Discussion on:

Groundbreaking camera lets you shoot now, focus later

I envision this Tech being quite useful in Surveillance/Security avenus.

I presume that depth of focus can be controlled. Set it to infinity for surveillance/security applications and to whatever you want for artistic work. Brilliant!

Hold a finger up at arms length and look at it. Now, look at something further away. Notice how your finger is no longer in focus? You are changing your eyes' focal point. Did you think about your comment and give it an inflammatory title on purpose, are you just an idiot, or are you just a typical forum troll?

Besides, we would lose alot of artistic value if everything was in focus at once, and it would be a nightmare information overload if our eyes/brains did that

This is actually why I am liking the ability to leave everything in focus at once. When you look at a large photo, your vision is only focused on what the photographer wanted you to focus on. When a photo is taken by an artist trying to bring a certain thing to the viewer's attention, that's fine. But there are people like me who look at a photo and always say, 'I wonder what's going on over there'. For us, the amount of information that could be had, by slowly investigated every little thing going on would be really cool in certain situations.

Will it allow you to save the pic in JPEG format after focusing the way you want or is it only good for viewing on the computer?

I would imagine it would allow you to save them as JPEGs after you've processed them...this would be rather useless otherwise.

I'm more interested in the resolution of these photos...if they're going to be pitifully low for the price paid, then the tech is a ways off yet. But the pictures here look pretty nice. Hopefully they're a good example of what the camera itself will be able to take.

The NYT article quotes photojournalist Richard Koci Hernandez who tested one of the prototypes. He says the picture resolution was indistinguishable from that of his other point-and-shoots, a Canon and a Nikon, so it seems the resolution is just as good as what you'd get with a model from one of the well-established brands.

Laura

This seems to be a great advance. The demo pictures were amazing. However, something seems to be missing. "Stupid" jchandshaw above actually has a point. These photos can only have one, narrow depth of field in focus at one time. What if you want to have everything in focus? There presently is a way to do this. Several pics of the same scene are taken with varying near/far points of focus (static scene, of course). Then software like "Helicon Focus" combines your many pics into one resulting in EVERYTHING in focus.

Lytro needs another step. For instance, why would I want a final picture of the pink flower in the foreground and a barely discernible woman in the background....or why would I want a final picture of her in focus with a pink blotch in front. This seems to be, at this stage, a novelty, too dependent on a computer to view the pictures...and a pain in the arse, I might add.

The photos are composed specifically to show off the camera's capabilities. For example, I'd be unlikely to take a picture of a basketball game and want the chain link fence to be in focus.

If I wanted to take a picture with everything in focus I'd use a very small aperture. But sometimes I want a part of a picture to stand out by being in focus. Being able to do my photo composition sitting at my desk instead of fumbing with my camera would be great.

I think the idea may have some potential. I'll just wait and see if the quality is there for the price. I know that it will have to be very good for me to replace my DSLR with. However, I do use point and shoot now cameras now as auxiliary equipment and will consider one of these when I upgrade again.

I've seen photos that were in focus near and far. Seems I've heard about something called depth of field that has some effect on it. Perhaps some can explain better.

If I can remember from my ancient photography classes.(long before digital cameras) Depth of Field is the selected distance you are able to keep in focus. You can basically achieve this by changing your f stop up and lowering your speed to allow in more light. That is the one sentence explanation. I like this new camera. I hate missing my shots. I can't wait to get one.

Could be ground breaking. I wonder if it would be possible to bring near field, middle distance and background into focus at the same time so that everything would be sharp.

Well done! Thank you very much for professional templates and community edition
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As one of a few Canadians who do not own a camera, I was most pleased to read about this new technology. Thanks so much for the comments and suggestions which will allow me to wait without guilt for the new and upcoming technology, which I will just have to have, so I am starting to save now for a future purchase.

Warmest Regards,
rubynebula@yahoo.ca
Powell River, British Columbia, Canada