Lytro’s new light field camera is now official

By PR admin | Published: October 19, 2011

Lytro's new camera is now on their website. Check the specs and press release at the bottom of this post.

Specs:

Storage Type Internal flash drive.
Technology Lytro Light Field Sensor and Lytro Light Field Engine 1.0.
Lens 8x optical zoom; Constant f/2 lens.
Controls Power button: Shutter button; Zoom slider; Touchscreen.
Display 1.46 in | 33 mm back-lit LCD display with glass touchscreen.
Exposure Tap on touchscreen to set exposure.
Battery Long-life Li-Ion internal battery.
File Output Light field picture file (.lfp).
Light Field Resolution 11 Megarays: the number of light rays captured by the light field sensor.
Software Includes a free desktop application for importing, processing and interacting with living pictures from the camera. It is built for Mac OS and requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher. A Windows application is in development.
Picture Output Produces HD-quality interactive, living pictures.
Picture Storage Free storage for living pictures on Lytro.com, subject to the Terms of Use. (Internet access required)
Picture Viewing View and interact with living pictures on the Lytro camera as well as any internet-connected computer, smartphone or tablet supported.
Light Field Engine Version 1.0. This is the software that processes light fields to produce interactive pictures. Keep watching this space!
Shell Ultra-light anodized aluminum structural skin.
Grip TPSiV-Injection Silicon Rubber.
E-waste RoHS certified.
Weight 7.55 oz | 214 g
Dimensions 1.61 in x 1.61 in x 4.41 in | 41 mm x 41 mm x 112 mm
Included Lytro Light Field Camera; Lens cap; Cleaner Cloth; Wrist Strap; 3.28 ft | 1 m Micro-USB cable for data transfer and charging.
Optional Accessories Fast charger; Replacement lens cap. (Separate purchase required)

Press release:

Mountain View, CA – October 19, 2011 - Today, Lytro, Inc. (www.lytro.com) unveiled the first Lytro consumer light field camera, introducing a new way to take and experience pictures. Unlike conventional cameras, the Lytro light field camera captures all the rays of light in a scene, providing new capabilities never before possible, such as the ability to focus a picture after it’s taken. The pocket-sized camera, which offers a powerful 8x optical zoom and f/2 lens in an iconic design, creates interactive ―living pictures‖ that can be endlessly refocused. The camera is available in two models and three colors, starting at $399.

The Lytro is the only consumer camera that lets people instantly capture a scene just as they see it by recording a fundamentally richer set of data than ever before. Lytro cameras feature a light field sensor that collects the color, intensity, and the direction of every light ray flowing into the camera, capturing a scene in four dimensions. To process this additional information, Lytro cameras contain a light field engine that allows camera owners to refocus pictures directly on the camera. When the Lytro’s living pictures are shared online, the light field engine travels with each picture so anyone can interact with them on nearly any device, including web browsers, mobile phones, and tablets—without having to download special software.

The Lytro’s sleek design was created with simplicity in mind. With no unnecessary modes or dials, the camera features just two buttons—power and shutter—and has an intuitive glass touchscreen that lets pictures be viewed and refocused directly on the camera. While the Lytro camera houses complex technology, it is fundamentally easy to use, opening new creative opportunities for anyone interested in sharing their favorite memories with friends and family.
The Lytro camera’s features include:

  • Form follows function: The Lytro’s unique compact design is driven by its 8x optical zoom lens, which features a constant f/2 aperture. The Lytro’s anodized aluminum body is lightweight yet sturdy. At less than eight ounces, the Lytro puts remarkable power in a pocket-sized camera.
  • Proprietary light field science: The Lytro is the only camera that captures life in living pictures. Its innovative light field sensor captures 11 million light rays of data (or 11 megarays), including the direction of each ray, something conventional cameras don’t do. The light field engine then processes the data into a picture that is displayed in HD quality.
  • Unparalleled speed: The Lytro’s speed ensures that people never miss a moment. It turns on instantly and has an instant shutter. With no need to auto-focus, the Lytro has no shutter delays.
  • Low-light sensitivity: By using all of the available light in a scene, the Lytro performs well in lowlight environments without the use of a flash.
  • Significant storage: The Lytro is available in both 8GB and 16GB models, storing 350 and 750 pictures respectively. In addition, our first camera owners will enjoy free storage for the light field pictures they’ve uploaded to Lytro.com.
  • Seeing in 3D: Coming soon! Captured as a full light field, all pictures taken with the Lytro are inherently 3D. Special light field algorithms, available in 2012, will be applied to the light field pictures to enable viewing on any 3D display and to enable viewers to shift the perspective of the scene.

