New Living Pictures

Posted on by Lytro

We had a great time celebrating at our launch party on Wednesday night. This living picture features our own Tom Hanley, who spent much of the evening with a Lytro cocktail in one hand, while using the other to monitor our server capacity from his iPhone. (You might also recognize him from our video.)

We’ve loved the overwhelming response. Thank you! We know you are curious and have lots of questions. We’ve answered many in our FAQs. If you register to reserve a camera, you’ll get insider access to more details as we prepare to sell the first Lytro light field camera later this year.

For now, we invite you to play with and share new living pictures that were taken at the party.

View more pictures from the Lytro Launch Party.

  • http://www.bing.com/ Ladainian

    This “free sharing” of information seems too good to be true. Like comumsinm.

  • ihor

    may i topic drift, and ask for the recipe of the ‘lytro cocktail’?

    I-) ihor

  • BradC

    I have a question about picture quality, especially at higher resolutions:

    If you look at the “scary clown/crowd/protest sign” picture in the gallery, and focus and zoom in on the “Repent” sign, you see a lot of rectangular artifacts.

    Is this typical? Is this the kind of trade-off we are going to pay for this awesome new technology?

  • http://www.whenwillnewgamesrelease.com/ Augustus Kotheimer

    Good article, keep it up!

  • Vinay Bhardwaj

    I was attracted to this because of the name of your photography director. Can I assume, since Eric Cheng is involved, that you will have an underwater camera to sell in your product line? Also will you have any distributors in india. I look forward to purchasing one.

  • http://119.ru SVan

    It is a fake!

    The program uses six simple pictures. One of them is shown in focus and the rest blurred.

    The photo with two cats, I chose two points on the floor – one closer than the other. I clicked on one, then I clicked on another and … nothing! All pixels are not changed!

  • http://www.imageartsphoto.com William Feemster

    Very exciting!
    I am primarily a real estate photographer that uses HDR software to create my shots. My wishlist for a DSLR would be…
    Will there be a way to bracket the shutter speed? And preform that task in a quick automated way?
    A zoom lens in starting at the 14mm to 17mm mark and go up to the 24mm or 35mm mark would be great.
    An easy way to mount the camera in portrait or landscape orientation. It would be nice to be able to transition between a portrait shot to a landscape shot by rotating the sensor and not the hole camera lens assembly.
    I also shoot triathlons; will there be a 70mm to 200mm or 300mm lens available?
    And will there be a way to control the Depth of Field? Say capturing one athlete in a narrow DOF or several in a wider DOF (cause they are running together in a group as friends)?

    Looking forward to more news!!

    William Feemster

  • http://www.rosecityphotography.com Hal Harrison

    Thank you for your dedication to moving photography forward!
    I am looking forward to using this camera, and telling stories with it. Sequencing the focal point within a single image…or shooting movies with this camera would be stunning! The thing is, we could shoot a number of shots to move the focal point back and tell a story from a single scene, but time would become a factor…things would happen and change within a scene. This camera captures everything in the scene in one captured moment of time. Very powerful! Imagine a wedding where a girl is releasing butterflies as the bride and groom exit the church. The butterfly, the parents, the bride and groom would all be able to be in focus in sequence. You could not shoot that type of shot with any other camera.
    Hal
    http://www.rosecityphotography.com

  • Richard

    If this is truly taking a full light spectrum for the photo can you post some crazy infinite focus images, or maybe some 3D photos. I am really interested in this camera if it’s for real.

  • http://hatchphotoartistry.blogspot.com Eric Hatch

    The Lytro concept is both exciting and terrifying. Having read your dissertation, at least as much of it as my limited math could follow, I’m impressed with your research and, of course, the sample photos.

    I do see a couple of issues. One is getting the balance between noise and resolution / sharpness right (you are well aware of this one). But all the on-line examples are fun-but-fuzzy, and this leads to my second question: what about printing?

    If, for instance, one wanted to do a sequence of prints derived from a single light-field image, how would one go about this? Could a sufficiently hi-res version of each “state” of the image (a selection of focal planes, for instance) be exported, as for example, a photoshop layer?

    I’m an old fuddy-duddy, but really good prints have a magic that no on-line image can match, just as photoluminescent images have their own characteristics prints can’t equal. As an artist, it’s important to me to work from electrons to paper (and as a photo restorer, back again). What thought have you give to issues of advanced photo manipulation and printing with the Lytro camera?

    • James

      The Lytro technology is awesome, but the fuzziness with the online pictures does stick out like a sore thumb. I am quick to conclude that they have it all under control and would have exceptionally expensive models that deliver high end, or else, they would be confined to birthday snaps.

