http://Lytro'sstrategyisbrilliant/whyevenprosshouldbethankful Adam – Professional photographer
This is for every complainer on here:
It is obvious Lytro cut a lot of corners to get the camera to its price point. How do you know they are even making a profit on each camera?
This current Lytro is targeted at the masses, point and click shooters. It is also very sexy looking, which is, seriously, the only selling point for most people.
Why did they do this? To get as many of these out there as possible… to make it a sort of “standard”, to make people ditch their current point and shoot, even though their old point and shoot may take higher resolution pictures.
Lytro spent all their money getting this camera out, and they are taking a huge risk with that, but so does/has every other successful company.
Timing and budget are why there is no Windows capable software yet, but it will come when they get some of their invested money back.
Strategy:
Step 1: Make this amazing technology as cheap as possible (low res touch screen, lack of manual controls, low MP, etc) but make it sexy. The price is now reasonable for most consumers. They buy it, they have a customer base and an audience.
Step 2: Use profits to refine manufacturing technology (makes the product cheaper), release cameras to the professional crowd. Higher res, video recording, manual controls, more versatile software, separate lenses, etc.
Stop complaining about this camera not having what you want and wait. It is a baby, and its delicate, it will take a while, but with the right strategy, it wont fail, and you’ll get your prosumer Lytro. Trust me. Just wait.
http://jpgallagherphoto.com johngg
perhaps it would be more useful to read a complaint from some one who has hands on experience with the camera?
What is the Shutter Speed?
What is the ISO setting?
Cae
Would like to know if the Lytro works in Linux, thanks.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.323455428344.194547.323330173344 Mark Kane
I want to know if depth of field may be controlled. In your demos any part of the image can be set in focus or out of focus (presumably in software) but what about (say) everything in the near foreground to the mid-foreground (using squishy terms here) in focus and everything else out of focus? A related question: how much control of the focus plane is available.
Lytro
Right now, what you experience in the Lytro picture gallery is what you get. Setting “all in focus” is coming soon. More to come…this is just the beginning.
Frank Victor
I have ordered, and hope to try underwater while snorkeling. Any prospect for a housing? The specs indicate the viewing screen is a touch screen, so what will it control? How is zoom handled? I can’t see any control except the shutter button, and the connection port.
John A. Whiting
Add in HDRI and video capabilities, and this will revolutionize more than just still photography. As it is, the possibilities for forensics and anthropology and archaeology alone are staggering. Intelligence, commercial photography, industrial photography, National Geographic (the masters of location photography, IMO).
I look forward to your Windows-compatible application (I’m stuck on a Windows machine), and hope that HDRI and video are not far behind.
John Whiting
Carol Joscelyne
Let me know when you definately have the Windows compatible softwear and I will order one then. As much as
I was looking forward to your product, I don’t want the camera
if I can’t transfer my pictures to my Laptop.
http://www.luskwood.org michi
Are you guys charging cards at the time of order, or the time of shipment? I’ve been burnt a lot, paying for something and not having it come to reality until a year later (or specs change, etc)… Do you charge when it ships, or do you charge immediately when the order is placed?
Jacques
This is going to be a blast to work with! Like a few other commenters I’d love to know what the shutter speed is or what it’s range is? Ie will moving shots blur as there is less light? I can’t find this info on the specs page. Thanks! Can’t wait for it to be delivered!
traci
Can you lock in the photos and actually print them? How large could you print?
Any chance there would be a underwater housing in the near future?
thanks!
dw
this is amazing… can it work with the iPad and other iOS devices?
Lytro
You can view and interact with pictures that have been shared online and view email on iPad and iPhone. To get living pictures off of your own camera and process them for online sharing, you need the Mac desktop software that requires Mac OS 10 or higher. Hope this helps.
http://www.photosbyari.com Arianne Lapine
Let me gt this straight? It’s only compatiable with a MAC? Perfect I have one. But can you erase images once you download them? Confused why they are 8 and 16g. Is it done once you exceed that memory? I need one of these contraptions. So sweet!!
Lytro
You can delete pictures directly on the camera and do bulk deletes to clear storage space after you download your pictures to your desktop. 8 and 16 GB allow you store 350 and 750 pictures on camera.
