Lytro Light Field Camera

[Kooldinesh]

Lytro is a revolutionary product which gives an entire new look to your photography practice. This is the first time many of you are seeing the product which does not creates interest in first look. If you read further and learned about the product features surely you are going to love it. Lytro is a digital camera which is designed on Light Field Camera Technology. I will explain how does Light Field Technology helps Lytro to become a better or different camera than others. This is something very interesting to read. Assuming the traditional way of taking picture you go in market and purchase a mid range digital camera with offering you a compact size , high definition recording, better frame rate, etc. This is what all we look for. I am not talking about professional photographers who spend a huge amount in buying top quality cameras. This is for those who wants a good camera on vacation or for personal use. Here Lytro does not compete anyone is design or looks, but this camera offers you a kind of more clear picture taken from every angle. In simple way you can zoom every part of picture and get a clear output. For example, in a photo taken in crowd you can see clarity only on the focus part while other area of the image is blurry or out of zoom. The reason is that most of the digital camera just works hard to give you the photo of what you are taking not the extra part around that. But Lytro has a kind of extra ability to deal with the issue. You can not only get a clear view of each part of image but you can adjust the zoom and make settings as you want.

There might be some line that will be confusing above, but just keep reading below. You will get more clear idea. Lytro works with light capture technology. It captures the Light Fields which helps the camera to take the best clear picture. You cannot imagine how useful this can be. This is a kind of revolutionary technology. What Lytro can offer you is a best image quality and performance. A very small long rectangular tube shape camera looks entirely different can just be in your pocket. Just have a look on the image below. There are some images which can give you clear idea about the looks of this camera. It is worth to talk about the intelligent design. You might be wondering that does it is possible to get better picture quality in this but this camera does not support video recording. It is built specially for high quality picture quality. The design of camera looks like a long rectangular box which mostly makes me feel that you are looking out from some tube. A wide lens on the front side and mini screen on the back gives you basic controls to get the pictures properly. It is equipped with sensors to control zoom and tap pictures. The camera is capable of capturing the light field. It doesn't matter on which part the light travels. So from every point you can have a clear image. After or while taking a picture you can focus or re-focus any part you want. The important thing to consider here is the image quality of this camera. It can be said that this is one of the first product which come with the new Light Field stuff. In comparison to typical camera, Lytro capture the light field. Typical camera measures the color and intensity. Lytro does a bit more than that. It measures the light direction. It just creates an environment of 3D scene. That means it does not matter where the light travels, Lytro can focus on more clarity. The camera then captures the light and codes them to an image.

The best point of this kind of camera that it makes the picture more flexible to capture. The ability to focus on the current scene is awesome and gives you the best shot. Here you do not need to make any adjustment. Just tap zoom in and capture. Check the images, elements around the image area, those will be clear enough. Other than this the camera also lets you to clear on the part of image which you want by zooming it.

Features :

• Small Design making it very easy to carry and capture everyday pictures
• 8X optical zoom lens with a constant f/2 aperture
• Multi Touch screen and gravity shutter button. Designed with Aluminum skin
• Capture image fast with Light field technology translates
• Work on the lowest light settings.
• Upto 16GB Internal Storage.
• Easy USB plug to share your pictures. (MAC)

Price : There are three series in the camera range. There is no major difference except the storage and color. Other than everything is common.

• Lytro Red Hot - 750 Pictures - 16GB for $499
• Lytro Graphite - 350 Pictures - 8GB for $399
• Lytro Electric Blue - - 350 Pictures - 8GB for $399

Specification :

• Storage Type - Internal flash drive.
• Technology - Lytro Light Field Sensor and Lytro Light Field Engine 1.0.
• Lens - 8x optical zoom; Constant f/2 lens.
• Control - Power button: Shutter button; Zoom slider; Touchscreen.
• Display - 1.46 in | 33 mm back-lit LCD display with glass touchscreen.
• Exposure - Tap on touchscreen to set exposure.
• Battery - Long-life Li-Ion internal battery.
• File Output - Light field picture file (.lfp).
• Light Field Resolution - 11 Megarays: the number of light rays captured by the light field sensor.
• Software - Includes a free desktop application for importing, processing and interacting with living pictures from the camera. It is built for Mac OS and requires Mac OS
• 10.6.6 or higher. A Windows application is in development.
• Picture Output - Produces HD-quality interactive, living pictures.
• Picture Storage - Free storage for living pictures on Lytro.com, subject to the Terms of Use. (Internet access required)
• Picture Viewing - View and interact with living pictures on the Lytro camera as well as any internet-connected computer, smartphone or tablet supported.
• Light Field Engine - Version 1.0. This is the software that processes light fields to produce interactive pictures. Keep watching this space!
• Shell - Ultra-light anodized aluminum structural skin.
• Grip - Silicone Rubber.
• E-waste - RoHS certified.
• Weight - 7.55 oz | 214 g
• Dimensions - 1.61 in x 1.61 in x 4.41 in | 41 mm x 41 mm x 112 mm
• Included - Lytro Light Field Camera; Lens cap; Cleaner Cloth; Wrist Strap; 3.28 ft | 1 m Micro-USB cable for data transfer and charging.
• Optional Accessories - Fast charger; Replacement lens cap. (Separate purchase required)

