Pentax K-01 by Marc Newson

Marc Newson has designed a chunky mirrorless camera for Pentax called the K-01.

The design is sure to split opinions, but I like the fact, that he has dared to break the conventions and Pentax was brave enough to go ahead with the production. 

An in depth review of the camera can be found on the excellent dpreview-website.

The Lytro Lightfield Camera

My original thought, when I heard about the lightfield camera was, that it must be a fictional product. A camera, where you focus the images after they have been taken cannot be real. I read about the science behind it and it started to make sense. The lightfield camera not only records the colour of a lightray, it also records the direction from which it arrived on the sensor. This allows the camera to create a kind of 3D model of the recorded image that can be focused after the actual shot. You can see sample images on the Lytro website. If this product is real, it must be very expensive – my next error. It is available to order now from the Lytro website at a starting price of U$ 399 for the basic 8GB model. To me this is an absolutely revolutionary product, from the idea through to the design. A tempting proposition.

LYTRO Light Field Camera

Until this morning I'd never heard of light field photography. Now I know a little more. A light field camera not only records colour information and intensity of the incoming light rays, but also their direction. With this additional info the camera can internally build a 3D image of the photographed scene and the depth of field can be set after a picture was taken.

LYTRO has now announced to launch such a light field camera this year.

A brief explanation how this works can be seen here, and some interesting sample images here.

Exciting new technology!