very nice piece of technology. 3d movies that focus on viewer’s eye movement as someone suggested (imax would go nuts), combining with other lenses (e.g. dslr like, telescopes) for extra zoom, increasing the number of megarays to make it possible to save at least full-hd (1920×1080) jpeg, all-in focus. i’m imagining satellites taking pictures of space and being able to zoom and focus with lytro. wow! can’t wait to get my hands on any of the future releases

I HAVE A PROBLE WITH MY PRINTER ON A NETWORK THAT IS NOT PRINTING BOTH FRONT BACK PAGES AUTOMATICALLY UNLESS IT IS MANUALLY SELECTED

Heya i’m for the first time here. I came across this board and I in finding It really useful & it helped me out much. I am hoping to offer something back and help others such as you aided me.

My home internet is sometimes unreliable. If I’m not connected to the internet, is there no way to view the pictures on my computer?

Is there a raw image format so that we can take full advantage of the light field? And is the image captured as a set of discrete ‘layers’ or is it continuous? The image viewer on your website seems to suggest that the images are layered and you cannot focus on arbitrary Z-planes, only a small number of specific planes.

fantastic put up, very informative. I’m wondering why the other specialists of this sector don’t notice this. You should proceed your writing. I am confident, you have a great readers’ base already!

If I purchase the camera under my account, can I still give it away as a gift and let another person use it under their account, or is the camera tied to my account?

Resolution seems like a real challenge for this technology. HD is fine for web, screen, and 3×5 prints, but it’s not good for cropping, zooming, and high resolution printing. Could a Lytro photo be used for the cover of Time magazine?

I’m very excited about the photo editing possibilities. Being able to apply an image effect according to light vectors is insanely cool. Imagine brightening parts of the image that are between 3 and 5 meters from the camera… Or to remove the background with one click… Even with normal 2-D editing, it’d be great to be able to use the vector information to select regions.

When will the camera be available? What is the price range going to be?

I am so excited for this camera and cannot wait to use it for my wedding photos next year! PLEASE make it affordable for the average consumer. If it cost over a few hundred, I’m screwed. =(

What sort of battery will the camera use? (I cannot receive lithium ion batteries.)

If you want everything in focus or out of focus can you select multiple focus points?

i am working as an IT consultant in pharmaceutical industry

one problem is scanning histological slides… can one scan these with the lytro technology and then use the focus thing…

the concern i have is that these slide are thin and you would have to take the pictrue through a microscope would that be possible?

Will you support Linux for the software (to refocus) to export/save the images from the camera? Will it be published under a free license like the GPL?

I can’t watch the photos on firefox 5.01 what kind of configuration must have firefox to play this photos?

does your system work with creating panoramic photographs? that is what i do (for fun).

I-) ihor

I’m interested to see a video version of this implemented with an eye-tracking device…. Add 3D and you’ve pretty much got content that delivers human eyesight. Doing that with HD footage has got to be a ton of data, though, and the algorithm for managing the focus so that you don’t get people sick’ll be somewhat tricky, though.

Hi there, very innovative technology! Will it be possible to invest in your company as a privat person?

OK love the idea, so will the camera be a compact, any zoom and when do I get it in England? Can I get one shipped?

Hi there.

There is a question thats burning my mind. Will it theoretically be possible to expose images different through the Z-Axis? Will the sensor (maybe later in development) also be capable of recording the polarization?
I do action sport photography and currently one big important point is: Winning the fight against the enviroment light at sync-speed to get a crisp, fast moving object exposed by off-cam flashes the way I want, not the sun… I sadly was never able to move. ;-)
So my hope is: controlling the exposure in depth to get rid of the flashes.
The other thing is controlling the exposure by polarization to shift the light intense between light sources.
I think these things are all post-process related but with the recorded information archivable.
Im looking forward to your answer… and still so excited about your work for one of the most important things in the world: Frozen visual impressions. Several thousand years old and still evolving! Thank you!

Since this technology behaves in low light conditions?

