DIY Lytro ring flash: first test

Since the Lytro camera doesn’t come with a flash, we thought about making my own DIY ring flash for some time. Today, finally, the most important component has arrived in the mail: a little LED ring that cost as little as 3.50 €.

Here’s a quick photo of my first crude attempt to take close-up pictures with a homemade LED ring flash (ring light):

DIY Lytro ring flash: first test

What’s more interesting, though, are the test photos taken with the Lytro camera:

LightField test photos taken without (left) and with a homemade LED ring flash (left: 3/4 of maximum power, right: maximum power).

LightField test photos taken without (left) and with a homemade LED ring flash (left: 3/4 of maximum power, right: maximum power). Click or open in new tab for high resolution.

There are two sets of LightField test pictures in our Lytro album, one in Everyday Mode (minimum focus distance: approx. 10 cm) and one in Creative Mode (no minimum focus distance, limited depth of field). You can check them out here: lytro ring flash, part 1.

http://pictures.lytro.com/me/pictures/231774

We’ll play around with this some more over the next days (maybe add a diffuser and simple enclosure), and will post all the details when the project is a few steps further ahead.

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3 Responses

  1. Naysayer says:

    Great idea / execution!

    As a former owner, I found the Lytro to be a cool gadget. However, overall it simply disappointed me with the quality of output…. Hopefully this is improved with software upgrades in the future, but I’m hesitant to recommend it otherwise.

  2. Rabbett says:

    I am praying for a new LCD screen on Lytro second generation – maybe a Retina display. The reality for me is outdoor shooting is a crap shoot. I can’t see the screen – need to make some sort of hood. It can’t be just because I am in Hawaii – today was cloudy and it was still a crap shoot. I have 20/15 vision – the screen is just lousy. Today I took 122 shots of which I cloud post about a dozen because I could not see if the ocean was level, if the depth of field was really set up properly – until I got the pix on to my mac book pro. I’m one of your biggest fans but it is time for a slightly bigger camera, with a bitchin’ bright screen. I know that these shots on your website of the screen have to be photoshopped in. I have never seen anything as bright on my Lytro…

    • markus says:

      Rabbett, try tilting the camera left or right when you shoot. This drastically increases the display’s vertical field of view.

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