14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, we talked about the Lytro light field camera, but this is one of those devices that really could use a more accurate and in-depth description, since it has many things unusual for cameras in general.
People who want to see an image gallery of the Lytro device, and to watch that video about it, can go here for both.
It will help with getting an idea of what they are in for, as well as what they might not expect otherwise.
One thing that jumps into view is the fact that the photos taken by this device are square instead of the common, landscape or portrait rectangle.
That isn't too big an issue, though, since the size of 16MB per image make sure that the photo can be displayed on huge screens and still maintain a great sharpness even at high resolutions.
Granted, the pictures aren't super high-resolution, but Full HD (1,080p) is still featured and, all things considered, impressive enough on its own.
The secret behind the ability of the light field camera to capture such great detail, and even enable re-focusing and re-zooming, is the Lytro Light Field Sensor (backed by the Lytro Light Field Engine 1.0).
Also the 8x optical zoom and f/2 lens has a constant aperture across the entire zoom range, though it did mean the camera had to be long, almost tube-like. All in all, the pictures are interactive, “living pictures” as it were.
For those who want further numbers, the resolution is 11 Megarays (the number of light rays captured by the light field sensor).
The downside to the camera is that the photos shot with it need to be read in a special application that, at the moment, works only on Apple Mac systems.
Fortunately, Lytro is working on a Windows version, so this drawback will be surmounted soon enough.