Charlie M.
I was going to get one but I can’t afford to buy an Apple computer just for the camera.
Glenn
Wow! How many Windoze sooks are out there? How many products are Windoze only products, with no support for the Mac? Toughen up you lot, you want this revolutionary technology then buy a Mac or just keep quiet.
http://controlalt.com Walter Raczynski
I think the Windows question is quite valid and also think it is both cavalier and dismissive for someone here to demean the questioner. I, too am a Windows user. I also use Adobe Photoshop CS5 on the PC. Aside from requiring Windows for a number of engineering applications: I have been quite happy with that OS and also ask about the timing on a Win7 compliant version of the software. I also wonder, like another poster if HDRI can stand to benefit from LightField technology. Keep up the great (breakthrough) work!
GaryL
What appeared to be revolutionary is instantiated with a weird hardware design. Look at the picture of this camera…. Who holds a camera this way? What kind of form factor is that for a camera?
The only camera I know that doesn’t have removable memory is the IPhone. and heh, that’s Apple. Lytro is no Apple but think they can get away with 8G or 16G fixed memory cameras?
So let me get this… On vacation and you fill up the 8Gs. What do you do? Go get your MAC, no PC, must be a MAC and download the pictures. That’s right no PC support. Makes the Apple fanboys happy I am sure.
Want to share the unique photos from this camera? Make sure your friends all have MACs. Can’t view them on a PC?!!!
What are you thinking!!!??? I had such high hopes for them.
Marian Oprea
Your friends don’t need to have a mac to see the pictures you shared with them. You can see the sample pictures from your windows PC. Don’t you?
You only need a mac, for now, to transfer the pictures from the camera to computer and then to share them with your friends on Facebook or by mail.
The Windows software (for transfer) will come soon. No need to be angry.
See the good point: you just have to point and shoot. Later, on your screen you can focus on whatever you want in that scene and your friends can do the same with the pictures you share with them. For many people this is great. You don’t need to know about aperture and depth of field.
http://controlalt.com Walter Raczynski
Admittedly this is a good point, but taking Lytro’s position for a moment (using the Armchair Quarterback metaphor): Any technology company emerging today does not have the sack of cash that heralded the tech startups of the 80s, 90s and millenial generations. My guess is that this first offering is directed at the biggest possible audience, and the product pricing would seem to confirm that. Kudos (and a pinch of hope for pixelphiles)!
Larry M. Andrews
My questions have already been asked; namely, where is the other info about the camera: shutter speed, what is the aperture range how do you set the aperture, what is the ISO range, what size is the sensor, what is the resolution of the resulting photo, can I import Lytro images into Picasa, can images be printed in any focus state? And when will it be Windows ready? What I have seen online is very impressive, but there are a lot of unanswered questions. Regards, Larry
Lytro
Specs for the Lytro camera can be found on the details tab of the Light Field Camera page on our website. It has a constant f2 lens with 8X optical zoom. The only manual setting on this first Lytro light field camera is to set the zoom.
The Lytro is built for online sharing and interaction with pictures, not for large format printing. The living pictures you see in the Lytro Picture Gallery are representative of the image quality you can expect (but dependent on the screen resolution of your viewing device.) Asking about the pixel resolution of a light field camera system is not really relevant because pixels are very well defined. A pixel is color value and luminosity, and a light field camera’s unit of capture is much more than that because each unit contains directional light ray data in addition to color and luminosity. Light field cameras capture megarays, not megapixels. The first Lytro captures 11 megarays. Our target resolution is HD at 1080p, but the full answer isn’t completely straightforward. 2D projections in light field are rooted in computational photography, and 2D resolution can vary based on all sorts of factors including focal depth (refocus). Hope this helps.
brotherbob
Good job of not answering the questions. I simply want to know at what size can you print a picture that you have decided on the focus point.
http://scw.us NetMage
The knowledgebase says you can export 1080×1080 JPEG images, so by my standards a 5″ x 5″ would be about the max acceptable print.
http://www.tlinn.com Tim_L
Congratulations on what looks like an amazing product. I came to your website intending to place an order. I ended up deciding not to. Why? There is a complete lack of information about resolution and effective focal length. Did I miss it? I get that this device is not designed for technogeeks but that is basic information that would tell me whether or not this camera would be useful for me.
http://scw.us NetMage
Well, the 8x optical zoom tells you the basics, but it is a 35mm equivalent 35mm – 280mm zoom lens that outputs a 1080×1080 JPEG image or an 11 megaray :) living picture.