  • John Ciccone

    I’m an amateur photographer. I see this as an extraordinary tech advance. One of the biggest challenges I have is photographing people in action. The ability to take an image and focus sharply on a single face or person allows for control and selection of the image elements that add emotional impact. So Yes, GREAT!
    Does this system come with telephoto lenses?
    Where does the image manipulation software reside? In the image data? On a website or computer?
    Questions: Can I edit photos in Adobe Photoshop Elements? Once an image is cropped and color corrected (or manipulated), I assume that I can save and print it.
    What color manipulations are available in the software?
    Very interesting, want to see and learn more before purchase.

  • Athena Prib

    I am absolutely intrigued. I would love to see this available on the market. What can I do to help make it happen?

  • http://NA Roy

    Please make it waterproof, light weight and most important available in Hong Kong.

  • Duncan L

    Brilliant technology. I think you should update your “the science inside” section to include something based on figure 1 from the Stanford Tech Report CTSR 2005-02 (at http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/lfcamera/lfcamera-150dpi.pdf).
    That should be enough to shut up the cynical people who are saying it is a fake. (I thought it was a fake until I read the dissertation!).

    Best of Luck with your new business.

  • dipak kacha

    i like this camera

  • Michael Isturis

    To the Lytro Company,

    I saw your camera on television , in San Diego during the News, rather saw part of it, on June 27,2011. I only have a total of 20 percent vision left of eye sight . I think this camera would be great for me in the future.

    Or, and can help many – that may have some kind of vision problem too! I’ve share a few of my friends today, and they liked the concept of the camera.

    I hope I’m able to have the opportunity to one day try your new camera.

    To the company Lytro, and inventor, I thank you. I wish you great success.

    Sincerely,
    Michael Isturis

    • Tanner

      Wait…. How would this help people with vision problems?

  • http://www.cameralensrentals.com Barry

    Cannot wait till these come out. I will be sure to add them to our inventory of rentals!

  • Karen W. Donnelly

    I saw Ren Ng on CNN about the Lytro camera with multiple lenses.
    You’ve Got My Attention!!! I’m hungry for more info on this Lytro camera. Can’t Wait to ‘test-drive this baby’!

  • Chaz

    If two or more Lytro cameras are in a room, simultaneous overlapping light fields mean a living 3d picture. Please eventually sell a device to synchronize multiple cameras to take that shot and process that shot afterwards.

  • Andrey

    Fake?

    • Jake

      I think its just a concept whoring attempt myself. Nothing shows any ‘physical’ camera. There is no price point, only promises and ‘flash’ layered photos. Show some specs, and some proof, otherwise this is pointless unless you just want people posting “Me want!”.

  • http://wortpresse.ujf.biz Ulf J. Froitzheim

    @Nikonist
    If you’d read the inventor’s dissertation you could hardly claim that’s a fake. Yes, it’s astonishing, but nevertheless it doesn’t seem impossible. I hope there will be more information soon about the mass market product and who will do the manufacturing. There are only a couple of semicon and optics specialists who have the technology do that. The prototype was Contax-based, that’s still a far cry from a consumer product.

    As far as Photoshop is concerned: If Lytro should be successful in marketing this invention, Adobe will surely follow. Even more convincing it would be if Adobe should endorse the light field camera in the first place. Maybe it’s a good strategy to wait and see what they say.

    • http://www.brooklynballparks.com David Dyte

      Adobe has demonstrated this type of photograph in the recent past, but was way behind on hardware. It looks like a lock that there will be Photoshop plugins to deal with these images :)

  • http://www.i-magic.com.hk Percy Fung

    I wanted to make a movie out of it
    I based in Hong Kong
    and I do have my team and facilities for this trial.
    http://www.filmmagic.com.hk
    I have done 9 full length 3D movies, and large venue 3D/4D film, too. Say I have done 3 Expo 2010 Pavilion movies.
    This is a Good idea, could be great with 4D/5D presentation where the situation could bring in enviromental effects while focus change, say from in Rian with water or wind,
    in Shelter?? with warm and music
    Once again, congratulation
    While in your future visit in Hong Kong, please kindly contact City Univesity, would like to make a talk on this, tcfung@cityu.edu.hk. I served as Adjunct Professor there.

  • http://www.facebook.com/myphotoblog alex loke

    Hey guys! You Facebook link on Lytro homepage is broken. You need to set a vanity URL for Lytro fb page and relink it back to your index page.

  • Nikonist

    This is a fake. Where and how works its tecnology? You have a u.s. patent? witch? Please answer this information appart the amazing photo examples.

