Illum: The second coming of the Lytro camera coming
NEW YORK — The very first Lytro Light Field camera was novel for a number of reasons, and not just because it looked like an oversized tube of lipstick. It boasted innovative technology that let you shoot a picture first and focus it after the fact.
But Lytro was also a flawed version 1.0 product that initially provided no flash or removable storage, that required a considerable learning curve, and that at $399 or $499 struck me as pricey given such limitations.
On Tuesday, Lytro announces its second coming, the Lytro Illum. The new camera, which is due out in July, is still based on the pioneering light field technology that Lytro's founder Ren Ng did his seminal Ph.D work in at Stanford University. So again you can focus long after capturing an image. But you can also press a button to gauge the relative focus of all the objects in the frame as you're contemplating a shot.
Indeed, this latest model promises photographers and viewers a lot more versatility than the first Lytro, though it will cost considerably more too — $1,599, or $100 less for early adopters who pre-order between now and July 15.
Made of magnesium and aluminum, Illum is a much larger camera than the original Lytro--closer in size to a DSLR--and targeted at creative professionals. It has an 8x optical zoom, 30-250mm equivalent focal lens with a constant f/2.0 aperture and 1:3 macro. The design is still somewhat unique but there's no mistaking it for a camera, something you couldn't necessarily say about its predecessor.
The max shutter speed on Illum is 1/4000th of second. Also on board is a 4-inch glass touchscreen with a backlit LCD. The battery on the camera is removable, and yes there's an SD memory card slot. It's wireless too. Inside is the kind of Qualcomm chip you'd find on a tablet computer, along with what Lytro describes as more powerful in-camera software.
With light field technology the talk is not of megapixels but of "megarays," and the Illum has a 40 megaray sensor. That's a measure of the number of light rays captured by the light field sensor. The company says you'll be able to view the living pictures inside the camera or on supported computers, smartphones and tablets.
The new camera may not be any more mainstream than the first model. I'll have to judge ease of use later. But Lytro does again appear to break new ground and I look forward to testing one out when review units are made available.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow @edbaig on Twitter