The Lytro light field camera is accompanied by Lytro’s desktop application, a free software download that easily imports pictures from camera to computer. Currently available for Mac OS X, the desktop application lets people view, interact with, organize and share their light field pictures. Lytro pictures can then be uploaded to Lytro.com to be shared via Facebook, Twitter, blogs, or as links in email messages. Once shared, Lytro’s living pictures allow viewers to live the moment with the photographer and explore a scene like never before. Viewers can continually interact with Lytro pictures – focusing them over and over – expanding the creative possibilities of each and every shot.

Concepts related to the light field and computational photography have been researched in academic circles for more than a century. Light field science was the subject of Lytro CEO and Founder Dr. Ren Ng’s Ph.D. dissertation in computer science at Stanford, which was awarded the internationallyrecognized ACM Dissertation Award in 2007 as well as Stanford University’s Arthur Samuel Award for Best Ph.D. Dissertation. Dr. Ng’s research focused on miniaturizing light field technology into the body of a single camera to make it practical for everyday use. The digital still camera market is large and growing with $38.3 billion in worldwide revenue in 2010 and expectations to increase to $43.5 billion worldwide by 2015.

Visual storytelling is universal, with 60 billion photos shared on Facebook in 2010, projected to reach 100 billion photos by this summer. ―Light field photography was once only possible with 100 cameras tethered to a supercomputer in a lab, said Ng. ―Today it’s accessible to everyone in a camera that’s small and powerful, but incredibly easy to use. Our goal is to forever change the way people take and experience pictures, and today marks our first major step.

Pricing & Availability

The Lytro camera is available in two models: 8GB ($399, 350 pictures, in Electric Blue or Graphite) and 16GB ($499, 750 pictures, in Red Hot). It is now available to order at Lytro.com and will ship in early 2012. The Lytro desktop application will be available initially for the Mac operating system; a Windows version will be available in 2012.

Related posts:

  1. Lytro light field camera caught with a hidden Bluetooth and Wi-Fi chip
  2. Lytro shows their light field camera for the first time
  3. First Lytro’s light field cameras are being produced in Asia
  4. Lytro light field camera briefly appears in a promotional video
  5. The first Lytro light field camera expected by the end of the year

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  • Bob

    It could be the next Polaroid.

    • Forester

      ooooooo. I bet you’re right, bob.

    • Paul H.

      Please. It’s a novelty for a few Mac users, at best. The vagueness of ’11 megarays, 8x optics, etc.’ is laughable. If these specs were photographically significant then they would have been made clear in terms that photographers understand (corresponding to the 35mm standard).

      And what segment of the market is this aimed at – the P/S users who know little more than how to click the shutter release? Those who don’t fathom spending more than $200.00 per throw-away camera?

      Lytro has not realistically positioned/equipped this thing to snag a coherent portion of the market, and it certainly isn’t going to carve out an untapped segment.

      The technology itself is intriguing, but this first application of it seems like a total blunder. Too bad.

      • Gabe

        Lol, mac is completely the opposite, mac is about the software, not the hardware, its always the pc users who come up with the clock rates and the gigabytes.

  • amien

    Looks damn great.
    How many megapixels is 11 11 Megarays ?

    It could become my next holiday camera. Remembers me polaroid or TLR 6×6.
    One problem I can see on the full size samples are the appearing tiny squares forming the whole picture. Hope it’s just a bug.

    • st r

      How do you count rays?

  • Robert Daniels

    The ergonomics are incredible :| …no Really they ARE! :D
    Its a kaleidoscope ! Fisher price!

    • Robert Daniels

      Seriously….I Love the Technology behind it. But its gimmicky. again another camera that sits further from the eye. The camera is supposed to be an extension of the eye yet more camera designs have you holding the camera further away.