James Cole
I for one am glad the a MAC(real computer) is being prefered with this revolutionary camera. Cant wait for this to be released. Will work great along side my Nikon DSLR.
adonishong
From the image in this website https://www.lytro.com/science_inside
seems like the height of the sensor is 1/5 of whole camera, and your camera has 1.61 inch height, so the sensor should be around 0.3 inch height. I could say this is a 1/2.3 inch sensor…
It is hard to expect a “wow” image quality from such sensor…
I’d like to get at least M4/3 sensor, and 3x-5x length, but 1/2.3 inch 8x length
BTW, for the length, would you please make the exactly focal length but 8x, what is the wide side focal length, and how about the long side?
WilliamL
A few thoughts on how to make this product awesomer:
1. You need to make the format of the images very indestructable in a practical sense so that if everything goes to pot the consumers arn’t left out in the dust. I would be quite a bit more willing to pay money if I knew that OS changes (or flavor of OS), software changes, and storage issues were no issue in the future…. guaranteed… period. In fact this would lead me to the argument of …. why not buy this? my memories arn’t at risk. It is old fashioned but gives you a reputation that people will buy; you have the opportunity to be as trusted as L.L. Bean (here is the casual economics etc. http://goo.gl/KTRn5).
2. The internal software needs to be upgradeable and a sign of your commitment to us, not a walled garden (http://goo.gl/XBzrH) . I know why I don’t buy sony products. Let people enjoy using the product, offer very good stable alternatives, but don’t fence us in. You arn’t a camera company, you are a social networking company with a potential for a very good angle (actually better than Facebook’s angle though you arn’t rivals). People can enjoy actual activity better than just online activity, by focusing and changing the center of attention wile revealing it to be dynamic you inherently connect the people in the photograph better to that moment. Reflection happens interactively which allows sharing of that moment collectively and reinforces the social bonds better than merely an online presence. That said if you limit your users you inherently go against the grain of the user.
3. Let the market help you win against the bigger guys. Let me tell you what I hunger for as a consumer – the ability to maximize the utility of my purchase. For instance if you actually made it possible for others (even if you didn’t formally encourage it) to do the work to enhance the value of your camera at no cost to you, this would dominate the market … for instance CHDK (http://goo.gl/vfLPM). If you provide tremendous value at little cost to you not only can you sell volume easily, but it will make you adored. A good example of how this can work is Lego (http://goo.gl/C2aqU). Let people enhance the actual software to make it more useful and to think of things you may not have.
Since you are a “first” and an innovator, now is the time to make your mark. Please make one that we your potential customers would be honored to share in.
WilliamL
to clarify my chdk example – let people add value and have it cost them nothing. It will drive your product sales and if you make the camera “bulletproof” and always resettable, then it won’t matter that there may be competing technologies or companies since you will give value where others will not, and it will cost you very little for a good profit.
The shoot first, focus later concept is easy enough to understand.
I’m just wondering where all the other info about the camera is (how to set shutter speed. how to set aperture. what is the minimum aperture? what is the ISO range? what size is the sensor? what is the resolution of the resulting “focused” photo?).
If you look at any other camera company’s website… all that info is there. Where is it here? Did I miss it?
Rich S
Similar to Jan P’s question, is there any way to control effective ISO, and therefore control effective shutter speed for action?
Lytro
The only manual control on this Lytro camera is the zoom. Hope this helps.