[Kooldinesh]

Lytro Camera Design

Talking about the design the model is never seen before. It does not really looks like a camera. Looks like a toy to magnify something or more like a compact telescope. Around a 4.41" long camera gives you clearer look of the screen. The LCD on the end side is enough to see what is in focus and capture the part you want. The camera has rubber grip at the end and made of anodized aluminum shell. Equipped with maximum 16GB storage there is no choice for upgrades. The colors are quiet fine among models which has only 3 variation mentioned above below Price. There are very less controls in the camera. This not only reduces the confusion, but some feature we are never going to use. The controls in Lytro are to the point and do not needed to learn thoroughly. With minimal settings you can capture best images. The camera is easy to handle, and the way to take picture is quiet easy. The camera has more friendly design and you get option to hold the same more steadily in your hand. The tap button which is for capturing the image has a small tap sensor on top which can move the camera to bit lower. It has tough body and a wide lens on the front side. The screen on the end has minimal controls. So that is not going to really add some special benefit, but avoid getting from getting confused.

Lytro also makes some tradeoffs to get such an attractive product, and in doing so sacrifices some of the camera’s usability. Take the zoom control, for instance: atop the camera are a series of raised touch-sensitive bumps, and you slide your finger along them to zoom in and out. It’s nice that it blends into the camera, but it’s not a good solution — it’s hard to avoid since you don’t know where it is until you touch it. Also, zooming all the way in takes about five swipes along the pads (and thus a long time to zoom), and it can be overly sensitive, reacting even when you brush it slightly and unintentionally. The hidden power and shutter buttons are both soft, with a nice travel and soft response, though the power button can be hard to find unless you look for it. Other than those controls and a Micro USB port that’s hidden by a rubber flap, nothing mars the Lytro’s good looks.

Light Field Camera Technology

To understand how Lytro works differently in comparison to other digital camera you must understand what actually Light Field Camera Technology is. We just know about of the fps or pixel quality on which we determine what camera to buy. The higher the pixel means the bigger and clear the picture will be. On the other hand you get auto focus or light correction support which fixes some of your common picture bugs. The story for Lytro is entirely different. Instead of autofocus of playing with the light correction stuff, Lytro capture the light field. Lytro is digital camera whose images can subsequently focus on different objects. It is like shoot first, and then focus. That is, you could decide later whether the foreground or background is clearly visible - and would have no more blurry images. That is to be captured by using a special lens with a large number of micro-lenses as many rays of light. It is as if you squeeze a lot of individual cameras in a device. Specially designed software that allows then to compose the bulk of image information from several images with different focal planes. In the resolution which is used in Lytro does not speak in the megapixel form. It can give you picture quality of 11 Megarays which means eleven million captured light rays. The light-field photography has long been known. No one took them but so far in the consumer market, although reportedly some more established camera manufacturers conducted research in this direction. Photo experts reported so far suggests that the new functionality can be at the expense of resolution.

The concept of the optical field is a means by any source of light rays of different intensity and color, filling the space in a different direction. Modern digital cameras simply collect all the rays and produce a given amount of color and intensity for each unit of the image. Lattice microlenses and optical-field matrix collecting the full range of colors, with all its intensity of the 11 million rays of light. All this information is proprietary processing software algorithms and goes on display for future work with the image. It should be noted that earlier, to obtain images of the class, it was necessary to use the dozens of professional cameras that are connected to a device with professional software.

Lytro Camera Basics

Lytro Camera User Manual


Conclusion:

The Lytro cameras look the same as we know cameras, more like long-drawn-edged flashlight with the lens on one side and a small touch-screen on the other side. Lytro stressed than the speed advantage: Because the camera does not need to focus until she was ready to go. The number of buttons has been reduced radically: The Lytro cameras only need a trigger and a slider for the zoom. The camera exclusively only offers you high quality image support. A kind of 4D images. But it lacks in video and common file output. I hope there will be a way supported by the camera to export images in the most common format you can. As for the new technology I do not found this too costly. As an exclusive product there might be some time needed to get more developed version. Anyhow the camera looks best in its features and quality. I was hoping a bit bigger design where you are used to traditional digital camera. Where you have a wide screen on the back and small lens on the front. Breaking that habit it can become a bit inconvenient to use this at start.

But all in all this can be useful for the image lovers who need clear images from every part. The digital screen at the end is quiet small. I am not able to figure out if you are planning to get a full size image clear from every part, you have to keep tapping the every part but that thing can be overcome by dragging the image left right. The file generated in the camera is .lfp. Now this can be read in the software provided with the camera which is available for MAC only. For Windows you might need to wait for sometime. I hope you can find some lfp reader on web. There are issues related to translation of image to popular formats like jpegs which kills the image quality. All in all it is a great product, but it lacks cross compatibility and app support. Unlike traditional camera, the Lytro Light Field Camera with its distinctive design, brings a great innovation because it captures all the light rays from a scene in one shot (colors, intensities and directions of rays light). The technology of shooting four dimensions, thereby enabling a focus after taking the photo. One can explore a picture like never before.