The Digital camera has becomes a day to day consumer item due to its ease of use and reduced cost today. The images taken from all over the world which is there in social media is the best example to prove the popularity of digital camera. Most of the “point and shoot” digital cameras are having auto focusing system using built in lens kit which allows any general user to come up with a classy photograph. Additionally all the other controllers including ISO, shutter speed and f stop are also been automated to make it even easier. Even with all those automation most of the general photographers face problems with focusing when they are using general “point and shoot” cameras as well as advanced DSLR cameras. The most common problem is, the user figure out that the object in focus in not what he really wants to focus in the picture, yet what camera assume what the user need. By the time he figures out that he need another object in focus, he is too late, because the focusing effect is irreversible.
Even in professional photography, experienced photographers face problem with focusing. Some of them are using advanced auto focus system in DSLR cameras, still run in to above problems. Some of them are focusing manually to get what he really need, yet it takes time and effect is again irreversible. When they are covering an event with lots of fast motion and lots of objects like sports festival, they can focus only one object at a time. When they try to focus on another object, it will become totally different frame due to movement in objects.
In order to address above issues a revolutionary digital camera coming to market in early 2012 with the name Lytro. It allows the photographers to select the focus point of the image even after taking the photograph. So photographers can capture the fame without thinking about the focus point. Further they can compose different photograph from same image simply by changing the focus point to different objects. Importantly focus point change could be done anytime, may be after years of taking the photograph as long as you have the original RAW file. The secret behind this concept “Shoot Now, Focus Later” is the Light Field Sensor.
History of Light Field Sensor
History of Light field sensor goes back more than 15 years. It was initiated by Stanford University as a research project. In early time it required a super computer to process the captured light field and clean room environment for most of the equipments. Therefore it was limited to very high end applications like space photography and academic research. The company, Lytro founded by Dr. Ren Ng, light field sensor researcher in Stanford, back in 2007. He was very careful to make this a secret till he come up with a good result. His objective was to develop a light field camera which can be used by any general user. As a result, the first light field camera was announced in 19th October 2011. The specification of Lytro is been officially released by now. They accept online orders and camera is ready to be shipped by early 2012.
Technology
Conventional Image Sensor
Any conventional image sensor found in point and shoot cameras as well as advanced DSLR cameras identify the color and amount of light in each pixel to generate image. The entire focusing mechanism will be controlled by the attached lens kit. Different lens kit could be use to generate different type of focusing effects by controlling depth of field and angle of capturing by altering f stop and focal length. Therefore the image comes to sensor is already been focused and it just captures it. Hence focus point is burn in to image and it’s irreversible. Though we call it capture a moment using a camera, actually it does is capture a selected set of light rays in a moment and omit entire remaining.
Light Field Sensor
When it comes to Light field sensor it capture extra details of light rays unlike in conventional image sensor. It captures amount of light and color in each pixel as usual. Additionally it records the direction of the entire light rays as well. The direction of each light ray will be stored along with the image as vectors. Therefore light ray processor can re generate the image with a different focus point. The calculation of focus point and depth of field will be based on above mentioned extra details of direction of light rays recorded as vectors. Therefore light ray sensor actually captures the moment and records entire lights rays in the field, called “Living pictures”. The term “Frame” is no longer usable in Photography. Photographers will have to call it “Field” with this new technology.
Advantages of Light Field Sensor
The major advantage of light field sensor is photographer can capture the moment without worrying about the focusing. It gave birth to the concept “Shoot now, Focus later”. The creative application of this would be limitless since you can choose various different focus points in exactly same image capture in one moment. In addition to that this could be use to fast action photography since you can capture more photographs in a minimum time due to reduced or zero focusing delay. Another main problem faced in conventional image sensor was low light performance. Most of the cases the images taken in low light environment were too noisy and unusable. The light field sensor capture entire light rays in field, hence it is providing exceptional low light performance which allow you to do low light photography even without a flasher. The images captured using light field sensor could be use to deliver 3D photo experience to users, mainly in web applications. This could be expanded to social media as well which allow the user to share 3D images with friends. This kind of service is already providing by Lytro where you can upload the picture to Lytro and embed it in any social media site as 3D photograph.
Shape of Lytro
Lytro is the very first consumer digital camera that comes with light field sensor. The look and feel of the camera is different as it uses different revolutionary technology inside. It looks like a box. In one end you can find the lens while other end holds LCD touch display to control the camera functionalities. It comes in 3 different stylish colors which are hot red, graphite and electric blue. There are 2 versions of camera which has different storage capacity
- 8 GB – 350 Pictures
- 16 GB – 750 Pictures
The lens is providing 8X optical zooming and F/2 aperture throughout the zooming range. The captured light fields (can’t call them images anymore as I said before) could be exported to a Software which allow you to select the focus point and continue with other editing. This software is capable of changing focus point and re-processes the image with appropriate depth of field using the direction of light rays recorded as vectors. However it still having only MAC version, yet according to the official Lytro web site windows version of the software is coming soon.
Lytro will be start shipping in USA in the early 2012, and through the official web site you can reserve yours. 16 GB camera is $499 and 8 GB one is $399.
Evolution of Lytro
The early light field camera required a high end super computer, yet within a short period of time the magic of technology could warp the super supercomputer based light field processor in to a handy box and convert it to a consumer digital camera. The speed of technology gives us sign where this light field sensor goes next. Its next target would be mobile smart phones. They already have high end cameras built in with still imaging capabilities as well as HD video recording capabilities. There is no reason to stop including light field camera in a near future mobile smart phone.
The current light field camera Lytro comes with 8X optical zooming which is a good enough to do day to day photography. In near future it will be equipped with even more powerful zooming lens and dominate mainly the sports optics and then space photography as well.
Lytro, the light field cameras has already revolutionaries the photography industry and it just a beginning. It will attract lots of customers with its exceptional imaging capability “Shoot now, Focus later”, stylish design and good price. The day when we can find Light field camera in every ones’ pocket is not too far.
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