at the wrong time 🙂
This is no new technology at all.
There is a German Company in Kiel who is building somthing simillar ( albeit of much higher quality and with much more sufisticated software algorithms ) for Industrial use.
http://www.raytrix.de/
@Frank – yes, this will be the first in the “affordable” consumer market.
Waiting to see how CSI is going to abuse it.
In the movie, Blade Runner, the detective uses a computer to analyze a snapshot he finds in an apartment. This movie was made in 1982 and yet it forsaw the creation of the Lytro type camera and the way you could zoom in and enhance certain areas in the picture. Here’s a clip from the movie:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qHepKd38pr0