Lytro Camera Review

Introduction

US company Lytro has produced unusual camera that is about to make a revolution in photography. In the mid 2011. Lytro l.t.d. has announced a new product line called “Light Field Cameras” that can capture more colors, more light and shoot pictures with greater intensity than ordinary cameras.

This rectangular shape camera has a small touchscreen display, and that is where all similarity with other cameras stops. There are just few buttons on the lytro camera but still there is great amount of features. The basic operating principles are point & shoot; there is no need to worry whether or not you placed your object into the right focus. Camera makes sure you did. Viewing pictures from an ordinary camera can sometime make you regret that you haven’t waited for the right focus or that you haven’t recorded some other interesting object as well. With Lytro there are no regrets, you simply can’t shoot a bad photo and nothing can be out of focus on your pictures.

With 8x optical zoom you can only use your imagination to guess where this lytro camera hits its limits. Lytro is also equipped with standard USB port and a trckpad line, where you can move your finger from 1-8x zoom. There are just 2 other buttons on this camera; power button and the shutter button. Lytro comes in 3 colors/models, ranging from $399 to $499 and 8-16GB of storage. What is interesting is that you can “only” make ~350 photos with 8GB. Though this is sufficient for average amateur photographer, it unveils another fact – Lytro Camera pictures are about 22MB big!

The other limitation is application for picture editing. It is currently only available on MAC while PC version is currently being developed and it is expected by the end of the year.

Once recorded, photo becomes very interesting and amazing. You can click on any part or object on the photo and it instantly becomes focused. You can do that immediately after, a month or a year after you shot your photo. Pictures can afterwards be shared on Facebook, where your friends can play with its focus. “Lytro lets people to first shoot the moment and then think about it” – words of the founder of the company, Ren Ng. Try it yourself here.

The 3D feature should be soon available too, but by saying “available soon” we are not aware that the camera is already taking 3D pictures, but the users will have to wait for the software support that would make this 3D pictures viewable on 3D screens.. Then this would be a true photography (r) evolution.

The device’s weight is 7.55 oz or 214g and it is a weight of a bit heavier Smartphone. Big part of its weight can be blamed on glass components, lenses and display. Lytro camera is also of a “smartphone” size, at least in length: about 4.4” (12cm), but due to it square shape it is thick as much as high which is 1.6” (4.4cm).

With its design it looks like it came from 2020. With just a few things to touch, Power button, shutter button and a zoom slider, this camera will present ease of use to population from 5-95 years of age.

Although it might not be mentioned so far, lytro camera will most likely have very bright future in security service. Imagine shooting the riots or hooligan fights with it – police will love it. Any face on the scene can easily be recognized and though the sharpening software apps can do mighty jobs today, Lytro will save both time and money since all subjects on the picture can be in the focus instantly with the free desktop app that comes with every purchased Lytro camera.

With 8 Mega Pixels you can capture a lot of tiny details of close up mode and be able to get all details from the background as well. Remember how many times you tried to make a good quality photo from a 5 inches distance with your phone camera? How many successful attempts did you have? With Lytro you will have 10/10, 1000/1000 or simple 100%.

Though lytro camera has no flash, it still shoots incredible night photos. Lytro actually work on the recording light fields concept. This concept was introduced 15 years ago but then you needed room full of cameras to record such pictures. Today that is all possible within this small box that can fit in your pocket. (But not in the one that you carry your keys in),

 Pros

• multi focus
• vibrant photos
• great and futuristic design
• very easy to use

 Cons

• very large pictures, about 22MB
• costs $400
• no photo edit on PC yet

Recommendation

Since the first appearance the new Lytro camera got first few nicknames. It was called: “a godsend for lousy photographers”, “a way to reinvent the photography”, “a shoot-now-focus-later camera” – we can only say that the Lytro camera has earned all of these.

On the Lytro web site you can find a lot of images taken by this camera and you will be able to preview how wonderful your pictures can be once you decide to get yourself this piece of magic and take part in photography revolution.

 Details / Specifications