I can remember when the first DSLR's came out, and how I saw it as a revolutionary tool that was going to take photography to amazing new places. I'm amazed at how far it's come and how far the big camera companies are continuing to push these technologies. But there's one player that not too many people seem to be familiar with, and it has the chance to be the next big thing.
When the Lytro first came out, I thought it was a cool concept, but a big gimmick. It looked like a kaleidoscope, not a camera. And the ability to choose your focal spot after you've taken the photo? It just seemed too good to be true.
Well, they've just released their second generation, the Lytro Illum. Chris Burkhard recently bounced over to Iceland and put the Illum through the paces.
What's cool, is that it creates a 3D Living Image, or an interactive image in which you, the viewer, can choose the focal point. It creates some awesome images and it can be a lot of fun to take an image that seems to have been shot around f4 - f5.6, and change the depth of field and focus with the touch of the screen. It shoots at a constant f2, but with the ability both in the camera, and in post, to change the depth of field, perspective, and focus. Otherwise it seems to work the same as a normal point and shoot camera.
Honestly, for now I'll be saving my money as it seems to be a very creative and fun way to shoot, I'm just not 100% sold on the application and unsure of how it handles the post processing of images. Is it an awesome technology, you betcha. I just don't think I'm quite there yet.
For more on the Lytro Illum and Chris Burkhard's photo adventure, check out Digital Trends.