  • George Klein

    This looks promising, but, for a landscape photographer who more often than others would like to have the whole image in full focus this may not be so exciting, unless this new technology is able to produce an image where everything is in full focus. Then, using Photoshop (if it will be possible to use this program) or other photo editing software he\she can blur those parts of the picture he\she wants and to have full control of the amount of blur in parts of the image. So far the examples on this website don’t suggest full focus of the whole image is possible.

  • JuanHB

    I’m from Brazil and I will definitely want to buy one. I hope it’s not too expensive and does not take too long to be released.

  • Ray Doyle

    How will one get the entire picture in focus? Low-res is fine for the web but how about making prints. I assume the type of image file produced will be proprietary and programs such as Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture, etc wiill not be able to read succh files. In time this will all change but at first the camera use will be limited. Great for macros and snapshots and I will buy one in in the consumer price range.

    • http://www.flickr.com/photos/suephi/ Susan Phillips

      I have the similar questions. This technology is fascinating, but I like to mix textures in my work and hypersaturate colors and so forth. Will there be a way to do post processing?

  • http://hallmans.Facebook.com Ray Hallman

    I Want One Now!

  • Sayhomara Lam

    Congratulations! This will take over regular cammeras, it is amazing to see the capabilities of the technology. I look forward to own one, thank you for making photography easier.
    For the designer…you are a genious, love it !!!!!

  • Netreacher

    I really would like to see what this item looks like and mainly the estimated cost. Interesting technology for sure!

  • george

    The two things here they totally don’t talk about are the two main things.
    1. How large is it?
    2. How much will it cost?

    Yes, it is exciting tech, and millions would run out and get one if they were the size of a point and shoot and priced at a couple of hundred dollars.
    The fact that price and size are not being discussed tells me that neither will be favorable. At least for awhile. Still, it is innovative, good work.

  • djhnyc

    The camera technology looks fascinating, and I’m definitely interested in learning more about this, and, ultimately, probably buying one. I’m curious about the zoom function, since as represented in the images show online it is currently very limited. Wondering if you are working on improving the clarity of the zoom, and the variability and degree of optical zoom capabilities. This looks like a wonderful adjunct camera, but probably not a one-and-only for serious photographers. On the other hand, my significant other (previously a rabid photographer) currently has serious vision problems, and I can foresee how helpful this camera could be to enable him to continue to take pictures and later see what he took in more detail and manipulate them on the computer (which he can still do).

  • http://proyectics.blogspot.com Félix Valdez

    Congratulations for a great idea. It is revolutionary!
    Cheers from Lima, Perú

  • Jason Lear

    Thank you for hard work I can not wait to see this in the market.

  • Jason Lear

    I really like the whole concept of the design and the creative inspiration this will bring to every ones life. This new product will fundamentally change the way we all will take pictures in the future forever and can be implemented in so many different ways with other new technologies. From 3D TV and holographic projections to Microscopes and Telescopes and many inconceivable ways yet to surprise and delight us all. Thank you for hard work I can wait to see this in the market.

  • AnnetteD

    I too am very curious as to price point and now wonder when it will be available.

  • http://ddos.tistory.com ShinSangYoon

    I want to buy it.
    and I want sales this at korea market strongly.
    phone : 82-10-4842-9153 / seoul, korea

  • Paul T

    One application comes immediately to mind: A camera for the car. Often I am driving along and see a scene that I think would make a great photo. But since I am driving it would be unsafe for me try to shoot the picture. I wonder if you have considered partnering with a car company to install this camera in a way that taking photos from vehicles could be made safe and convenient. I happen to drive a Prius, which of course has a dashboard screen, so naturally I think of Toyota as a company that might be interested.

  • Tanner

    I am really curious as to how much this will cost…. REALLY!
    The best selling point for iPods was $199, when they sold really well. So, something around that would be great…

    • Tan JN

      I think the price must be around several thousand dollars

  • Stanley C

    I takes away the fun of taking Good Ceative Photos.
    To me is seems to works like manual refocusing with out the lans.
    Subjects far away are not as sharp in focus as close subjects.
    To me it is not photo taking. You can”t anjoy printed photos with this technology.

  • Liz

    PLEASE, I BEG you, dont make it too expensive. I want one soooo bad!!! Im a photography nut, but I am also a mom and a hard worker with very little money. Please, find a way to make it affordable to us ALL :D I cant wait till it comes out :D YAY

  • Felicia

    I want buy it.
    Will it be sold in Taiwan?
    Thank you!!

  • http://twitter.com/mynamesdustin Dustin Deal

    I can not wait for more details about this camera! Looks amazing! :D