A Camera that doesnt need to focus

[Elimentals]

http://gizmodo.com/5814337/lytro-is-a-focus+free-camera-that-will-change-how-you-take-pictures

The digital camera market is about to be turn upside by a young Stanford Ph.D named Ren Ng. Ng is the brainchild behind the Lytro camera which lets you take pictures without focusing. The technology is mind-bending. Mind-blowing. Wow.

The Lytro is a light field camera which is much different than your standard digital shooter. It doesn't capture one angle, one lighting effect or one focus plane. It captures everything, all at once, in one photo. The image can then be manipulated to change the focus from an item in the foreground to an item in the background on the fly. The camera is targeted for an end of the year launch and could cost under $500 if Ng can pull it all together.

You can check out a demo of the Lytro technology below. Click on different parts of the image and prepare yourself to be impressed. [Lytro, TechCrunch and Mashable]

Now this is the camera for people like me

Looking at the samples at http://www.lytro.com/picture_gallery I really want one now

 

[ITCynic]

Wow, that is impressive

I want one.

 

[MadMailMan]

Holy carp!

 

[bwana]

I'm surprised this hasnt been snapped up, and buried, by one of the big camera manufacturers.

 

[GTi]

Wow amazing!!!!!!!

 

[Park@82]

Amazing, so why not focus the whole photo and give us a sample?

 

[muzee]

Top notch- i want one!!!!

 

[Pulseimg]

As cool as I think it is, I dont actually think id want one or for it to make it to the public.
Simply because it takes the skill away from photography, you wont appreciate capturing a moment because you can "go back and fix it" if you cocked it up
Its cool but ill keep my SLR thanks

Sounds like your f-stop will be a thing of the past

 

[bwana]

As cool as I think it is, I dont actually think id want one or for it to make it to the public.
Simply because it takes the skill away from photography, you wont appreciate capturing a moment because you can "go back and fix it" if you cocked it up
Its cool but ill keep my SLR thanks

Sounds like your f-stop will be a thing of the past

Why? I know the idea of it initially made me a little nervous as a professional photographer but if this helps people get the images they deserve then so be it. There's still composition and subject matter that still need to be attended to and the pros can concentrate on that.

As far as my discipline is concerned there is always going have to be some guy on the sidelines feeding the news hungry fans and this camera wont change that.

 

[Elimentals]

As cool as I think it is, I dont actually think id want one or for it to make it to the public.
Simply because it takes the skill away from photography, you wont appreciate capturing a moment because you can "go back and fix it" if you cocked it up
Its cool but ill keep my SLR thanks

Sounds like your f-stop will be a thing of the past

Kind of what photoshop is already doing with many other functions?

How it works
[video=youtube;jS7usnHmNZ0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS7usnHmNZ0[/video]

 

[Maddmatt]

As cool as I think it is, I dont actually think id want one or for it to make it to the public.
Simply because it takes the skill away from photography, you wont appreciate capturing a moment because you can "go back and fix it" if you cocked it upt

You take a good thing - the fact that it makes it much easier to "capture a moment", and make it into a bad thing :wtf:

I hope this takes off, and becomes a feature in phones too.

 

[noxibox]

Ng is the brainchild

So whose invention or idea is this Ng.

As cool as I think it is, I dont actually think id want one or for it to make it to the public.
Simply because it takes the skill away from photography, you wont appreciate capturing a moment because you can "go back and fix it" if you cocked it up
Its cool but ill keep my SLR thanks

I recall similar nonsense when autofocus started appearing on SLRs. You of course do all your focussing and metering manually.

 

[AstroTurf]

Very awesome idea and hope it takes off and hits slr's soon.

 

[MongooseMan]

For those interested in the more technical aspects of the camera, have a look at the tech paper. Surprisingly easy to read, even if some of it goes over my head.

 

[Logo]

It looks like they got very close to the foreground object and in cases like that it is actually relatively easy to get the same effects. Maybe it is just me but this may be the general misunderstanding about depth of field. DOF on this camera looks set at a certain size, and it simply moves back and forth.

Maybe this is the best way to describe it. Let's say we are using a APS-C camera, with a 55mm lens, the subject I am taking a photo of is 10m away. Now at f-stop 1.4 everything between 9m and 11m away from me will be acceptably sharp and will appear in focus. Now that gives me a range of about 2m that will appear in focus. I take the exact same setup and simply change to f-stop 22 and now everything from about 4m away will appear in focus giving me an infinite range. Change the f-stop again to let's say 9 and now everything between about 6m and 24m will appear in focus giving me a range of about 18m.

The point I am trying to make is that depth of field is a sliding scale in front and behind the actual object you are trying to photograph and the "depth" of the dof is controlled through f-stops. This camera with the examples given and the software demonstrated has a set "depth" of field and that is simply moved back and forth.

Good idea, technically excellent, but at this point in time it will not replace standard photography practices.

 

[ponder]

That guys (Ren Ng) dissertation is very interesting. It's not only focus that is affected positively but also DOF, noise & low light performance.
http://www.lytro.com/renng-thesis.pdf

 

[mfumbesi]

Sound like fun.
It won't take business away from the pros thou.
You see photography is also an art, composition, framing, etc. You still need to know what you're doing.