We are intrigued by the new Lytro Camera. Lytro suggests a radical change to the way we will take pictures from now on. No longer will we need to assure our pictures are in focus before we snap the shutter. Lytro allows you to adjust the focus afterwards. The idea of never having blurry photos again is tempting but at the same time will this take away an essential element from photography. Will this change the art in a way that it truly won't matter what you capture at the time, you can just fix it later? Despite the sleek design we are dubious about this new direction for digital photography. We love photography at Curve and although this is an incredible advancement in photography tech we don't really hope that it catches on too much. This kind of technology will probably be great in your mobile phone for snapping pictures of friends or on a night out when you don't want to spend time focusing and making sure the picture worked, but for pros we're not sure if this will be desirable in cameras. The idea of having a level of control that means you can refocus your shots afterwards does seem like it would be super useful, kind of like the level of control brought about by the introduction of shooting in RAW, however...
... the control that comes with RAW mirrored the control the photographer has when developing film photos albeit with more precision. Being able to adjust the focus apre-shutter-press has no bearing on traditional photography though and seems alien to the process.Although annoying, when looking back through your photos from a shoot and seeing some of your shots out of focus, that, at the time you believed were perfect, it's part of the process, it's part of the fun of photography seeing how your shots turned out. If you already know that everything is going to be perfect or completely fixable with your photos when you get home won't that kind of take the fun out of photography??
Despite this, we wouldn't mind having a play with on of these beauties. Already this is the second new camera we have featured that is re-looking at the physical design of the camera body. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend of really good looking cameras.
Have a play below on a couple of Lytro photos on which you can adjust the focus.
For more info check out www.lytro.com