A new camera from Lytro (www.lytro.com) has the technology to change the way people take and experience pictures. Lytro's light field cameras catch all the rays of light in a scene. That's 11 million light rays of data or 11 megarays. Lytro cameras have only two buttons — power and shutter. Just aim, press the button and the camera's light field sensor collects the color, intensity and the direction of every light ray flowing into the camera, capturing a scene in four dimensions. Lytro cameras contain a light field engine that allows camera owners to focus and refocus pictures directly on the camera in HD quality. When Lytro pictures are shared online, the light field engine travels with each picture so anyone can interact with them on nearly any device, including web browsers, mobile phones and tablets. Image after image may be captured with the Lytro camera because there's no need to focus, so no shutter delay. By using all of the available light in a scene, the Lytro performs well in low-light environments without the need for a flash.
The Lytro light field camera is based on the award winning Stanford University doctoral dissertation of Lytro's CEO and Founder, Dr. Ren Ng. While concepts related to the light field and computational photography have been researched in academic circles for more than a century, Dr. Ng’s dissertation focused on miniaturizing light field technology into the body of a single camera to make it practical for everyday use.
Initially, Lytro's software that exports the photos to standard images will only work with Mac computers, but a PC version will be offered next year. The pocket-sized aluminum tube-shaped camera offers an 8x optical zoom and f/2 lens. It's available in two models, 8GB and 16GB, storing 350 and 750 pictures respectively. The 8GB version comes in blue or grey for $399 and 16GB is red and retails for $499. All models may be ordered now at the Lytro website for delivery only to US addresses in 2012. To understand what's possible with Lytro images explore the refocusing feature through a demonstration of living pictures within the Lytro Gallery at www.lytro.com/living-pictures.
