Pixiq

Every new technology needs a place to start and a means to grow. Seeds need nurturing as do great ideas.

To me, the excitement of Light Field imaging is that it can be done. The Lytro camera represents the beginning of amazing possibilities.

To be honest, I never expected anything more than a video size resolution from this device at this early point in its development. Great technology requires time and funding.  This first version is a beginning and may not be easily compared to what we are used to in terms of normal pixels or a traditional digital camera.

The first digital cameras available to consumers produced tiny files and were very expensive. In 1995 or so Kodak's DC40 by today’s standards was huge, the interface was almost non-existent, it had a fixed lens, a built in flash, no monitor, internal memory for around 50 images. It looked like a pair of binoculars, ate batteries like crazy, and the pixel size produced puny .38 megapixel image files. That camera cost users around a thousand bucks a pop. However, people paid the price because you could upload the images to your Mac and play with the files in software. It was a digital beginning and it was amazingly wonderful! There was nothing else like it! Consumers pay the price for advancing technologies. The first to embrace a new idea, usually have to bare the burden of advancement. Without support, great ideas vanish.

To make this new Lytro light field technology work for all kinds of future imaging devices is going to be a huge task, which will take a tremendous amount of additional development. However, if it goes as I suspect it might, it will have a huge impact on such things as video, cell phones, imaging at night, microscopic and telescopic imaging, surveillance and a vast number of other imaging situations. We need to embrace it rather than spurn it away simply because it might not compare to what we use now.

I can imagine photographing a microscopic subject where the image can be refocused throughout the entire subject at any point afterwards. The same should be expected with a telescope where the image can be refocused on any portion of a planet, a star or the Milky Way. Imagine the potential for doctors and scientists to be able to look at different depths of an image without the need to go back to the capture device. How about aerial images where the smallest details can be focused from shots taken at high altitudes from obtuse vantage points?

There are hints that this technology can be useful for 3d imaging. What else can this be used for? I have just begun to speculate.

I am excited to look into the future. One day, you should expect this technology to play a significant role in a DSLR. In the meantime, I am anxious to play with whatever it is now and anticipate how this will play out as a futuristic entity.

As with the iPhone, iPad, laptop and electric cars, every iteration produces more and better functionality and usability while adapting to our needs. The Lytro is a technology that will most likely grow. I believe it is the kind of technology that has unforeseen uses and will at some point, produce images of significant scale.

The first users will be those seeking a new way to image. They will be the pioneers.

This amazing camera requires patience and support to move forward. Given a chance, I believe it will be even more incredible in all our imaging futures.

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NOTICE:    THIS POSTING AS WELL AS ALL PHOTOGRAPHS AND GALLERY IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT - © JOHN NEEL AND ARE NOT TO BE USED FOR ANY PUPOSE WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT FROM THE WRITER, THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND/OR PIXIQ. THE IDEAS EXPRESSED ARE THE PROPERTY OF THE PHOTOGRAPHER AND THE AUTHOR.

Please read more of my posts regarding Digital and Analog Photography on Pixiq. 

"Rethinking Digital Photography - Making & Using Traditional & Contemporary Photo Tools"