  • Dan

    Um, they’re doing it wrong

  • Patrick

    Mega,…schmega! Now we finally have a seriously good reason to have even crappier technique being normalized by upcoming “Artistes”. Who needs focus, when there’s mega hocus-pocus. ;-)

  • fred

    Dumb ergonomics. Poor sharpness. Too expensive.

  • http://brianhirschfeldphotography.com BH

    8x constant aperture f/2 lens….not bad…

    • sirin

      means the sensor is tiny means loads of noise means unusable even in interior, let alone evening conditions. fail.

  • Cris V.

    Why is it that when they asked for the native size resolution of the image files they pointed out something else instead?
    Is really that crappy the image resolution?

    I’m not hating or anything, i think it’s a cool concept, and if they brand the camera correctly, they will get their market quickly, i.e. them pairing up with Instagram doing something ”cool”.

    • Pdf Ninja

      Expect something low. Probably 720×720 considering their samples, and the fact that they mentioned HD. It’s a facebook camera. In a light field camera you sacrifice resolution for the variable focus information. Don’t expect high resolution images, you’d need a 200 megapixel sensor for that.

  • Matt

    MEGARAYS? SERIOUSLY? These guys are MAKING UP new terms with every single step they make, based on nothing but marketing.

    FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION?
    DO THEY EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? Because this is THE BEST EXAMPLE I’ve seen this year that is the EXACT OPPOSITE. This is FUNCTION FOLLOWING FORM. That is the WORST ergonomics I have ever seen on a camera. It’s like the design team never even talked to a real interaction designer, or the latter never finished or even did a proper education.

    INTERNAL MEMORY? WHAT IS THIS, 1999? I cannot believe they make you pay 100$ for 8gb extra memory. That is RIDICULOUS. And you can’t even choose what color your 16GB model comes in!?

    “Exposure Tap on touchscreen to set exposure.” TAP ON SCREEN? TAP ON A FUCKING 3CM WIDE SCREEN? HAVE YOU EVER TRIED THAT? A 3CM AREA I’M SUPPOSED TO TOUCH SOMETHING SMALL LIKE A PERSON? These people never even thought about photographing.

    “Produces HD-quality” HD-QUALITY? IS THAT WHAT YOUR RESOLUTION IS GUYS? HD CAN RANGE FROM 1280X720 UP TO 1920X1080. Since it’s square, and the height is the dominant factor in HD resolutions, that would be 1080×1080 pixels, which would actually correspond to what we’ve seen on Lytro’s website before. THOSE WERE FULL-SIZE IMAGES. THIS CAMERA’S RESOLUTION IS 1.2 MEGAPIXEL. ONE POINT TWO. YOU HEARD ME. THAT’S NOT EVEN ENOUGH RESOLUTION TO PRINT A TINY POSTCARD AND STATISFY YOUR AVERAGE COSTUMER.

    “Free storage for living pictures on Lytro.com, subject to the Terms of Use. (Internet access required)” SO TO ACTUALLY BE ABLE TO SHARE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS ONLINE, YOU HAVE TO USE THEIR WEBSITE TO HOST ALL YOUR PHOTOS? OH WOW. OUCH.

    YOU ‘LAUNCH’ THE CAMERAS BUT THERE’S NO WINDOWS SOFTWARE? YOU PROMISE EVERYONE 3D BUT THE SOFTWARE AND ALGORITHM FOR THAT DOESN’T EVEN EXIST YET?

    GOOD IN LOW LIGHT? FROM A 1 MEGAPIXEL IMAGE ON A, WHAT WOULD IT BE BECAUSE THEY’RE SURE NOT TELLING US, TINY TINY SENSOR? I DON’T THINK SO. THIS MAKES A POP-UP FLASH SORELY LACKING.

    This company acts, writes and presents itself exactly like most fraudelent and scam companies would. They’re not taking this serious, and it shows, using weird made-up terms to sound impressive to people unaware of cameras. I honestly hope they go bankrupt soon, and I doubt there’s that many interest in this camera at such an incredibly high price, considering a high-end point and shoot is about 100$ to 200$ cheaper. And heck, they focus JUST FINE.

    • Michael Houghton

      Breathe in… breathe out. Breathe in… breathe out. Breathe in… breathe out.

