Lytro has just unveiled its next-generation camera

Apr 22, 2014 13:00 GMT  ·  By

This week, Lytro introduces its newest camera called the Illum, a DSLR-style shooter that comes equipped with 8X optical zoom and high speed.

Lytro hopes the new camera will appeal to both hobbyists and professional photographers alike and it should be noted that the Illum is the company’s second effort.

The first product was launched back in 2012 and was met with a lot of excitement, but product reviews were quite mixed.

Despite some of the negative feedback, Lytro was after all responsible for bringing light-field to the mainstream user.

Nevertheless, Lytro has improved upon its first effort and with Illum, it rolls out a camera boasting higher-resolution and capable of shooting more than just square photos. Furthermore, it offers more options in terms of capturing the “light field.”

Light field technology allows the camera to capture not only the color and intensity of the light, but also its direction. That gives the camera the ability to refocus images after the deed has been done and create the parallax effect too, where the perspective can be shifted slightly, like you’re working with a 3D camera.

In addition to the 8X (30-250mm) zoom lens, the camera has a constant f/2.0 aperture, 1/4000 shutter and 4-inch backside touchscreen display. Under the hood lies a quad-core Snapdragon 800 CPU and there's a forked Android version running the show on the camera.

The producing company claims the camera is capable of capturing 40 million light rays (equivalent to just 5MP), which is a noticeable improvement compared to the original’s 11 million.

Photographers will also have the opportunity to take another shot at refocusing the picture, after already snapping the shot. They can also generate 3D images, adjust the depth of the field and create tilt shifts.

Lytro’s Illum improves the Light Field tech
Lytro’s Illum improves the Light Field tech
And because the Illum is designed around a different concept than most cameras, the product arrives with built-in software capable of coloring coding the display with depth information. So basically, the system provides a pre-view of the depth range photographers will have to deal with while shooting a pic.

If you’re wondering about the angled touchscreen, Lytro explains they have designed the camera like that in order to help photographers that aren't shooting pictures which necessitate holding the camera up to their face directly.

Lytro’s new camera ships out in July
Lytro’s new camera ships out in July
Despite being very light weight, the camera is rugged, hence pretty solid, so it won’t be damaged that easily.

The next-gen Lytro camera seems to be quite impressive in terms of specifications and those interested can place a pre-order starting today. The camera will ship out starting July 15, for the price of $1,499 / €1,086.

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