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"Lytro's Illum, the first professional light field camera, will be available at consumer outlets worldwide and will ship all\u00A0pre-orders on Friday, August 1. The camera retails for $1599 and is available in the US from Amazon, Best Buy, Target and B&amp;amp;amp;H.\r\n\r\nThe camera combines a unique mix of 3D graphics and computational photography to produce\u00A0distinctive &amp;quot;living pictures&amp;quot; that can change focus, depth of field, and perspective tilt at a viewer's command. It's targeted to professional photographers and enthusiasts keen to experiment with alternative photographic techniques and\u00A0interactive storytelling.\r\n\r\nThe refocus and perspective shift features\u00A0offer new opportunities to convey a narrative or record a scene. Living pictures present\u00A0a brand new visual experience -- not quite photo and not quite video, but something of a mix where the discretion of\u00A0what to see and when is in the viewers' hands.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThis is my first shot with the Lytro Illum. \u00A0\r\n\r\nThe advantage for viewers is that they\u00A0can see different parts of the story at will. The advantage for shooters is that they don't have to worry about precise\u00A0focus at the time of capture.\r\n\r\nLight field technology is\u00A0not designed to replace traditional DSLR cameras -- though Lytro CEO Jason Rosenthal thinks it eventually will -- but rather to complement and offer an alternative dimension to the current crop of digicams.\r\n\r\n\r\nA depth shot of bath salt bins at Pier 39 in San Francisco.\r\n\r\nNext generation tech\r\nThe Lytro Illum\u00A0records depth and focus in a different way than DSLRs and smartphones.\u00A0Instead of a sensor recording the color and intensity of the combined light, an array of lenses in front of the light field sensor enables it to record the color, intensity, and direction of individual light rays.\r\n\r\nThe Illum's 40 megaray customized sensor (capturing 40 million rays) works together with the camera's fixed 8x zoom lens to offer a 30 to 250mm range. The aperture is always fixed at a wide\u00A0f/2.0, however since the Illum\u00A0captures 3D data, the effective aperture range is commensurate with the 2D equivalent of f/2.0 to f/16. The lens autofocus feature zeroes in on the subject, shows you\u00A0the refocus range in the frame, and gives you a starting point for your composition.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nSeagull contemplating\u00A0Alcatraz Island (Credit: Josh Anon)\r\n\r\nA\u00A0four-inch, angled, backlit touchscreen LCD provides plenty of room for fingertip\u00A0focus and composition, while the Illum's 1/4000 of a second maximum shutter speed makes it a natural for high-speed photography and sports.\r\n\r\nLytro does not advertise megapixel count because with light field photography, printing is beside the point. However, for the record, the conversion from magarays to megapixels amounts\u00A0to roughly a\u00A04-megapixel range with prints of about 8 x 12 or 16 x 20 inches.\r\n\r\nThe camera's operating system is built on a version of Android with the kind of Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 CPU processor found in devices like the\u00A0Samsung Galaxy S5 or\u00A0the HTC One M8. It has wireless capabilities to connect with mobile devices, a removable\u00A0battery, an SD card slot and a USB 3.0 port. It also accommodates accessories like external flash and tripods.\r\n\r\n\r\nStarlings\r\n\r\nIn the hand\r\nI was able to test out a pre-production Illum and here are my initial impressions.\r\n\r\nComparative weight depends on what you're used to. At 2.07 pounds of matte black\u00A0magnesium and aluminum, the Lytro is a heavy camera compared to some late-model DSLRs and mirrorless interchangeable lens models targeted to the enthusiast crowd. But for the pros who tend to carry heavier and bulkier gear, the Lytro will weigh in on the light side.\r\nThe Illum's all-in-one construction gives you relatively light weight, but the body has some bulk.\r\nThe camera measures 3.4 x 5.7 x 6.5 inches (86mm x 145mm x 166mm), and is roughly comparable in dimension to many standard DSLR bodies. As a fixed lens camera though, it's more compact\u00A0than many pro models sporting high-end lenses.\r\n\r\nThe Lytro\u00A0has a minimal number of physical button controls and a fair\u00A0number of touchscreen menu controls: You can use the on-screen menu bar to adjust shooting mode, ISO and more. Exposure compensation and bracketing controls are available, while\u00A0your specs\u00A0are clearly visible in the information bar at the bottom of the display.\r\n\r\nLight field photography requires a different composition method, but the Illum's built-in\u00A0software, with its orange (far away) and blue (close up) color-coded depth overlay, gives real-time feedback on\u00A0which elements in the scene are within refocus range and where they are situated relative to each other.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nThe indicators on the LCD screen instantly reminded me of Ansel Adams\u2019 zone system for exposure, and I like to think about light field in-camera scale\u00A0as an analogous zone system for depth. Once you start walking around with a Lytro, you immediately start thinking in terms of depth, but don't make the mistake of discarding your 2D composition principles -- you'll need both to get your best shots.