Only by evaluating the dead angle technology with light field camera can we save the world.

I don't know if you photographers have read an article called "The Japanese camera is finished! The attack of the light field camera shook the whole photography circle! What is the light field camera in the article? How does it work? Let's take a look!

First generation light field camera

Second generation light field camera

In fact, this product is not a new product. The first generation of Lytro light field camera was launched on 20 1 1, and the second generation was launched on July 20 14. After such a long time, this light field camera was inexplicably on fire. I really don't understand. I laughed that the reflex arc of Master Jiang's photography circle was too long. He righteously said that the photography circle had long known about this camera, but it was too scum and didn't take it seriously. Everyone reacted strongly just because of that outrageous boasting article.

I'm not from the photography circle. I have no idea what a light field camera is. So the question we solve today is, what is worth blowing about this light field camera? And where it is, it caused public outrage.

The so-called "light field" refers to the sum of all rays in any direction in space. It not only includes information such as color and light intensity, but also covers the direction information of light. "Light field photography" can completely record the light field information, so you can adjust the focus of the photo at will after taking a picture, and realize the effect of "taking a picture first and then focusing". Are you a little excited to see "take pictures first and then focus"? Mom doesn't have to worry about my deviation anymore!

Working principle of light field camera

Its working principle is to record light by adding a microlens array at the focal length of a common camera lens, and then digitally zoom through a later algorithm. Although only the intensity information of light is recorded, the direction information of light is also recorded due to the position of light relative to the microlens. In the post-processing, we only need to retrace the light to complete the refocusing.

Light field camera developed by Stanford University

In fact, Stanford University has also developed a full light field camera before, but the light field camera at that time was like this.

The first generation Lytro light field camera

What I have in my hand is the first generation Lytro light field camera, which greatly optimizes the algorithm by improving the microlens array, making it possible to miniaturize the all-light field camera. (Illustration) At that time, this camera also won many industrial design awards. Equipped with 8 times optical zoom and constant f/2 aperture, the aluminum body weighs only 2 14 grams, and the body has only two buttons, namely power supply and shutter. Optical zoom is achieved by touching the top, and other controls rely on 1.46 inch touch screen. When it first appeared, many people thought it was too cool. Just press the shutter, without focusing. It's too simple. However, it was subsequently eliminated with a negative score. We are a column adhering to the experimental spirit and seeking truth from facts! Therefore, this column specially spent 700 soft sister coins to find an official turning machine. You know, this price is the hematemesis price for this product. When people go on the market, they sell it for 399 dollars! Next, let's try the photo effect of this light field camera.

First of all, we shot in normal light environment. Because it is small, we can easily complete the shooting action with one hand. Then you can choose your focus directly on the small display screen on the fuselage, or you can import photos into a special app for processing through wifi. But ... What I want to say is that I can't create a new account for this application yet ... honk. After that, I tried to log in to the app with Master Jiang's facebook, but the process of synchronizing photos seemed to crash, and then ... I flashed back ... but fortunately, I could import photos through computer software for processing. The operability of the software is quite strong. You can choose the focus at will, adjust the color, simulate the effect of different aperture sizes, edit the depth of field and so on. What's more interesting is that you can make animations and watch them in 3D. But! These surprises disappeared after the photos were exported ... The low resolution is absolutely fatal, only 1080× 1080, and the capacity of a single page is only 1MB, which only meets the needs of network sharing, and it is not good to make wallpaper, let alone print photos. However, it is not the reason that the sensor size is too small, but the number of pixels is the same. Traditional cameras record two-dimensional images, and the number of pixels can be fully utilized. However, the light field camera records a four-dimensional image, and then integrates it to generate a two-dimensional image, so information will be lost during the integration process, and the number of pixels in the natural two-dimensional image will be reduced, resulting in insufficient resolution.

Image quality of light field camera

In addition, the shooting quality of this camera is not good in low light.

The second generation product aims at the image quality problem of the previous generation product. Lytro illum has increased the sensor from the previous 1/3 inch to 1 inch, which can output 40 million pixels, and is equipped with a large aperture of F2.0 to improve the photo quality. The shape has also been improved, which increases the body volume, has independent zoom and focus rings, and is equipped with a large number of physical buttons, which improves the usability and grip stability of the camera. (Exterior map) But since this camera is 10,000 yuan short, this column can't be bought ... so it can't be tested. However, according to the Internet, due to the use of high-pixel sensors, the imaging burden of the system becomes greater, and the processing speed gives people the feeling of being half a beat slower. It's like a camera phone a few years ago. After pressing the shutter, it takes several seconds to image, and it is easy to miss the best moment. Secondly, the requirements for computer hardware are very high in the later stage, and the import speed is extremely slow. It is said that it takes almost 40 minutes to transfer nearly 100 photos to the desktop via USB 3.0. However, the last thing I want to say is that even so, its picture quality is still very poor. Although it has reached 40 million pixels, due to algorithm problems, compared with the 20 million pixel SLR, there is still a gap in image quality.

In a word, I think this kind of light field camera can really catch the eye if you are a geek toy, but if you want it to be a substitute for the current camera, you will be angry alive. Personally, I think that focusing on the touch screen has actually made it very simple. If we want to say the value of light field camera, it is probably to leave more space for photographers through a shutter.

In fact, there are many apps that can realize the function of taking pictures first and then focusing, including some mobile phones and cameras, which are also taking this function, but the working principle is different.