Lytro Ups the Tinkering Quotient for Living Pictures

By Enid Burns
TechNewsWorld

Lytro -- which introduced the camera that lets you shoot now, focus later -- will soon permit a lot of additional fiddling with photos through a software update. Perhaps most intriguing, Lytro camera owners will be able to share their Living Pictures on social networks, where friends can use the new tools to play with filters, focusing and perspective as well.Lytro, the new darling of the digital photography world, has added a perspective shift feature, plus nine filters to create effects in Living Pictures. The software update will be available on Dec. 4, and will work even for photos previously taken.

Because the Lytro camera captures a wealth of information -- including light fields -- that is processed when the photo is viewed, it adds greater flexibility to photo editing.

A New Perspective

"We introduced the first major light field capability, the ability to refocus a picture after it is taken," said Eric Cheng, Lytro's director of photography.

"The next major light field feature from Lytro is Perspective Shift, which allows you to make the picture all-in-focus and interactively change your point of view in a Living Picture after you've taken it -- left, right, up, down and all around on a computer or mobile device," he told TechNewsWorld.

The new advances will work with cameras already in stores and in consumers' hands. The software update makes changes to how photos are edited on a computer, tablet or mobile phone -- and when posted on blogs and social networking sites.

"Lytro could now mean people can no longer take a bad photo, due to the ability of being able to focus pictures after the shot is taken," Pamela Tufegdzic, senior analyst of consumer electronics at IHS iSuppli, told TechNewsWorld.

Since its introduction, Lytro has been viewed as a game changer for the photography industry. If the company continues to add new features to the camera through updates, it makes an even bigger impact on a market where cameras are refreshed with new models every few months -- and once a consumer buys a camera, the technology quickly becomes outdated.

"Lytro is revolutionary, as no other camera allows consumers to focus pictures after taken and then to be able to share that creativity online. I think the big difference is it lays out a different opinion of how we think about digital still images," said Tufegdzic.

While the technology is groundbreaking, some people have a hard time accepting the form factor. The Lytro looks like a large viewfinder, with not much else. It may take some time -- and possibly some new product designs -- to get over this hurdle.

The technology is compelling for early adopters and relatively affordable; however, product design and resolution are still issues.

"It's a geeky product -- certainly far from mainstream," said tech analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group."

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