Can't take Photos-Always Out of Focus ?

[colinbm]

Can't take Photos - Always Out of Focus
Now for something completely different
http://www.lytro.com/
Cheers
Col

[arthurking83]

I think it looks and sounds like a load of hocus pocus software focus BS!!

Until they actually display a working camera and how it works, it looks like images from a grainy point and shoot shot at high ISO using a very small aperture which simply captures a massive DOF, and some magical software to then apply a selective gaussian blur to the image.

Their explanation that you are refocusing seems a little bit implausible to me, as once you have applied a specific focus to a pre defined plane, it can never be subsequently altered, in the traditional method that we understand.
But, and conversely, if you capture an image with a massive DOF to being with and everything appears to be in focus, you can then create software which can selectively apply a blur to parts of an image.
What's on show here is not really a new concept in camera design, but more so software application.

If enough people find this type of photography to be interesting enough, you can bet your bottom dollar that Adobe will have a similar tool in PS in it's next update!

[ricktas]

Looks to me like they have brought something like Helicon Focus and added the software into the camera, and it probably takes a series of photos and then blends them to create the result. It isn't a new concept, using focus stacking to get a larger depth of field in important parts of a photo, I think these guys are just looking at it 'in camera'.