A Start-Up’s Camera Lets You Take Shots First and Focus Later
on June 23rd, 2011 at 9:49 AM
A new Camera that was announced today by Lytro, Inc stated that they have developed a new technology that will allow you to focus your shot after the image has been taken.
Lytro’s announcement of their new camera
Looking over the information it would seem that there is a lot of things that are taking place with this focusing camera. With the special sensor called a microlens array, which puts the equivalent of many lenses into a small space it creates a large DOF. After you have taken the image you can then choose where you would like to have the image to appear to be out of focus.
Things that are known:
1. It’s impossible to take a out of focus image and sharpen it in post
2. It is possible to take a focused image and make it appear to be out of focus, with the use of filters, in post
It would appear that this is some new from of technology and that this is a break through. But from how it is being presented, it would seem more to the fact that the Camera is essentially taking an image with a very large DOF and then using a internal algorithm to create the illusion of changing the focus point.
So what dose all this mean. Well for the professional photographer it would be nothing new to them that they do with their normal camera. But for the a person that is taking photographs for the first time or just or family outing. I can see how this would be a great ideal to make sure that you can get what you are doing every time.
But in the end, I am interested in understanding on how they are able to do this. If it is innovative as they are claiming, it will have a huge impact in our society. Look forward and seeing how this all plays out.