A camera that couldn't care less about focus: Introducing Lytro

[Kangaroo]

http://content.usatoday.com/communi...uld-care-less-about-focus-introducing-lytro/1

Remember cameras that would have to focus themselves before taking a snapshot? And how that could lose vital seconds, making a mockery of the term "point and shoot"?

Oh, right -- that would describe every digital camera currently on the market. But if one Silicon Valley start-up has its way, the very idea of focusing, or adjusting light levels, or having to wait before you click the shutter, will be a relic of the early 21st century -- along, perhaps, with photos that only exist in two dimensions.

Lytro is the brainchild of Ren Ng, a Stanford Ph.D. whose dissertation on light-field technology five years ago was showered with awards.

 

[tomson75]

Pretty cool tech....but it definitely takes away from the skill that real photographers employ.

Good stuff for hacks like me though.

Doubt I'd throw away my D90 for it....

 

[Everlastingxxx]

That’s really cool. I want one.

 

[SaltwaterServr]

If the image in the article is indicative of the quality of the images this camera can produce, then the professional photographers of the world have nothing to worry about nor do the big camera companies.

The image it produced is absolute crap, and I mean that in every sense of the word. The image is soft on every level, and the noise levels are atrocious.

Looks like it came off of a camera phone.