Also, looking at the original pre lytro research news thread over at dvinfonet years ago, is informative, as I layout an even simpler alternative technique to lytro.

I am still considering wherever to design a commercial mass production low cost pro 3D camera platform using the best techniques I have identified. There is still strength and ability in individual effort compared to Red, BMC, Sony, Lytro and all etc big boys. All their effort is like figs in a tree ready to fall off.

I’m glad to see there are a few people here – other than those I’ve quoted – that can think outside the box. I’ve got at least one use for it already. I’ll probably pick up a Lytro at some point, but for now this video trick will work. Does anyone know why this wouldn’t work with a standard video camera (Red or something like that)?

And others have shared ideas for uses – journalism, product displays, and I really liked someone’s thought about 3D abilities. There are a lot of possibilties.

So, no, carlos, I completely disagree. It wouldn’t just make for a lot of shitty filmmaking. Would some use it that way? Of course. The same is true for stabilization in post (“I don’t need a tripod! I have warp stabilizer!”), ISO abuse (“We don’t need lights – it’s a DSLR!”), depth-of-field overload (“We don’t need to build a set – we’ll blur the background out anyway”), etc., etc. Just because some will abuse it doesn’t make it bad.

However, Lytro still has one massive advantage (in addition to resolution): you can take a picture of someone or something in motion and change the focus. Recording 2-3 seconds of video to get the same effect only works on purely static images (even in the example above, the water changes a bit as you change focus).

As an example. You have a room full of “product,” it could be fashion or it could be furniture. The customer can shift focus from one dress to another, or from one chair to another. Is this a gimic?? Sure it is!! If it helps a company to sell their product, than you can MAKE MONEY by supplying this Magical SERVICE.

For journalists, it’s kind of fun to allow viewers/readers/users to be able to choose where they’d like to put the focus inside a “picture”.

For film, the only use for this technique I could see is if you have an actor using a screen (iPad with surveillance footage?) in a scene and he’s is magically able to shift focus. Instead of doing it all in post, you can simply record the action in a single take.

One caveat – it seems to work primarily with non-moving objects, although it might be fun do a little test with a focus pull on a character that is moving towards or away from the camera. That way, users are able to reposition the person just by clicking the focal plane point. Add a soundboard to it and soon you’ll be making a live focus mix.