How does this type of camera with technology, with a powerful zoom:

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=71

Hey there,

I just stumbled upon this concept and I’m very intrigued. I think the concept has much greater benefits for videography than photography for two reasons:
- You mention HD resolution in the FAQ. If that means you’re around 1080p you’ve got enough pixels to compete with cam corders, iphones and DSLRs resolution wise.
- The number of shots that get thrown away due to OOF problems is much greater in videography than photography. Unless you’re in a controlled environment with someone experienced with focus pull it’s almost impossible to get a high percentage usable footy. To be able to fix focus problems in post (for the average consumer fully automatically, for pros by tracking objects) would simply be amazing.

Excited to follow this company and technology.

Cheers,
Marcus

Will it be available in Canada? More specifically will it be available in the Toronto area?

I am a stroke survivor and it affected my right half of my body causing me to function and adapt to now being left handed. It took me several years to embark on Photography as a way to help me with my rehabilitation as the motivation to getting me out the door for my rehab walks. I am still in rehab in Palo Alto and live in Sunnyvale. I have a balance challenges and it makes focusing a challenge, the heart of your technology solution. This is why I very interested with your technology in how it can be adapted to disabled and older/senior citizen who share the same passion for Photography as me and would love to not have to deal with blurred images or focus issues.

Prior to my stroke I am was in Product development for a storage company in the valley. Is there a beta program where your company maybe examine a different camera paradigm for the disabled? Not knowing the form, fit, and functions of the camera (BTW, I signup to reserve a camera,) I am wondering if your company is willing to work with disabled, or senior citizens who have balance challenges, so that we can also benefit from such a promising technology?

I believe the creativity that photography has provided me has helped me with my rehab in several ways. First, it has made rehab a pleasure and not boring. Secondly, It got me out the door to take photographs rather than drag my feet or be defeated and I have to convince myself that a boring routine is beneficial. The trick is doing this for years on end. Thirdly, it gave me the personal photo images to work on post processing work to stimulate my brain. My hope is the third reason will hopefully establish new neurons in my brain to continue progress over extended of time. My goal is to be a contributor to my community and be more independent. If you are looking for beta sites for the disabled demographics I am willing to participate and provide firsthand feedback….Michael

This sounds incredibly cool. So far the demo images found on your site have only two or three focal planes and appear to be simulations and not actual final images. I’d be interested to actually be able to play with a genuine image and not a Flash simulation. I’m also curious as to what this process does to file sizes?

Waiting with baited breath for more info about camera models and specifications!

I trust you’re gonna shop this to CANON before NIKON… Nikon didn’t do very well marketing their projection camera two years ago – which was supposed to be huge by now..

Good luck. Take it on that Sharks TV show!

I take it this is for the average consumer and not the pro market. I did not read through all the questions but does your camera shoot RAW and what is the file size. This sounds like an interesting concept. I hope Canon comes out with something like this someday. Can you license your technology to camera manufactures. Please post a picture of your camera.

Great idea, excellent way to make life easier and high tech!
I want to give a hand to your project.
Will you release shares? How about small invest?

This really is a wonderful write-up. Thanks a lot for taking a few minutes to describe all this out for us. It really is a great help!

Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a bit, but other than that, this is great blog. A fantastic read. I’ll certainly be back.

This is a splendid write-up. Many thanks for spending some time to summarize all of this out for us. It’s a great help!

I’m interested in the camera’s applicability to sports, action, and wildlife photography.

The gallery shows one photo with a skateboarder captured in air which give me hope but I still have a few questions:

Will the camera have the ability to take rapid bursts of shots?

What kind of zoom range will the camera have?

Will cropping be limited (as compared to traditional photos)?

Will the software allow me to choose a preferred focus and output a standard (ie JPEG) format traditional photo?

Very exciting concept. I look forward to learning more about it.

I just needed to say this is an awesome blog, thank you for your post!

I’d like to purchase this camera when available.

Good stuff on here, is there a feed?

Greetings, I was just browsing some sites and I stumbled to your page from yahoo. I read some of your posts and thought they are nicely written. Thank you, I will stop by your homepage soon.

