Introducing Lytro: Photography’s First Major Breakthrough Since The Digital Camera

To put it lightly, it’s hard to believe that with almost 200 years of photography under our belts, the only “major breakthroughs” in the process have been the process itself, via the daguerrotype and the first digital image sensor in 1839 and 1975, respectively. Over so many years, however, including talks of pinhole cameras that date all the way back to the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, the principal behind photography remains the same: light travels through a hole, and its imprint is captured on a surface.

And then came Lytro:

This tiny cuboid (had to look it up—it’s the scientific term for a three-dimensional rectangle with two sides that are squares) digital device, that actually looks more like a kaleidoscope than a camera, eschews megapixels for megarays. Rather than capturing light, Lytro captures full-on fields of light. The difference between the two? While regular cameras record an image onto a photographic surface, Lytro instead records (from their site), “The amount of light traveling in every direction through every point in space.” So, not only does this allow the user dynamic post-capture control over where the focus lies within the photo, it also boasts an 8X digital zoom and looks totally sweet.

While, conceptually, this thing might literally be the best thing since sliced bread, the Lytro is still quite stuck in prototyping. Its limitations range from its deliberately unpractical design to poor image quality and a long charge time. This The idea behind it, though, is where the future resides. Imagine an HD-Lytro that shoots stills AND video—you set up a master shot from four angles, and you literally have fully zoomable and dynamically focus-able control over an entire scene. Think of it as reinforcing the fourth wall with bulletproof glass. Boom.

So ultimately while you may want to wait a while before shelling out a mean $499 on a brand new Lytro, consider it a pioneer in what looks to be quite an interesting future of camera technology.

What would you use light field technology for? Post your responses in the comments below!

@emersonyeah