      Now: just don’t buy one.

      Typing in capitals doesn’t make you smarter or your opinion more important.

      Oh and “satisfy”. And “customer”. Unless your comment was a satirical exercise, in which case: good work on the additional detail.

      • Matt

        Who says I think my opinion becomes more important by typing in capitals? I type in capitals because I’m truly raging at this product. It gets on my nerves.

        What’s wrong with the word customer? This camera is very obviously aimed at your average soccer mom, not any hobby or serious photographer. It can be seen from the samples, examples and presentation (“When your daughter smiles” … etcetera).
        Nowadays pretty much all stand-alone cameras have a resolution which, for your average soccer mom, is way too much. At most they’ll print an 8×10, but usually smaller. However, this camera’s resolution doesn’t even cut it for a soccer mom’s needs, to the point that even my mother would complain about the final photo sizes.
        Furthermore, they’re aiming this camera, which is based on technology that requires post-processing, to an target audience that doesn’t even post-process.
        It’s like they never did any proper research, and didn’t really think they needed to after getting financial support from an investor or company with no knowledge in cameras.

        If you don’t agree with my opinion, then counter it, discuss with me, instead of ad hominem attacks.

  • http://blog.nauphotos.com Nau

    why some one that smart (developed something like that) decided to put all the technology to put in to giant lip stick

    • http://tumbleweed-092.livejournal.com Slow Gin

      Because he is dumb. There’s no excuse in presenting interesting technology in such ridiculous package. Maybe he is a master in physics, but this is nothing to do when it comes to really workable tool.

    • Matt

      Because he didn’t develop this technology. It already existed, and it’s not as complicated as people think. Raytrix has been producing cameras like this for over a year now, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is actually a Raytrix camera with a CCTV lens mounted inside the package. Heck, people have made plenoptic cameras themselves; http://cameramaker.se/plenoptic.htm (Even has a tutorial on making a micro-lens array, which is the only thing that sets this camera apart from the crowd. The f2 lens through-out the zoom range? That’s only a bad sign, considering the size of the lens it has all the signs of a tiny CCTV sensor.)

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/anuwintschalek Anu W

    Well, it sounds and looks pretty cool – it’s definitely an innovative approach. Why not?
    (I would want to play around with it, at once! Buying is another question because photographical toys are too expensive for us ordinary mortals to hoard.)

  • Antony Shepherd

    …capturing a scene in four dimensions.

    Wow! FOUR dimensions?
    So not only can you change the focus point, you can change when the picture was taken? Can’t wait for those first Lytro images of the Kennedy assassination, or the Crucifixtion, or the invention of fire…

    • http://twitter.com/#!/57thStIncident 57thStIncident

      I don’t know about this “camera” but we’re already seeing this in a sense–like with Nikon 1 where it quickly captures full-res photos continuously a brief moment before and after the shutter button are pressed and the best image(s) can be selected from the series.

  • Camaman

    This is a nice gadget!
    IMO they went the right way marketing and packaging it for young people and gadget heads.
    Best way to offer it and make technology known to the masses. Much better approach than marketing it as a half baked product to whining pros, and prosumer gearheads. :-)
    They cyan buy a 3rd generation product that does everything they expect from it 5yrs from now for $2000…

    Meanwhile regular people can play and the company can do further development. :-)

  • Camaman

    Wait!… Am I correct to assume that there can be a possibility of NO Windows application on initial product shipping?
    Why do they hurry? These things make companies look so bad IMO.

    “The Lytro desktop application will be available initially for the Mac operating system; a Windows version will be available in 2012.

    Read more on PhotoRumors.com: http://photorumors.com/2011/10/19/lytros-new-light-field-camera-is-now-official/#ixzz1bJKjEDCN
    “

    • Yuval Handler

      My guess is that the company is short on cash, and therefore need to start selling prematurely, explaining the lack of windows based software & poor design.

      Possibly, the money wouldn’t actually come from sales, but from a not-so-smart investor who agrees to pay once the sales milestone is met.

      • tony

        not-so-smart investor + mac users = techno fashion geek = whale

        But they forget that their product doesn’t have an apple logo on it….

  • http://noneed.com What the Fuck?

    Seriously,, What the hell is Mega Rays?

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