Looking at the demo pics on a large (30 inch) monitor, it seems to me that there are still depth of field issues. Objects that are very close to the lens do snap into focus, but objects that are furthest from the lens are not sharp. Or is this just all some artifact from how you’ve done the web pages?

Hi, I would like to be your distributor in Poland.

Regards
Peter

I can contact korea smartphone maker, like samsung, LG.
I want to lanching this at korea.

Lots of fun. None of the photos online in the picture gallery are above a modest consumer-grade quality when looked at full-screen on a high-quality calibrated monitor. And they don’t need to be better if the massive snapshot market is the target.

There is only a hint of what the picture files are like so far. It’s not possible to tell if the technology will be useful if maximum depth of field rather than amateurish (food photographers would disagree with that term) shallow depth of field is sought in an image. There is no indication how much resolution one is dealing with, which greatly affects the quality of the information captured and how an image can be used. Not even an indication of the file size involved, though I am guessing it is not too high given what is seen in the picture gallery. There is no indication as to whether or not the images (the file format) can be processed (corrected and edited) with standard available software–another factor in how readily images can be used for various purposes.

But this thing already does way better than the output of the first digital cameras to arrive on the consumer market, and sales from those first cameras to the public helped support the development of the higher-end, higher-capability digital cameras available today and the software used to refine their output.

Not being interested in smallish files and shallow depth of field, and not knowing if the files can be edited, I’ll wait for more information or more development of the technology before I become a candidate for purchase or before I advise the photographers working with me to consider it. In the meantime, I hope the roll-out goes smoothly and that you sell many millions to the consumer market.

I am a notoriously bad photographer and this seems like the camera of my dreams.

Have you worked out anything with Adobe, as far as using Photoshop or After Effects to retouch or animate a Lytro file?

I cannot believe such an amazing technology! I am extremely interested in your camera, and It will be great honor if I can have a chance review or preview before it released.
I also informed it on our camera equipment community in Korea (SLRclub), and they will definitely welcome to more information or new updates.
Best wishes, Dy

OK.
I have been working in the photo retail industry for 8+ years and I have seen every type of user level for cameras in those 8 years. I am also a photographer with 10+ years experience, and I shoot professionally. Here are my positive and negative thoughts on the Lytro.

Positive:
- It will be GREAT for those people (parents, casual picture takers) who insist on a camera with less lag time. (Although, part of the lag time had to deal with the live view screen and the software in the camera that has to switch the camera from pre-record mode to capture mode. It’s not all the auto focusing mechanism.) People, this is why your cheap 79.99 camera is such a disappointment. You are literally getting what you pay for.
- If the point of why you’re photographing is not in focus, and you want to fix it, you can. That’s great.
- This camera will be very marketable for either people who want effortless photography (super entry level users) or photo enthusiasts who want a fun toy to play with.

Negative:
- You’re taking a lot of the skill and effort out of photography. Pros and advanced users may not see the point of paying what I’m assuming will be a 350-500 price point this camera might have. I understand a lot of science and research has been put into this project and kudos to that, and that it IS revolutionizing digital imaging.

- Selective “focusing”. Isn’t that similar to shallow DoF? Some people like it and cherish it and hold on to that concept for dear life. At least if you’re doing some shallow DoF work with this camera, it better have some good Bokeh.

- PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE – whatever you do, DO NOT promise to the consumer that this camera will give you the sun, moon and stars. No camera can do that. Customers come in every day after seeing Ashton Kutcher on TV and think that the latest touch screen camera is THAT easy and fun and perfect — and it can be a fun toy, but you have to handle it with kid gloves practically. It is not for everyone.

Definitely useful article that you’ve in this particular site. I personally think that the post is very insightful, unique, and forgetting the fact that I’ve benefitted tons from it. Carry on to help keep the great posts coming in… Will certainly be back again for more in the near future!

I would love to be a real world tester for you.

Do you plan to license the technology to third parties or you keep it to yourselves with a launch of Lytro brand?

Focus stacking requiring multiple images means that everything would need to stay still for every shot then stack them. in a busy street this would be hard to achieve. thats why this camera will shine when its used in that situation.

