Is AF now dead?

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this artice in the Daily Mail shows a new type of camera supposedly rendering every part of an image in focus so you can decide AFTER you take the shot which parts you want in focus:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...s-AFTER-shot--taking-possible-photo-once.html

"The tiny $400 'light field' Lytro camera offers effectively takes every possible picture at once, ‘focusing’ on everything in a picture in one shutter-click.

The technology inside is so revolutionary that Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly met with Lytro to discuss building the technology into future models of iPhone."

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I think it will be always something of a gimmick rather like 3D.
 
Perhaps if they get rid of the post-processing step then the target audience (which will be the mass-uploaders of their lives to FaceSpace) might buy it.

For keen photographers, then it will be just another tool that some choose to use when it's right to do it...
 
Typical daily mail where it doesn't actually ask anyone that knows what they're on about.

Firstly the tech has been around for decades - the reason its not big is because its limited by physics.

The resolution is in the region of 800 x 600 maximum and due to the physics involved cant be pushed much higher at all.

If you look at their press releases they're very coy about things once people start mentioning things like resolutions and scalability.
 
I would say pretty useless for 99% of the people on TP .. If the resolution was full whack I would say pretty useless for 75% of TP .. we know the bit we want in focus.. its the bit we pointed at :)
 
Ridiculous! What a joke! next thing you know you won't need film in your camera it will record the image digitally and you will be able to manipulate it with a computer!

Technology will make it happen, quality glass on the front will make it even better. It is the future, simples.
 
Technology will make it happen, quality glass on the front will make it even better. It is the future, simples.

Yet to find a technology that can bypass the laws of physics. And its those that limit the ultimate resolution of lightfield stuff. Put simply - you cant change the wavelength of light to suit your needs !
 
Several threads on the Lytro already, some have been open for months..

.. what? you expected the news in the Daily Fail to be new?
 
So in laymen's terms, it takes the photo at f/16 and post processes in the blur?

It's never going to be the same as the blur gained optically, but then I'm not the target market for this.
 
2Thumbs said:
So in laymen's terms, it takes the photo at f/16 and post processes in the blur?

It's never going to be the same as the blur gained optically, but then I'm not the target market for this.

Nothing like that. Google it, there are plenty of places explaining how it works.

Whilst I applaud lytro for bringing this technology to market in a neat little package, it's not really going to be any use for serious photographers.
 
Great idea but too left-field methinks for the general user. Photos these days are throwaway and trying to encourage people to revisit snapshots isn't something I feel would be taken on board.
 
Kinda takes the fun out of photography!
 
From what a lot post up on Flickr nowadays they could do with the option to put things back in focus after taking the shot :lol: ;)
 
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