‘Lytro’ – Light Field Camera Captures Living Pictures [VIDEO]

The advent if digital changed a lot of things in photography. But new technology called ‘Lytro’ is a completely new idea of how to actually capture a moment. New Lytro cameras allow you to take a picture without having to focus.

What does that mean for you? It means you take instantly take all the pictures you want and go back and focus and refocus the photos, after the fact!

Now, I want to see the technology in action before I jump on the Lytro bandwagon, but it sounds astonishing. Check out the promo video from Lytro.

The “remember everything that happened at a party” sales-pitch didn’t work for me, but how many times have you taken photos where your kids face turned out blurry, or you take a family photo and your camera decides to focus on the candle holder behind Grandpa instead our your smiling faces? It sounds like this would solve all of those problems.

Unlike a conventional camera that captures a single plane of light, the Lytro camera captures the entire light field, which is all the light traveling in every direction in every point in space.

Since you'll capture the color, intensity, and direction of all the light, you can experience the first major light field capability - focusing after the fact. Focus and re-focus, anywhere in the picture. You can refocus your pictures at anytime.

And when you share the pictures, your friends can refocus them any way they want as well!

You can read all the science behind the technology here, a lot of it is way over my head.

Why is this cool? It means no waiting for auto-focus, no auto-focus motors in your camera, no shutter delay, and a guarantee that your pictures don’t have to be out of focus.

Check out this hands-on video someone put up using their new photo-toy.

Cool, eh?

Dear Santa, I want one.

How much would you pay for a Lytro camera if it works as-advertised? (They are selling for $399-$499 right now.)

[Lytro]

[Lytro on Facebook]