In all seriousness and with respect to your creation: “Tell me why I should continue to be a professional photographer?” As soon as this camera becomes common and is integrated into mobile phone cameras as well as iPad and the like–why should I continue to expect to get paid for my professional skills? I’m all for progressing and competing industries as society and it’s technologies evolve-but this truly concerns me.

3

Dear,
Everytime i put my mail address, i’m being channeled to another webpage with message “The resource you are looking for cannot be opened by your browser”
Can you please advise
MAK

i think that this product will still follow the standard marketing procedures, like lytros for kids, adults on the go, professional ones and extra features in the future releases… if lytro just release it one-time big time, then there’s not much profitability for all in the coming years/generation…. so, it’s safe to expect less from the first few releases….

I love what you have planned. I’m working through a professional photography program right now and I would gladly test your camera for you :)
I really can’t wait for this to come out, it seems amazing

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Am interested in investment opportunities as well as your camera.

I think the answer to most peoples questions are on their web site if you read it carefully.

1. You can’t buy stock in the company at this time. They have plenty of money invested from venture capitalists.
2. They did not forget to post a picture of the camera, announce the price or resolution, but presumably will do so before you can actually buy a camera. They did say they are aiming it at the consumer market so I would guess it will be in the $100-$400 range or so.
3. Will it be available for professional cameras, videos, smart phones, etc.? Most manufactures of anything start with one model. If it’s successful, they will come out with more models.
4. Seriously, do you really think they are going to send you a camera to test it out for them because you’ve posted on this blog? They have already garnered plenty of interest, and once the camera is available to the public, you’ll start seeing plenty of the photos on line. Go ahead and sign up for the camera. It doesn’t cost anything to sign up and there’s no commitment to make a purchase.

I doubt the initial model will replace my Nikon, but there will be situations where it will work better, such as photographing kids running around when the light is not bright. That’s a situation where it’s particularly difficult to focus.

When you are ready to use an easy-to-remember number like 877-MY-LYTRO please contact us.

When are you going public? How soon? ‘Interested in purchasing stock in your company. Please let me know asap.

I’ve looked everywhere but i can not find a photo of this camera, i mean i want to see what it looks like. Is it available yet to see on a picture?

Thanks.

Truly game-changing development – kudos.

Will be interesting to see the software backend and the abillity to Photoshop/otherwise manipulate after download (color correction, etc.), as well as the impact on typical processing techniques such as unsharp-masking. Except for color correction, I almost wonder if this will make Photoshop obsolete…

Also: I presume the image can be exported to .jpg or some such conventional format at a selected focus setting?

Another also: Will it be possible to exaggerate or minimize depth of field with this technology, after the fact? It seems like it should be possible…

Truly fascinating…

“Immersive 3D: Using the full light field, Lytro cameras will allow you to easily switch between 2D and 3D views or shift the perspective of the scene.”

I would be very cautious with this claim. A scene’s “perspective” is determined by the distance of the camera from the subject. I know of no way to alter it after the fact.

If you can do this, you should post an example.

How many incremental focusing levels are there? In viewing the Picture Gallery I seem to be able to see only three. For instance, in the picture “The King lives on in the streets of San Francisco”, I can grasp and resolve a) the Elvis figures, b) the red car and c) the silver car….but nothing in the background. Same thing for “Fields of Fuscia”.

How do the specs of your camera compare to the German-made Raytrix R11 (http://raytrix.de/index.php/r11.185.html)? I hope your version is no where near their $30,000 price tag.

What are the implications for astronomical observations?

SORRY HAVE INCLUDED RIGHT e-mail (.au) THIS TIME – PLEASE SEE ABOVE COMMENT

Hi,

I can’t subscribe to your “reserve one” newsletter, it’s telling me my address was already on the list despite this is a first-time visit.

Can you add my address manually, please? Thanks.

Can’t wait to own one!

Thanks a lot! You just made all the world’s existing photos boring…

Will it be able to shoot video?

does lytro sell camera?or just sell technology to camera producer?i’m personally interested in your technology very much,if you sell the camera,i prefer to buy one if the price is acceptable :)

The PRICE will be amazingly LOW, because the amount of hardware is limited, it is rather a pinhole with electronics and the actual focusing is done later in post processing.