\r\n\r\nIn bright sunlight, be sure to crank up the screen brightness so you can actually see the colored indicators. Once I did that, I never had a problem seeing the display and thus establishing scene depth.\r\n\r\nTo shoot with the Illum, keep in mind that you can change the focus of the finished image as you view it on screen. As you shoot however, first choose a\u00A0center of focus in the scene to serve as the point around which the picture will refocus best -- either tap the screen to focus or use the camera's autofocus feature.\r\nIn this flawed composition, all elements are at the far end of the depth scale. There needs to be more of a mix.\r\nWith a camera of two pounds that you're positioning away from your body to look down into a live view -- not the traditional way of composing through a viewfinder -- you have to be ready for that weight and space out your shots accordingly. Holding the camera in position for too long got my hands tired. But that may have been due to my unfamiliarity with the camera and getting used to the technique of measuring and adjusting the depth of the photo as well as determining the main area of focus and then considering composition.\r\n\r\nEven though the camera is forgiving in terms of focus, you still have to focus in the near and far view to get a dynamic living picture. Here, the\u00A0Lytro button is your friend, giving you the depth reading\u00A0that helps\u00A0you gauge the relative focus of objects in the frame. If you do not have a combination of near and far elements, the final image won't have\u00A0enough points of interest, and thus tapping the finished picture to change the depth of field will not tell a vibrant story.\r\nComposing an image involves using the focus and zoom to adjust depth in the scene.\r\nIt took a few hours to get used to not only thinking in depth but actually judging depth properly. But if you are wrong, the camera display quickly lets you know, at which point you either change your focus or zoom in or both.\r\n\r\nFor macro shots, you can actually touch the object with the lens as you focus.\u00A0Subjects that are almost flush with the lens are in focus and the camera lets you refocus on other objects nearby.\r\nViewing live pictures\r\nThe Illum\u00A0ships with Lytro Desktop, software that\u00A0lets you import, customize and share your living pictures. A beta version of the software I saw allowed for many classic camera edits that photographers are used to such as exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows and more.\r\nA familiar set of image editing controls are available in the Lytro Desktop software, which ships with the camera.\u00A0\r\nYou can adjust aperture, tilt and rotate the focal plane for cinematic animations or instantly view shots in 3D. When you're done, you can share your shots on social networks or embed them online in an interactive player.\r\n\r\nThe software requires OS X 10.8.5 or later or 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7 or 8.\r\n\r\nA social mobile app for the iPhone\u00A0and iPad is also available, letting you see your own as well as community living pictures. A new feature lets you create videos that automatically pan in and out of a living picture.\r\n\r\nLiving pictures can be viewed on the Lytro site and the player is now supported by the 500px photo portfolio site.\r\nChoose between 2D and 3D stereo image output.\r\n\r\nBottom line\r\nLytro images, unlike traditional 2D stills, depend on the viewer to do something besides passively view your\u00A0photos\u00A0\u2014 they need to\u00A0tap to refocus, shift and tilt perspective or both.\r\n\r\nLytro Desktop software, apart from its photo management functionality, also allows users to export the living picture images as videos or 3D stereo images.\u00A0Instead of a static image the viewer needs to touch in order to change focus, it can refocus and move automatically.\r\n\r\nYou can adjust aperture, tilt and rotate the focal plane for cinematic animations or instantly view shots in 3D. When you're done, you can share your shots on social networks or embed them online in an interactive player.\r\nUse the Lytro software to create an animation from your living picture.\r\nThe software requires OS X 10.8.5 or later or 64-bit Microsoft Windows 7 or 8.\r\n\r\nA social mobile app for the iPhone\u00A0and iPad is also available, letting you see your own as well as community living pictures. A new feature lets you create videos that automatically pan in and out of a living picture.\r\n\r\nWill shooters and viewers change their habits in order to accommodate the new living pictures as a more elaborate and interesting storytelling medium? While only time will tell, I believe that given the vast shift toward viewing images exclusively online, living pictures are a natural evolution of the photographic genre and that as long as viewers needs only tap, swipe or move a mouse -- or just view an animated movie -- that viewers\u00A0will adopt\u00A0the light field technology as a natural extension of photography.\r\n\r\n\u27A4 Lytro Illum\r\n\r\nAll photographs and featured image\u00A0(c)\u00A0Josh Anon. Living pictures (c)\u00A0Jackie Dove and Josh Anon as noted. The entire slate of living pictures shot for this story can be viewed online."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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