The Lytro camera only has two buttons, 'on/off' and the shutter button.
There’s no focus ring and no autofocus. Lytro doesn’t need them. The camera offers a new technology that effectively takes every possible picture at once, ‘focusing’ on everything in a picture in one shutter-click.
When you look at Lytro pictures via a PC, mobile phone or tablet, you can simply touch on anything in the photo to focus on it. It's an idea that could completely change photography.
The camera's makers - a Silicon Vallley start-up that secured a massive $50 million in funding - are coy about the technology under the bonnet. The camera is slated to launch at the end of the year for $399.
The idea isn’t new – but early ‘plenoptic’ or ‘light field’ cameras were room-sized lens arrays attached to high-powered computers. The Lytro is pocket-sized – and could turn the world of photography upside down.
The ‘focused’ images have all already been taken – the camera ‘sucks in’ all available light in front of it, and stores all the information ready to digest. You can trade Lytro's image files as Flash animations via email or Facebook - and once you or your friend has decided on the focus you want, you can save the image as a JPEG.
Find out more about Lytro cameras at the website:
http://www.lytro.com/
