Take the shot, then focus.

J

Jordan_S

Veteran
Using what is called a microlens array to allow far more light data from many angles than is possible with a conventional camera along with an image refocusing application, a company called Lytro plans to introduce a p+s camera that will allow the user to explore different focus points after an image is taken.

Link.
 
This is incredible, especially thinking about future possibilities in video. Here you can play around with stills and see how it works:

http://www.lytro.com/

I don't know if these are actual prototype stills or a fake gimmick to demo how it might be, but if it works like that it will open up fantastic possibilities.
 
sputnikslim said:
Right now, it appears to be only for still cameras, but Wow! look what it can do.
http://www.lytro.com/
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http://www.bythom.com/

So what's the hype here? After-the-fact focusing. What's the downside? Well, the prototype required a 16mp sensor array to produce a 90kp image. Some similar relationship is expected for a production camera. The good news is that using so many photosites per pixel (256 if I read the papers right) also means that a number of noise-related issues go away, The implications, however, are that we need one heck of a lot of megapixels to get large sized images. Their samples appear to be no more than 360kp images.
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In other words, the flexibility to focus later will cost you in image size in a big (heh) way.
 
I just thought it was an interesting tech advance with implications for the future. As with any new technology, this looks to be a possible good start. How would a video camera work with this advancement? Who knows where it will lead? They just got a $50 million funding boost so someone believes in what they are doing.
 
This is the future. I have been following this technology for a while.

In the next 20 years out "cameras" will be a box that suck in photons from the environment, ready to be rendered in any angle at any focal length we want. They will be cheap and every one will have it.
 
Jordan Scott Price said:
Hahahaha.
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I don't understand. How on earth did everything talked about on this website come to exist then? Oh wait, I've set the Wayback Machine to Bedrock. :) Let me try again.. "...you see Barney, there is this box and when you put it in front of someone and look in the tiny hole, they get very little and go inside of it.. but they don't stay there..only a little statue of them does..."
 
wgzn said:
technology: making skill and craftsmanship less important. one generation at a time.
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I bet in ~10 years "Refocus" is going to be another tab in ACR next to White Balance, Sharpening, Noise Reduction, etc.

And if you think about it, your comment could be (probably was!) made about all those parameters too.
 
It's useless if you can't change the deepness of the focus area and the bokeh too, at least if you use it to change the artistic look of the image. I mean, it can be usefull for event pictures where your subject moves out of the focus after you lock the focus, but I don't see how this is usefull for anything else than for pictures where you missed your focus. And missing fous should be pretty rare for everyone owning dslr.
 
Interesting, after watching that video, my question is...does Adobe know about the Lytro camera? Seems Lytro is way ahead as far as a practical application (selling a camera) is concerned.
 
Looks interesting, but I'm not convinced the examples provided are the real deal. Wouldn't they need software specific programming (like a plugin for PS) to utilise the depth refocussing, or to just plain get it to work?

WP.
 
I'll believe in the technology when I see it implemented in a camera. There are often interesting technologies that never get off the ground for one reason or another.
 
wgzn said:
technology: making skill and craftsmanship less important. one generation at a time.
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I disagree. Changing how the skilled perform their craft, almost certainly. Technology provides a crutch for the unskilled, but these are still just tools.

I have a pretty great camera, but I still make crappy films. :-)
 
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