Is the Lytro camera the future of photography?

Is the Lytro camera the future of photography? We'll get to the answer a bit later, but first let me tell you a bit about the Lytro light field camera.

I remember reading about Lytro in 2011. At the time I thought it was the coolest little gadget I had seen since the Ipod. It doesn't even look like a camera and it's called a "light field camera" whatever that means... Wikipedia has a very complicated explanation as to what light field is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_field go read if you want to know the technical explanation.

For most people however, I think it's what a light field camera can do to photos that impresses most. No need to focus! really, no more focusing! Breaking a huge photography rule here. And full control of the depth of field after the photo was taken. Yeah, sounds crazy. Lets summarise, So you don't need to worry about focusing your photos and you can focus on any part of your photo after you have taken it. You can control the depth of field endlessly after the fact. What's even more amazing is that other people can change the focusing points of your photos after you have shared it with them.

The first thought that came to my mind as a photographer was that I don't really want other people to change anything about my photos. I mean I have a creative vision that I want to share with the viewer of my photos and I may have blurred the background because that's what I wanted to do. I want to choose the subject and have creative control. However I remembered that this is not a professional camera and it was never intended for the professional. This first ever light field camera is intended to make photography more fun for people that aren't necessarily all that interested in photography. People that just like to take fun pictures to share with others.

So it's not the future of photography then right, or is it?

Well, before i attempt finalise my answer on that question it would be a good idea to look at some of the technical details of the Lytro camera.

On the Lytro website they say "Shoot now. Focus... Whenever" So we touched on this already but how does it do it? Wikipedia! help!

"Light field cameras captures the available light in a scene coming from more than one direction. It works by breaking up the main image with an array of microlenses over an image sensor. The camera software then uses this data to determine the general directions of incoming light rays." - Wikipedia

So can you view the photo's taken by a Lytro camera and change the focus points without special software? No, you will have to upload your lytro images to a server that runs the lytro software to make the re-focusing effect possible. Another drawback is that you are limited to square photo's only and the image quality of the lytro camera is lower than most smartphones. Oh and it costs $399 or about R4000

So is this the future of photography? No, or at least not yet. To be fair this is the first generation light field camera and it is a fun gadget as opposed to a high quality camera. I'm sure there will be some creative applications for light field cameras in the future, some we can even think of yet. But for the moment it's an expensive toy to show off to your friends. I would however like to see this technology incorporated into smartphone cameras. I think that would be the future of light field camera technology.

Visit the Lytro site here: http://www.lytro.com/