Lytro’s story is one of success, and it is (so far) also a relatively short one: Founder, Executive Chairman and former CEO Ren Ng started his research in the field of computational photography / LightField imaging in 2003. Within just a few years, he managed to build a company of 100+ employees and raised funding in excess of 50 million dollars.
Lytro has done what the big camera makers apparently didn’t dare to: The world’s first consumer LightField camera is available since February 2012, and regularly makes the news and press.
We’ve assembled the major (and some minor) landmarks of Lytro history in the following timeline. Click any entry for more information, or year numbers to open all included entries.
After several months of reading subject-related books and publications, Ren Ng starts his PhD studies on Digital Light Field Photography in 2003. Ng also works on miniaturizing LightField technology from a room-full of tethered cameras into a single, portable camera.
His doctoral dissertation is submitted in July 2006.
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Ren Ng starts a company named Refocus Imaging, which will later turn into Lytro, Inc.
The initial Lytro team consists of Ng himself, and engineers Colvin Pitts, Tim Knight and Alex Fishman.
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Lytro publicly announces working on the world’s first consumer LightField camera. The small company demonstrates what becomes possible with LightField photography.
Lytro Commercial: The Start of a Picture Revolution
Following a lot of publicity from their official launch, the company demonstrates 3D capabilities of the Lytro LightField Camera.
Read more: It gets better! Lytro 3D Demo
Lytro officially launches their LightField Camera in the United States.
A few hours later, Executive Chairman Charles Chi and Director of Photography Eric Cheng present the camera and its features to Tech-Guru Walt Mossberg at AsiaD in Hong Kong.
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First public mention of Creative Mode, a special camera mode that allows users to set the refocus range and depth of field. It also reduces the minimum focus distance to virtually zero.
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On the very last day of their self-defined shipping time frame, Lytro ships out the first batch of LightField cameras to customers that pre-ordered right after the camera was presented in October 2011.
Read more: The first Lytro cameras are now shipping!
Without warning, the company releases the Windows 7 version of their Desktop Software. Within minutes, Lytro’s servers are seriously overloaded.
Read more: Lytro Desktop Software for Windows 7 released!
In the United States, LightField cameras enter the retail market and start selling with major retailers Amazon, Best Buy and Target.
For the first time, Lytro’s LightField camera becomes available internationally, in 4 countries: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore.
Read more: Lytro starts International Sales in 4 Countries, and partners with US Online Retailers
While Lytro hasn’t released any sales numbers so far, the company does mention that Lytro users have shared about 400,000 Living Pictures since the first cameras started shipping 8 months ago.
A new firmware update brings manual controls to the LightField camera. Users are able to set the shutter speed and ISO light sensitivity, control the built-in ND filter as well as lock the auto exposure settings.
Read more: More LightField Power in Your Hands: Manual Control for your Lytro Camera!
Lytro’s third surprise in October is a growing camera family: Seaglass and Moxie Pink are two new camera colour models available in the United States (both come with 8 GB of storage), the latter being exclusively available at Target.
New camera acessories are a Camera Sleeve and a bigger Camera Case.
Read more: Lytro LightField Camera: New Colours and Camera Protection available
On December 4, Lytro releases Desktop Software v. 2.0, which includes two major new features, Perspective Shift (parallax) and Living Filters:
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Living Pictures will soon be viewable in three dimensions using 3D monitors and traditional monitors (with 3D glasses). The 3D feature was originally expected to be released “by the end of 2012″.
Read more: Lytro: 3D and Parallax by End of Year
Lytro’s third surprise in October is a growing camera family: Seaglass and Moxie Pink are two new camera colour models available in the United States (both come with 8 GB of storage), the latter being exclusively available at Target.
