Lytro: 5 coolest features of the world’s first consumer LightField camera

Lytro’s brand-new LightField camera packs some very cool features, but what are the best of them all? Ian Paul from PCWorld names the five coolest features, and tells you why:

focus afterwards

As you probably know by now, Lytro’s Living Pictures allow for refocusing after you take the shot. Not just that: anybody you share it with may play around and focus on whatever point of interest, if you share the picture as an interactive one.
Check out our LightField Picture of the Week section, if you want to try it yourself!

zero shutter lag

According to Lytro and some users, you can grab a lytro camera, turn it on, and take a picture immediately without any shutter lag (the time between pressing the shutter and the actual photographic process). Traditional digital cameras first need to focus on your subject, which takes some time. Apart from “no shutter lag”, you also don’t need to wait for the camera to start. Power it on, and take your picture right away.

low light sensitivity

Better low light performance is a theoretical advantage of LightField cameras: There’s more information available per pixel in the final picture, so LightField pictures should take better images in dark situations without using a flash. Our sample pictures from low light situations show mixed results: some pictures look very nice, others don’t. Speak for yourself.

create 3D pictures afterwards

With the Lytro, you will be able to go back to those first LightField pictures you ever took and create 3D pictures from them. There’s no additional equipment needed – just the raw .lfp files from your single-lense Lytro camera. Lytro images are HD-quality, which means you’ll be able to enjoy your 3D pictures on the big screen HDTV.

small size

According to Lytro, the new LightField camera is “small enough to fit in your pockets”. They need to be spacy pockets, though. Still, it’s an incredible achievement to compress what used to be a room full of cameras into a device just 41 x 41 x 112 mm (1.61 x 1.61 x 4.41 in) small.

What do you think about the Lytro camera? Which feature do you like the most?
Let us know in the comments!

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