Lytro Illum Light Field Camera

5uspect

So Lytro have released a more consumer version of their light field camera.
We've bought one in work for a project and I've been playing with it this evening.

For those of you who don't know it works by using a microlens array on a CMOS sensor to allow every tenth pixel to have a defined focus offset. So the 40MP Illum becomes a 4MP camera that can focus on ten different Z positions simultaneously. The main lens sets the primary focus point and the pixel groups are offset to the foreground and background.
Software can then be used to convert the RAW image into an image where you can control the focus point, dept of field and even move the perspective slightly.

Here are a couple of videos of the result.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsSHcg1bob8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZNlr4gsM04

It's a bit of a gimmick for photography but it could be very useful in machine vision applications.

5uspect

A few more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fLhmCHQ1Xw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaGFgXrwgLg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8WLtQmlWcg

amdgilmore

Do you still have to upload your images to their site in order to manipulate the DoF?

That was the main failing of the original version.

It's a cool trick otherwise. I'd be embarrassed to admit how often I've come home to find one of the best shots from a shoot is slightly out of focus.

magicbastarder

how slightly is slightly, though?
if i read the above correctly, it essentially takes 10 photos, but your desired point of focus (if something as specific as a highlight in someone's eye) could still be between two of the ten points; but on the brick wall shot, there appear to be more than ten focus points?

5uspect

amdgilmore wrote: »

Do you still have to upload your images to their site in order to manipulate the DoF?

That was the main failing of the original version.

It's a cool trick otherwise. I'd be embarrassed to admit how often I've come home to find one of the best shots from a shoot is slightly out of focus.

I believe so but I won't be using it for that.

magicbastarder wrote: »

how slightly is slightly, though?
if i read the above correctly, it essentially takes 10 photos, but your desired point of focus (if something as specific as a highlight in someone's eye) could still be between two of the ten points; but on the brick wall shot, there appear to be more than ten focus points?

It takes one image but at ten overlapping focus points simultaneously. There's a bit of math involved in reconstructing the final image but you just need to remember that the depth of field isn't discontinuous. So as long as your acceptable sharpness (circle of confusion) is covered you should be fine.