Jose Carlos
Could you indicate what is the resolution of this camera? 12 MB maybe?. Regards and congrats for that awesome technology
Im Yndzi
12 MP? No. They state that the current goal is about HD quality, depending on focus–so around 1080 pixels high–when exported to .jpg. In other words, anywhere from 1 to 2 MP, depending on the aspect ratio of the sensor. (1:1 = 1.17 MP; 4:3 = 1.56 MP; 3:2 = 1.75 MP; 19:9 = 2.07 MP) They DO say the sensor captures 11 million light rays (megarrays) including color, intensity, and vector (direction)–but not all are visible at a given focus distance. So I imagine the file size will be comperable to a 12 MP picture, especially as the light field engine is embedded in every picture.
Im Yndzi
[I meant 16:9, obviously.] 750 images in 16 GB is about 21 MB per image, average. Can pictures be deleted in camera? How is the depth of field adjusted? Is it fixed (because the apeture is fixed)? Different objects in a photo can be focused upon, bluring other depths. Can the entire picture be brought into focus, as with a wide depth of field? I don’t remember enough about photography to remember if this is apeture dependent. Is a fixed F2 apeture a drawback for an avid prosumer? Theoretically, if the camera native records multi-dimensions (i.e. 3D), sofware should be able to focus the entire picture. Pick any depth object in the image and the focus information is in the raw file data. Given that the angle of the light rays also are captured, with the 3D, software should be able to map the distance to every object, and thus present every object in focus for the entire image. Sort of like a Virtual wide Depth of Field. Just some thought, I don’t know how it relates to the actual product.
Im Yndzi
Is the firware upgradeable?
Will future versions include High Dynamic Range (exposure bracketed) photos as well?
If you are going to let the viewer play with the focus, why not let the viewer play with the exposure as well. Especially as there is no lag time like in an auto-focus camera to capture a quick series of images.
http://scw.us NetMage
Look up the AsiaD Lytro demo to see some of the answers.
They demonstrate expanding to full DOF (within the limits of the technology) as well as moving focal point and adjusting parallax (obviously restricted by the narrow spread of viewpoints).
Ronald D. Neate
I need to know when you are going to have one that is compatible with a HP laptop with MS Windows XP and Windows 7
THANK YOU Ron
x
Adolf Viesel
can you translate the information in german?
Claude Felbert
Still waiting to hear what the output resolution is so I can see what size I can make prints at.
http://Thanks. Harold Lozada
Revolution is here. Your work and effort is part of it. This is an incredibly amazing historical moment for photography! Thanks. All is all.
Nick
This is definitely an Apple-inspired / co-developed product. I am disappointed too about MAC only software availability and would probably sit out. Lytro isn’t even saying “Place your order now and you will get the Windows software for free when we release it”. Too bad! Shipments are a couple of months away anyway so I don’t see any reason for not doing this. All my picture and video editing software is Windows based so I can’t spend thousands of dollars just to be able to use a Lytro camera. I’ve been looking forward to replacing my stolen SLR with this camera but will probably go back to Canon.
Donald Goldsmith
GREATLY DISAPPOINTED!!! Got your offer of a pre-release LYTRO Camera order but the APPLE only software is a DEAL BREAKER … When only 3 out of 50 computers sold are Fruity WTF!!! would you limit your initial release to that Over Priced Over Hyped line of hardware? I’m sure Steve is Greatly enjoying it out there somewhere but I For one AM really distressed. As much as I have been PRing your product to everyone Only to have to tell them only the SNOBS (Read as SOB’s) of the computer world will be able to use them for the foreseeable future. Knowing their attitude about most products that are not FRUITY you may be DOOMED from the GET GO … So Lotsa luck hope you introduce a Windows based software sooner than later. Until then GEE THANKS but no thanks ya putz.
Joe P
These look super cool! Any equivalent info on shutter speeds for action/moving pictures in relation to standard cameras? Even if that’s something not possible or in development, the stills are pretty sweet!
Michael Ma
Very happy to see that you guys launched the product so smoothly. I was a bit surprised when I got to see the actual device. What is the maximum jpeg output resolution?
Joseph Montedonico
Great camera. Can I get rid of my Nikon D300? How do I shoot photos indoors without a flash? Joe
http://flickr.com/photos/--mike--/ Mike Warot
I want to help get your Windows app up and running…. I’m experienced with synthetic focus, and know programming as well.
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