Waiting on my Lytro

Back in September 2011, I started reading about Lytro, a company making a plenoptic or "light field" camera. The camera captures images in an entirely different way to conventional cameras. Instead of capturing the light on one focused plane on the camera's sensor, the light field camera uses a mico-lens array to capture 11 million light rays at every distance. This allows for refocusing of the image after the fact and a much faster capture time as the focusing step is removed.

In October, the company invited the public to pre-order one of these cameras - the first consumer light field camera. I weighed up the pros and cons of ordering one of these and after a little self-deliberation, I decided to take the plunge. I did so because I think that a technology like this, that could revolutionize the way we take photos, should be supported. While the advances of a second iteration of any product usually come as a result of the investment of early adopters' purchases, I wanted to be on the ground floor of this technology! I wanted to be one of the first plenoptic camera photographers! Why not?

Months later, the vague "February/March" shipping date for the new cameras is here and I eagerly await its arrival. The company recently sent an email stating that the cameras should start shipping later this month. Another batch (presumably only to fulfill pre-orders) will ship in April/May, which makes it sound like it might be June before these will be widely available. That's assuming there's a demand, of course. By then, I plan on having a detailed review of the camera on this blog and a healthy collection of photos taken with the camera.