Lytro light field camera review

Digital cameras haven’t really changed since their inception – we might have more megapixels and more sensitive sensors now, but the basic concept has stayed the same. Lytro is looking to do something different with the first consumer Light Field Camera. It captures more than just , which means you can adjust the point of focus after you’ve taken a picture.

Lytro has been available in the US for over a year, but the camera has finally made its way to the UK. That new technology isn’t cheap though, with the basic 8GB Lytro costing a whopping £399. Annoyingly it also costs the same amount in dollars too, when a price nearer £310 would be fair, even including VAT. So just what is Light Field photography all about and is it worth all that money?

FIELD OF DREAMS

Light field photography uses a special sensor and a microlens array between that and the main lens. This combination of elements allows it to capture not only the colour and intensity of light hitting the sensor, but also the direction that light came from. This data is then processed to create what Lytro calls a ‘Living Image’.

The Lytro captures an 11-megaray light field, rather than an image measured in megapixels. However, you’ll notice the similarity between the megaray figure and the resolution of many standard digital cameras. Essentially the Lytro sacrifices image detail to add depth information to its images. The images themselves only have a 2D resolution of 1,080×1,080 pixels – that’s just 1.2 megapixels.

The real fun comes afterwards, as knowing where every point of light in a given scene came from lets you re-focus the image after taking it. You can click on the screen to choose any focus point you like. The software then analyses the captured light field and moves the focus point just as if you’d set the focus there on a standard camera when taking a picture, with depth of field based around the fixed F2.0 aperture. Once processed you can even shift the actual point of view around like a 3D image, though this is limited by the size of the lens array and so only amounts to very small shifts in perspective.

Click to change the focus point or click and hold to change the perspective

Changing the focus point is fun but the lack of sharpness in the final image means that subtler shifts are largely unnoticeable – say picking out an earring in a 3/4 angle portrait rather than the eye of the subject as normal. It works well with split compositions, with one item heavily foregrounded, but this quickly feels like a bit of a one-trick pony.

OUT OF FOCUS

It’s unusual looking but very well made

With no focus to worry about the Lytro should be the ultimate point-and-shoot camera, it takes a pic instantly when you press the shutter, but there are other issues. The camera itself looks a little like a blocky flashlight, with the lens at one end and the viewfinder at the other. The shutter button and touch-sensitive zoom slider are at the top, so you can control the camera with one hand. A power button and micro USB port are on the bottom.

The zoom is controlled by running your finger across the top edge

On the back is a tiny 1.5in LCD display, which has a very low 128×128 pixel resolution and very poor viewing angles, which cause colour and contrast to shift wildly unless you’re looking at it face on. Given the shape of the camera, that’s often a challenge. The user interface is purely icon-based, to squeeze as much onto the screen as possible; it’s gesture-controlled, with swipes to the left and right to browse photos and a swipe upwards to bring up the menu. Double-tapping a photo in the camera roll will zoom in, or you can use the zoom slider, but both methods require the camera to re-render that portion of the image. It takes between one and two seconds, and even then it’s tough to see details on the tiny screen.

It takes some getting used to, as you can accidentally obscure the screen when holding the camera outwards. Instead, we found it best to hold it as if it were an oversized dart – hardly comfortable, but with the best view of the screen. The rubber grip covers about one third of the camera’s length, so larger hands may end up spilling over onto the aluminium casing.

The tiny screen isn’t the easiest to use for composition or control

You can choose between the two shooting modes. Everyday mode can be used point-and-shoot style, with elements like ISO and shutter speed controlled by the camera. Tapping the screen will set the metering point. Once you’ve snapped, you can refocus the image as you see fit, from extreme close up to infinity.

Creative mode gives you a little more control, letting you set a specific focus point. The camera then creates a range of focus around your selection, which means greater emphasis on certain details but no way to focus to infinity.

IMAGE QUALITY

Given its low resolution, the overall picture quality was never going to compete with a similarly priced compact or digital SLR camera. It’s about on par with the average smartphone in terms of detail and noise, with the square images it captures looking a lot like Instagram snaps – there’s even filters to play with on the accompanying iPhone app.

Although the camera lends itself to macro photography, we found that the camera’s minimum focal distance was further than we expected; and it’s very hard to tell if you were too close to a subject until you import your images to a PC.

For shots without a clear foreground and background, there’s very little difference when refocusing. Your subject needs to be close to the camera, as the small sensor can’t detect depth variations from distances of more than a few feet.

You can clearly see the switch between focusing near or far on the rail, but clicking on different parts of the building in the background makes little odds

The images are great for uploading to Facebook or Twitter, where those who haven’t yet experienced Lytro will doubtless be impressed – as we were when we first saw them. However they aren’t suitable for printing, partly due to the low resolution and partly because their interactive nature is what makes them special.

The 8GB version we tested for this review can hold up to 350 pictures, there’s no memory card slot but this is probably still more storage than anyone will need given the Lytro isn’t designed to replace your main camera. You can hook it up to your PC to offload them, though you’ll first need to install the desktop software

The camera saves images in its own LFP (light field photograph) format, which can be opened through the Lytro desktop application or uploaded to the website for sharing on social networks or embedding on websites. Twitter uploads are fully supported from the website, letting your followers see photos directly from their timeline, but for some reason you can only embed to Facebook using the desktop app – posting from the website will just add a link, not the full photo.

CONCLUSION

Light field photography is an exciting new idea, but if the Lytro is any indication, we’re still a long way from it competing with traditional digital cameras. We’re not sure to what extent the technology has dictated the shape of the Lytro, or if its creators just wanted it to stand out, but it’s somewhat awkward to use compared to a smartphone or point-and-shoot camera. The low resolution images are unsuitable for printing and the technology is seriously expensive. A larger viewfinder with better viewing angles would make composition easier, and a higher image resolution would make more of your ability to shift the focus point.

All that leaves us dreaming of a Light Field camera based around Nokia’s 41-megapixel Pureview sensor, soon available on the Nokia Lumia 1020. Such a sensor, with a suitably complex micro lens array could easily shoot 4-megapixel light field images. If it could also be switched back to standard 41-megapixel mode for conventional shooting then you’d have the best of both worlds.

For the time being though, the Lytro is simultaneously a technical marvel and a bit of a novelty item. Its light field technology is impressive but it only really works well for certain compositions. The interactive nature of the finished shot is the most engaging part of the process. It’s great to see a company trying something different, rather than simply pushing for more finely detailed images or better low-light performance, but the Lytro is at least twice the price it should be based on how much fun you’ll get out of it.