Well the experiment failed miserably. The nerd in me had the newest techie kid on the block, the Lytro camera - So if you saw me walking around with what looked like a range finder on a golf course or something you would see in a hunting blind, the link below has many shots that I took of Saturday's events with that 5 inch long 1.5x1.5 inch square tube I was walking around with.
I really wanted this thing to work, however, as we all know, there is a place for every tool, and carlisle isn't a place for a Lytro tool - as a matter of fact, I'm not sure if there is a place for this tool.
The photo album, only got 100 shots even worth keeping - is a living album. In each photo, you can click on various parts of the image and the focal point will change to your click position. The intent was that you never have to focus the camera and the light collection guts make it brainless to change exposure settings etc., via software.
Where this camera fails miserably - any distance shot that focal points are too close to matter. The output file size is a low 1080 x 1080 or the equivalent of a 1.2 Megapixel camera. That is 12+ year old technology folks, over 12 years ago 1.2 megapixel cameras were all the rage by Sony and the floppy disk writers.
So why would you drop close to $500 on these things - no one should and I apologize if anyone in the group did - a new set of road tires for the speedy could be had for the same price (mounted and balanced). With that, I know the Speedster forum is not a place for a technology blog, however, I am more upset that I didn't take a backup camera with me - or take out my iPhone more often for some legitimate shots (Like Lane just posted).
Lytro = fail - but here is some fun you may have clicking on "living photos" - Wow what a great marketing campaign, luckily this was non-paid demo that my company was trying out.
I feel I missed out on some great memories using this dam thing and believing that this was the real deal. But, the personal interaction during the day made up for the lapse in techie judgement. I hope to see everyone again next year.
http://pictures.lytro.com/aburger/stories/35691
Andy
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