ICM - Leeds Design Agency

A company called Lytro has just launched with $50 million in funding and the technology is pretty mind-blowing. They are designing a camera that may be the next giant leap in the evolution of photography — a consumer camera that shoots photos that can be refocused at any time. Instead of capturing a single plane of light like a traditional camera, Lytro’s light-field camera will use a special sensor to capture the color, intensity, and vector direction of the rays of light (data that’s lost with traditional cameras).

Here’s how it works:

Try clicking the sample photograph above. You’ll find that you can choose exactly where the focus point in the photo is as you’re viewing it! The company plans to unveil their camera later this year.

Here’s a few more examples to play with:

So is this the end of traditional lens-based photography as we know it? I’m not sure, but the results are mightily impressive.