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Lytro introduces world's first light field camera: f/2 lens, $399, ships early 2012
Ready for the world's first consumer light field camera -- you know, the spiffy kind that can infinitely focus? After demoing the tech earlier this year, Lytro's unveiled the world's first shipping product -- a little something it calls the Lytro camera. Within the anodized aluminum frame, the consumer-friendly camera totes an f/2, 8x zoom lens which utilizes an 11-mega-ray light-field to power all that infinite focus magic. It's instant-on and the rubber back-end wields only two physical buttons: one for shutter and the other for power. The company's added the ability to change the focus on-camera, a task accomplished via its touchscreen glass display. It'll ship in two versions: the $399 8GB flavor can hold 350 pictures, and comes in graphite or blue, followed by a $499 16GB model, which sports an electric-red finish and stores up to 750 images. Pre-orders go live at Lytro's website today, and will ship in early 2012 on a first-come first-serve basis. Our hands-on impressions are here, with PR and sample images after the break.%Gallery-137041%%Gallery-137039%%Gallery-137017%
Lytro's light field camera captures 'unprecedented' images, lets you choose focus later
A Silicon Valley start-up called Lytro claims it's working on a consumer camera that uses light field technology to radically change the way we take, edit and experience photographs. Whereas a normal digital camera captures a snapshot of light hitting a sensor, a light field camera first separates rays of light in order to individually record their color, intensity and direction. This extra information opens up a world of possibilities, including the ability to focus on any depth of field within a taken photo, observe a 3D-type effect even without specs, and boost images taken in extremely low light. Although light field cameras have been around for some time, they haven't been commercially viable. Now though, Lytro has secured backing worth $50million to bring a "competitively priced" camera to market "later this year" -- we'll see if they can beat similar plenoptic technology from Adobe to market. Can't wait that long? Check out the interactive photo (click on Elvis to re-focus) after the break, plus a video that also shows off the 3D effect. Both are the definition of mind-blowing.