OK I’m guessing this, but it only makes sense. But I can tell you this is not going to replace any Pro Series cameras, it’s a software manipulation, it will be FUN, not profitable to use.

Will there be a RAW format that lets the user get to all of the source of the images? People might think of uses you may not have anticipated.

For example one of the problems of some of the HDR attempts is that they just gave us a tonemapped image rather than giving us access to the true floating point data which would have been much more useful.

heh…this is really something else !!

* sign me up for one *

i don’t care if this camera is 800 U.S. dollars…i gotta have me one !!

* just got back from taking pictures in china…would have been nice to have this camera a few weeks ago *

Couple questions:

1) Will we some day be able to use a custom defocus kernel for special effects such as the Anamorphic lens bokeh?

example:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_L491wD8STZc/TFJUgySa-yI/AAAAAAAAAbU/LKiOBDc9JR4/s1600/Bringing_Out_the_Dead.jpg

2) Can we super-defocus images? i.e.can we shoot with the equivalent of like an F 0.2 for the macro photography look without using a tilt-shift?

Example:
http://media.smashingmagazine.com/images/tilt-shift-photography/bus.jpg

Thanks!
Gavin Greenwalt

I’ve been experimenting with these type of images since hearing of the research at Stanford. Will the image file format be documented in some manner? I’d like to be able to extract depth fields, and do things like focus on skewed planes.

Doing this in a single exposure instead of having to move a camera through a lot of view points, then aligning the images, would be a real improvement to the way I’ve been doing it. 8)

Keep up the good work, Ren!

You need a rep in Texas?

Will the file format be published ?
Will there be an API / SDK available to application developers ?

WHERE R U? THIS COMMENT POSTED TIME IS 5 HRS. AHEAD OF CST//USA!

I am seeing some inconsistent picture quality among the sample shots, I am guessing that this depends on different pre-production models being in rotation among your test users, I will point to a few examples.

http://www.lytro.com/pictures/lyt-12 When having the foreground out of focus linear artifacts appear.
http://www.lytro.com/pictures/lyt-31 The entire image seem to have artifacts like a canvas pattern, and the center leaf gets a pruple corona.
http://www.lytro.com/pictures/lyt-11 This one has both effects hints of both previous mentioned effects.
http://www.lytro.com/pictures/lyt-18 Grainy even with daylight entering from the window.
http://www.lytro.com/pictures/lyt-28 Some motion blur even with light pouring in from the windows.

This is not hate, I’m just curious of what we can expect from the final production camera :) And of course concerned about it being a high quality device when it ships! I want this product to be very successful :3

I’m going to take a wild guess about how the Living Pictures demos are created. There are three or four images in there, all created from the same Light Field data, and a depth map that says which image to focus on for which spot on the screen. Why not just provide simple sliders to change focus and depth of field at will? My guess – the computation time is nontrivial and that would be slow as hell.

The thesis also talks about variable depth of field and focal length within one rendered image, so I presume such nifty tricks as tilt shift photography will be available, too. It’s really just a matter of what the software writers (and third party vendors, let’s not forget) decide to provide for us.

Thrilled. Beyond thrilled. Amazed and stunned. Thank you!!!

Hi,

I am starting a doctoral degree based on new ideas about photography (PhD in Visual Arts – with a specialization in Arts, Science and Technology). I am not working on technical concepts, but more on the full understanding of what “photography” truly means. This is not the place to develop any concepts in more detail, but allow me to say that that from the conceptual point of view I am working on compressing multiple space time occurrences to produce coherent images. Being able to focus the images (most of them registered at random) at a later point in time would be extremely interesting.
How can I contact you to discuss these ideas?

Is there any relation between this and the “Frankencamera” project?

Since that was a port for Nokia hardware, is there any possibility of this being ported to Android?

Can I purchase stock in Lytro and if so what is your trading symbol?

When will your company sell stock? I want in!

