Lytro Light Field Camera preview
That’s right, Lytro has finally announced their new Light Field Camera. Likely the most unique looking camera we’ve ever seen, the Lytro will come in three color/memory configurations; Red Hot (16GB – 750 pictures), Graphite (8GB – 350 pictures), and Electric Blue (8GB – 350 pictures).
Some of the specs include:
- Unique rectangular body measures 1.61×1.61×4.41 inches
- Light Field Sensor; 11 Megarays
- Light Field Engine 1.0 processor
- 8x optical zoom lens
- Constant f/2.0 aperture
- Blazing fast speed thanks to no Autofocus
- 1.46-inch back-lit LCD screen
- Simple control layout; only uses Power and Shutter buttons, Zoom slide, and touchscreen LCD
- Li-ion battery with “long life”
The Lytro Camera is available for pre-order and will retail for $399 USD for the 8GB models (Graphite and Electric Blue) or $499 USD for the 16GB model (Red Hot).
Steves Digicams
Founded in 1997, Steve's Digicams was created by Steve Sanders to share his love and 35 years of experience in photography with the rest of the web. Our reviews are meant for everyone, ranging from first time digital camera users to seasoned photographers.
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September 12, 2012 at 2:21 pm, Gary Melton said:
Note the name of this article – it’s a preview, NOT a review. A PREview just hits the main features of a product that has not come out yet. A REview is when the product is already out (or at least models have been available for review) and covers it’s features/specs in more depth, as well as giving first hand feedback on it’s actual performance. This happens everytime that a PREview is posted…pay attention to the title of the article.
March 21, 2012 at 3:57 pm, Val NivoMedia Volfson said:
I think it is an interesting idea. People are always looking for fun new ways to capture images – not everyone is interested in learning photography to a point where they understand the histograms. This is going to do well in the teen market and in the “must have new tech” junkies and finally in the “something new”. To mock this device is to insult the very principles of technology advancement – its a new way to capture media and isn’t that what art is all about? I do agree that the price is a little high – they could have allowed to use of removable storage and not force everyone to purchase built in memory which drives the price up so high.
December 24, 2011 at 8:00 pm, Select Models said:
Seen images from it… TRUELY PATHETIC!… optics are seriously sub-standard… even low res point & shoot digi-cams from 10 years ago rival its image quality… 😛
December 24, 2011 at 7:44 pm, Elmo Love said:
Geez, at least have a link to Ren Ng’s doctoral thesis to give this some .edu cred!
It’s really cool. I wish they could have shaped it in a way a photographer might actually hold, rather than going for “OMG, what is that??”.
December 24, 2011 at 6:14 pm, Fred said:
Lytro in a technical paper stated that there is a 250 to 1 ratio from sensor pixels to output. They say the camera has 11 mega rays…. assuming that it’s there way of saying it has an 11 MP sensor that most likely means that the actual output file is really about 210×210 pixels that is then scaled up x2 for on screen display.
That is about what the quality looks like.
December 24, 2011 at 5:56 pm, Fred said:
The Lyro is a joke.
Stupidly low resolution, absolutely no optical sharpness.
Backgrounds actually can’t ever be truly in focus, just look at the examples.
The files look terrible on a computer screen and even worse when printed.
As for recommending a product that is not even in production yet from a start up company that has never been clear about the resolution of this camera.
They keep on talking about it having 11 mega rays….. I think they lifted that from a 50s sci-fi b-movie.
This is spam… Lytro spam and Steve’s Digicams Spam.
My recommendation is don’t buy this piece of junk.
Find someone who has bought one and try it out…. the gimmick of focusing after the fact is a little novelty that wears off really fast.
December 24, 2011 at 4:08 pm, Connor said:
Who gave the approval of this Ad in here? You have betrayed our trust. Do the right thing delete it immediately. 🙁
December 24, 2011 at 4:36 am, Afterglowimagery said:
It may be an ad but since you can buy a Canon s100 for $80 less than the 16 gig version and an s95 for $100 less than the 8 gig, I don’t think they’ll be selling many of these.
December 23, 2011 at 10:55 pm, Pauldempsey said:
This shouldn’t be allowed in the EDU section – it’s an advertisement.
December 23, 2011 at 5:01 pm, SimpsonShoots said:
Please can someone delete this blatant advert? If it were a review, that would be different.
December 23, 2011 at 9:43 am, ~Q~ said:
This is a pretty cool camera, it lets you change your depth of field after you’ve taken the picture.
December 23, 2011 at 4:58 am, Adam Sternberg said:
WTF is up with the title of this advertise….I mean “article”? Holiday gift idea? For which holiday is the OP referring to? Certainly not Christmas being that this “article” was posted just a few days before. The MM EDU section is such a trainwreck it’s not even funny.
December 23, 2011 at 4:20 am, Anonymous said:
No swing or shift. This is NOT a light field camera.
December 24, 2011 at 2:21 pm, Mputorti said:
doesnt look heavy and if you are in a field…
December 23, 2011 at 1:14 am, Thedefinitearticle said:
Just great to see spamming and free advertising masquerading as education
December 22, 2011 at 11:41 pm, Mike said:
This seems more as an advertisement than an education article
December 22, 2011 at 11:24 pm, Michael Clements said:
Looks like someone got some freebies. I have an idea… How about sending free ones out to all the wannabe self shot models here on MM, it should be a step up from their cell phone pics. Go Santa.
December 22, 2011 at 10:43 pm, Norm said:
Even when you focus on something, it still looks soft, first generation technology isn’t perfect, I’m more inclined to wait till the next couple generations have worked the kinks out. Go to the website & have a look at the images they have there & you can see.
December 23, 2011 at 7:39 pm, quattrone said:
Agree, I’ve noticed the same thing. None of the examples I’ve seen have looked sharp. Cant tell if its the camera or the presentation software. I’m not impressed with the examples though.
December 22, 2011 at 9:13 pm, ectarphoto.com said:
Strange technology… it kills all photography as art, brainless clicking and then refocusing!
Hey! Lets photograph everything in the world with this camera and all photographers will be out of work 🙂
BTW, if you want to have everything in focus 100% of the time, just go with 10mm wide angle lens, set aperture 16 set your lent to hyperfocal and enjoy brainless clicking same way 🙂
December 22, 2011 at 9:35 pm, Jvrsta said:
I find the technology to be quite fascinating. As things evolve we need to figure out how or if we can use it.
Your argument about killing photography as an art is nothing new. I would imagine there were cave painters who scoffed at the thought of switching to paper and pencil.
December 23, 2011 at 6:50 am, N.Grigalunus said:
To use that as an example for an opposing argument. You’re kidding right. I’ve seen this device, and read all the reviews. It’s not a ‘next generation’ camera. It’s someone,’s some company’s gimicky attempt to market an idea. As mentioned above from another poster, maybe five or six generations down, it might have practical use to the professional market. But in the here and now, it has as much use to a photographer as a child’s kaleidoscope.
December 24, 2011 at 12:06 am, Artschotz said:
That’a a good idea… put a sensor on a kaleidoscope!