Lytro has been an aggressive leader in VR and their patented Light Field technology. And a lot of buzz has surrounded their latest cinema camera. Finally unveiled during a demonstration at the 2016 NAB Show, Lytro pretty much dropped the mic while presenting their vision of the future of film production.
Titled simply “Lytro Cinema,” this 755 megapixel camera promises to be a major game changer particularly when it comes to big budget productions dependent on complex visual effects work. As a part of their demonstration, Lytro played a short film combining footage shot on their camera and the Lytro Cinema. Afterwards, they showed the audience the differences between the two and how they achieved specific shots with their cine-cam. And that was the jaw-dropping moment: almost everything was achieved post shoot.
In other words, Lytro has created a camera that allows the cinematographer to shoot a scene however he wants but can change the focal length, films speed, even angle of the shot after it’s been recorded. Although ISO is limited to the 200 – 400 range, Lytro promises that the next iteration of the Lytro Cinema will be considerably more low light sensitive.
According to a quote in Variety, director Robert Stromberg exclaimed, “it’s going to revolutionize not only the way we make films but the way we define photography.” Although it can shoot up to 300 fps with a wide dynamic range of 16 stops, the camera itself is defined as a “Light Field device” which means it doesn’t capture the image in a traditional way. Think of it more as a camera that scans a kind of three-dimensional, hologram-like map of a scene. This explains why the Lytro Cinema is so flexible when it comes to changing data in post.
What this also helps to accomplish is the ease of establishing visual effects shots. Thanks to Lytro’s built-in technology, this will eliminate the need for green screens. You can just remove your subject and place them in any surrounding.
The downside to all of this is that the Lytro Cinema will be a very expensive and very large camera. It is about as big as the old-timey movie cameras used on studio lots back in the golden age of filmmaking. The sensor alone is approximately the size of a computer monitor. However, it will be interesting to see how size and price will be modified while the Lytro Cinema experiences its own inevitable upgrades in the years to come.