Really impressive!
About the impact on photography in the future I’m excited!

I believe the biggest question on everyone’s mind is “price range”. You say priced for the consumer…but what type of consumer is the question. Can you provide more details on price range and timing of deliverability? It is fabulous that you introduced this, but more information would be helpful to photographers like myself who are currently shopping for new equipment for their business now.
If all this works like you advertise I am totally in!!!
Thank you!
Tammy – Image Dynamix Photography

Couple questions:
1) Price range
2) Ship window
3) Interchangeable lenses or fixed
4)If fixed, comparison to standard 35mm lenses
5) I also am getting the error permission issue for the gallery/demo
6) What software is needed to manipulate the images
7) Are you going to use an HTML for display instead of Flash soon?(iPad/iPhone, etc)

I really like the idea of having a lytro camera. However, without any photos of the machine, even just a prototype, the website almost feels like a scam. It is a to-good-to-be-true story without evidence. Just show me the camera! :)

Douwe

Fascinating. The ability to select and manipulate the plane of focus is interesting and useful as long as you’re working with an image created with a very shallow depth of field, as your examples all appear to be. This is an important issue because we don’t always shoot this way. There are many situations where a small aperture (f/10-22) is employed to create greater focal depth that will render the entire scene in crisp focus.
Will the first Lytro cameras allow for long DOF shooting? Or will the software somehow allow the user to subsequently select the entire image area to be focused? How will it compare to / differ from long DOF images created with a normal DSLR?

Will it take long to incorporate this technology into video?

Hi,

is there any comparison to resolution of regular cameras? Is it possible to create printable photos with all areas sharp using photo editing software for example?

What is the significance of the company’s name?

Looks interesting I have 2 questions:

1. WHat type of lenses will be available?

2. THe photos in the gallery seem to have a limited DOF, will the software allow for adjustments, say soft focusing over the entire image?

Thanks

2 questions: can you give any information at this time as to resolution? dynamic range?

thank you

I can’t interact with the photos in the gallery.

Browser: Firefox 5.0
Flash: 10.2.153.1
OS: Mac OS X 10.6.7

Well, I don’t know if you can deliver what you promised, but calling what you promised exciting is an understatement!

Hello!

I’m a usability specialist and first of all I must say I love the way this feedback form works. Also, the font is beautiful. But this was not why I write you.

After reading about your camera, there’s only one problem that annoys me: another camera? I don’t want another camera. Even if it was as great as yours. I mean you should sell the technology to be used in cell phone cameras, iPads etc. I’m sure you’ve thought about this and I really do not know if it is even feasible. But I strongly feel that’s where there is a big market. Imagine if iPad’s cameras was a Lytro camera. You’d just tap the screen where you want focus…

Hi,

I’ve been following this technology for a long time now and I’d like to say congratulations for managing to bring it to market!

I have a lot of questions. I suspect you won’t be ready to give me answers to most of them just yet but I figure I don’t have much to lose by trying…

I’d like to know a lot more technical details: sensor size, aperture range, image resolution, ISO capabilities (with some low-light & high ISO example photos), camera features (manual mode?, max shutter speed) etc etc etc! I’m also interested to hear a lot more about the file format, bundled software, and workflow for “developing” light field photos. Is there likely to be eg Lightroom support in the future?

As you can probably tell I’m excited by the possibilities that your camera offers, though I’m guessing by the estimated price point that it isn’t going to replace my DSLR just yet. Is it technically possible to build a light field camera that has DSLR-like capabilities, including interchangeable lenses? If so, is this something you’re considering?

Many many thanks for any insight you’re willing and able to give to the above!

Kind regards,
Chris

The depth of field seems quite shallow, how will these cameras be for landscape photography?

What’s the price range on one of these babies? And what will it look like? I’m really not sure what to expect.

I WANT THIS!!!!! This camera could put the fun back into photography.

How is this an improvement over either using a small f-stop, say f/16, or focus stacking, using a program such as Zerene stacker? I am interested in extreme macro photography and will consider this product if you can provide the entire field of view in focus rather than selective areas, as in your flower images in the gallery