Shoot First, Focus Later

Written by Pat's Papers | Wednesday, 22 June 2011 9:13 AM

There aren’t many true innovations in technology—but this one definitely qualifies. The New York Times says a company called Lytro is getting ready to market a digital camera that allows you to adjust the focus of a picture after it’s been taken. This has huge benefits—just think about it. If the auto focus picked up on the wrong part of the image, it’s no problem because you just fix it after the fact.

The secret to Lytro’s breakthrough is a special sensor called a microlens array which allows the camera to catch much more light than a typical one. This, matched with sophisticated software, “allows still photographs to be explored as never before.” The company’s CEO imagines that looking at several different perspectives in one photo will become a popular use for the technology. It’s unclear when to expect the first Lytro camera to go on sale, but company officials say it will be priced for the consumer market so expect a price tag in the couple hundred dollar range.

Here’s CEO Ren Ng interviewed by Tech Crunch: