lightfield

A Look at the Lytro Illum, The Camera of the Future That Failed

Back in 2014, the light field camera company Lytro unveiled the $1,600 Illum, a camera of the future that shoots 40 "Megaray" photos and lets you refocus photos after they're shot. The tech specs were fancy, but no one bought the camera, leading to massive price cuts and eventually a complete change of direction by the CEO. The 5-minute video above is a hands-on look at the Illum.

Lytro’s First VR Demo Uses Immerge to Take You to the Moon

In 2015, light-field camera startup Lytro did a huge pivot, redirecting its focus from consumer light-field cameras (the original and the Illum) to its new light field virtual reality camera, the Immerge. Today the company released a first peek at what the Immerge can do.

Interview: Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal on the Future of Light Field Technology

Lytro’s research into the world of light field technology has produced two consumer devices. Their first camera was released in 2012 and introduced photographers to the concept of being able to refocus images after they had been taken. Then in 2014, Lytro released their flagship: the ILLUM. Armed with an integrated 30-250mm f/2.0 lens, a 40 megaray sensor, and upgraded software, Lytro was ready to show the world that their technology wasn’t just a gimmick.

Report: Panasonic Making the First Interchangeable-Lens Light Field Camera

Lytro may have launched the world's first consumer light field camera back in 2011 and a more powerful followup, the Illum (pictured above), last year, but it may not be alone in rushing for future milestones in light field photography.

Case in point: Panasonic is said to be working on the world's first light field camera that uses interchangeable lenses.

This Canon DSLR Rig Shoots 3D Light Field Photos You Can Move Around In

A Los Angeles-based cloud graphics company called OTOY has announced the world's first spherical light field capture that creates a navigable scene in virtual reality. By capturing light field data with a special Canon and GoPro camera rig, the company created the beginnings of immersive photos you can move around in.

Wedding Photos Shot with a Lytro Light Field Camera

Earlier this month, we shared some sample photos showing how Lytro's Illum light field camera performed in capturing the NFC Championship game. Here's another look at the camera with a very different subject matter: wedding photographs.

Lytro Branches Out from Photography, Offers Unprecedented Access to Their Tech for $20K

The folks at Lytro have always believed that light field technology is the future, and not just for photography and storytelling. They believe that anything with a lens and a sensor can benefit from the technology, and with today's announcement of the Lytro Platform, they're opening up their proprietary tech to anybody who wants to partner up with them and expand light field into new markets.

Play Around with Refocusable Images from Pelican Imaging’s ‘Light Field’ Camera for Smartphones

With each passing day, it seems as though light field photography (and its imitators) is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Patents here, rumors there, it’s a conglomeration of what is very likely the next frontier in photography.

And this past week, Pelican Images published a collection of online 3D viewer images captured with its thin light field camera that might be making its way into mobile devices soon.

Lytro’s Interactive Light Field Images are Now Viewable in Full Glory on 500px

One of (if not the) main challenges Lytro faces as it attempts to bring light field photography into the mainstream is the fact that there aren't a lot of places you can actually experience the 'living' images where they're, to use Lytro's vernacular, alive.

Most places just don't support viewing of the interactive images, and while Lytro has taken some steps to remedy this in the past, the company just took what amounts to a giant leap.

Diving Into the Tech Behind the Lytro Illum and Its Impressive 30-250mm f/2.0 Lens

Lytro came into the photography world not only to create a novelty product, but to fundamentally change how we approach image capture. Because despite light field photography being around for over a century, it’s only with the latest technology that the company is able to exploit what it is a camera is truly capable of doing.

We recently spoke with Lytro about its upcoming Illum camera a bit, diving into the technology behind the specs and revealing how Lytro's approach is allowing the company to not only step, but leap into the future.

MIT Project Would Like to Bring Light Field Photography to Every Smartphone

When it comes to technological innovations, the acronym MIT comes up often. Known for their incredible collection of human capital in the form of intellect, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s capable in every facet of life.

And in the case of a project called “Tesseract,” the boundaries being pushed are those surrounding the field of smartphone camera technology.

Lytro Unveils the ‘Illum’: A Beautiful Beast of a Light-Field Camera

More than two years after the debut of the company's first camera, Lytro has come back with a vengeance. Well, actually, Lytro has come back with an 'Illum,' which is the name of a new camera that the company says, "advances the light field category from novelty to game-changing visual medium that could one day rival digital and film."

Apple Awarded Patent for Lytro-like Light-Field Camera System

A patent filed back in September of 2011 was finally awarded to Apple today, and it has the whole photo world atwitter. That's because this patent describes a camera system that would use the light-field technology made famous by Lytro to take refocusable images -- and it could work inside portable devices such as an iPhone.

That's right, light-field technology in an iPhone... now you see why everybody is excited over something that is, after all, still just a patent.

DSLR Add-On Brings Features Like Lytro-Style Refocusing to Any Camera

Lytro may have made a splash when the company first burst onto the scene with its 'snap now, focus later' technology, but the competition has been growing steadily ever since. In addition to companies like Pelican gunning at the light-field market, a new SLR add-on created by researchers from Saarland University in Germany promises to bring Lytro-style refusing and much more to almost any camera.

Toshiba Building a Lytro-like Smartphone Cam That Lets You Refocus Post-Shot

Lytro is currently the only camera on the market that lets you refocus photographs after they're shot, thanks to its fancy schmancy (and proprietary) light field technology, but it won't be the only one for long. Toshiba is reportedly developing its own Lytro-style camera that will target a different segment of the photography market: smartphone and tablet photographers.

Clever Hack for Shooting Lytro-Style DoF-Changeable Photos Using a DSLR

Lytro's groundbreaking consumer light-field camera made a splash in the camera industry this year by making it possible to refocus photographs after they're shot. However, the cheapest model for the boxy device has a price tag of $399, and the reviews have been mixed so far.

If you'd like to play around with your own refocus-able photographs without having to buy an actual Lytro device, you can actually fake it using a standard DSLR camera (or any camera with manual focusing and a large-aperture lens).

Lytro Gives a Sneak Peek of Perspective Shift and Living Filters

We've known since last month that Lytro is planning to roll out at least one fancy new feature for its light field cameras (parallax-based 3D), but now the company has taken the wraps off the feature to give us a sneak peek at what they'll offer. The two new features that will soon appear in Lytro's Desktop software are called Perspective Shift and Living Filters.

Lytro Going Global, to be Available at a Number of Retailers Starting in Oct.

It has been nearly a year since Lytro announced the world's first consumer light-field camera that lets users focus photographs after they're shot. Throughout this time, the camera has only been available direct from the company when ordered through the website. That'll soon change, as the company announced today that it will be partnering with major retailers around the world to have the camera appear on a store shelf (and website) near you.