Very interesting story from the NYT on a potential breakthrough in focusing and shutter lag. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/technology/22camera.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=general&src=me

Edited by Meander on 06/22/2011 15:49:43 MDT.

Additional information on how the camera works and their website.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20110622/tc_zd/266022
http://www.lytro.com/
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/22/technology/20110622-CAMERA.html
a bit from their site
Light Field Capture
How does a light field camera capture the light rays?

Recording light fields requires an innovative, entirely new kind of sensor called a light field sensor. The light field sensor captures the color, intensity and vector direction of the rays of light. This directional information is completely lost with traditional camera sensors, which simply add up all the light rays and record them as a single amount of light.
Light Field Processing
How do light field cameras make use of the additional information?

By substituting powerful software for many of the internal parts of regular cameras, light field processing introduces new capabilities that were never before possible. Sophisticated algorithms use the full light field to unleash new ways to make and view pictures.

Relying on software rather than components can improve performance, from increased speed of picture taking to the potential for capturing better pictures in low light. It also creates new opportunities to innovate on camera lenses, controls and design.

Edited by Meander on 06/22/2011 14:27:21 MDT.

This is really something. Revolutionary indeed! Thanks for the links!

And here is a very $ competitor the Raytrix.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20110622/tc_yblog_technews/new-cameras-use-thousands-of-lenses-to-let-you-focus-after-shooting
WHOOPS ZEISS lens photo got posted to beginning of thread.

Edited by Meander on 06/22/2011 15:50:58 MDT.

IF true, and IF it has decent resolution, and IF it isn't all a marketing scam, then the image files are going to be 100s of Mbytes per picture. This could be a problem!

I wonder what the speed of the system is? (ie f stop and shutter speed). I can't help feeling that the speed is going to be LOW - that or you will need huge (=$$$$) lenses.

There are some laws of physics here which make me very very cautious!

Cheers

Here's a link to some of the underlying tech.
http://www.tgeorgiev.net/HDR_Plenoptic/HDR.pdf

http://www.tgeorgiev.net/Res.pdf

The original dissertation.
http://www.lytro.com/renng-thesis.pdf

After reading the dissertation it is clear that a larger processor and megapixel count sensor are mandatory , but the lack of auto-focus lag , the ability to shoot sports, the low light capability are all there . As he points out larger processors and larger files are where everything is going and this may reclaim photography from the cellphone.Most of all getting that "decisive moment" certainly is the greatest attraction.