If you like photography and gadgets, I came across one that I found intriguing, the Lytro no-focus camera. Yes, I said no focus. The concept is that the Lytro, in it’s oddly shaped package, captures all light from all angles from all depths at once. Once you snap a picture, all the information is stored and then you can decide later, again and again, on where the focus point should be.At first that made my little brain hurt. How can you capture all angles and depths at once? It defies all we’ve been taught about cameras and photography! ….or does it?

According to Lytro, they are not capturing just an image but rather the entire light field. This is where a new type of sensor was created, not so uniquely, but appropriately named the light field sensor.

It is the amount of light traveling in every direction through every point in space.

See it in action for yourself in this introduction video.

Now that the Lytro has captured the entire image field as data, using their tools, you can view the scene from any focal point you choose time after time after time. They call these “living pictures”. You can try this out yourself on their website. A few examples are below. After playing for a few minutes with these the astute eye will see some of the limits of this “any focal point” concept. For example, I found that finding a focal point in the “infinite” range resulted in an image that was not perceptively different than one with medium to long range, while others allowed this quite readily. The crisp focus desired at further focal lengths seemed a bit lacking at times but could be a result of the web based tool and lack of post production application. An example is this living picture.

If you go to the bottom of the post you can click the clocks and then the man’s face, none of these focal lengths have a crisp focus as I would have hoped. Certainly fine for consumer photography but I don’t think it meets the critical eye of the professional. Having said that, this device is currently marketed at the average consumer, not professionals.

All in all I can imagine that when this technology gains more mainstream momentum in a more photographer friendly form, it may be part of the next step in professional photography. I can think that for a wedding photographer, this would be fantastic in the case of quick candids. Imagine being able to go back in time and set the focal point for greatest effect, after the event. It does however make me also think about what this does to the “art” of photography. Like any medium, changes come in many forms. The real artists, adapt and use tools in way that is uniquely them.

Cheers.

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