Charles Chi is a great guy. He recently became the chancellor at my alma mater(Carleton U), is very approachable and gives tremendous advice.
Wanted: A Light Field CEO
11–20 of 21 posts
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#12I assumed the Lytro device was a proof of concept for the technology so they could embed the technology in cell phones. I cannot fathom a billion dollar use case outside of cell phones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-field_photography
i'll refrain from saying more.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#131) This is purely my opinion - There is a fundamental problem with these Lytros. Photography is an art, and art is not easy, which is exactly why art has some value, and not everyone can come up with art. It gives one a sense of joy, pride and achievement, when someone comes up with their own art, because they have taken the pains to capture the right subject, at the right moment with the right focus. What Lytro does…
This is one of the more ignorant comments I've seen in a while. 1) Your first point is exactly why Lytro is exciting—it could disrupt photography by making it easier than ever for beginners to take good photos. Everything you said about Lytro could be said about auto light metering, auto focus, digital cameras, lcd viewfinders, Photoshop, etc... you have a bizarre, unproductive pretentiousness. Have you had the joy o…
"it could disrupt photography by making it easier than ever for beginners to take good photos."
These cameras do not help beginners, or anyone else take good photos. In much the same way that instagram doesn't. Sure, it might be a fad, like HDR is, but nothing short of learning about composition and lighting will make anyone take good photos.
I don't see anything disruptive about lytro photography. Being able to pick the focal point arbitrarily after the photo has been taken is a cool gimmick, but what's the point? How many times have you really wanted to do that with a photo? Beginners seldom take photos that are out of focus because autofocus systems have improved so much. Most blurry photos are due to low light and camera shake, poor handling of the camera. Lytro does not solve that problem.
I hope it succeeds and becomes a viable alternative, just as foveon sensors were/are, and I hope the company do well, this is an exciting time for photography.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#141) This is purely my opinion - There is a fundamental problem with these Lytros. Photography is an art, and art is not easy, which is exactly why art has some value, and not everyone can come up with art. It gives one a sense of joy, pride and achievement, when someone comes up with their own art, because they have taken the pains to capture the right subject, at the right moment with the right focus. What Lytro does…
This is one of the more ignorant comments I've seen in a while. 1) Your first point is exactly why Lytro is exciting—it could disrupt photography by making it easier than ever for beginners to take good photos. Everything you said about Lytro could be said about auto light metering, auto focus, digital cameras, lcd viewfinders, Photoshop, etc... you have a bizarre, unproductive pretentiousness. Have you had the joy o…
First of all, I haven't applied for becoming a CEO and as my comment clearly mentions, its just my personal view.
Next, I don't think you read my comment fully either. I am talking about why the Lytro will not be adopted by the professional photography community ,which is WAY huge than the number of starters.
>it could disrupt photography by making it easier than ever for beginners to take good photos.
I thought that's what Point and shoots are for and they do a really good job. Look at the sales. The only problem that Lytro seems to solve is the focusing issue. Honestly, people don't care about the focusing issue. disagree? Go check your Instagram/Facebook feed. No,I am NOT under-estimating Lytro - Its a marvel of an invention. But, its implementation is not that great, which is my point.
>This is one of the more ignorant comments I've seen in a while.
Like I said, I have clearly stated its PURELY my personal view. You are no one to judge me based on my personal views. If I were to judge you based on your comment, then you sound like some random noob, with a fake profile of some random guy who doesn't even have the guts to show up his real identity. With just 10 karma, this is probably expected.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#15I assumed the Lytro device was a proof of concept for the technology so they could embed the technology in cell phones. I cannot fathom a billion dollar use case outside of cell phones.
How about microscopes with post-exposure refocusing (at framerates!). That could be a HUGE biological research tool.
How about security cameras that can be focused onto various parts of the scene and stored for posterity?
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For professionals this tech would also be useful in DSLRs - but ONLY for fixing perspective or composition. I disagree. In a few years light field photography will be mandatory for professionals. This technology lets you combine low light, long depth of field, and fast shutter speed in a single photograph. It lets you selectively blur distractions without tedious manual editing. Multiple cameras can be combined to…
For these cameras to be taken seriously, I think megapixel count needs to be a factor higher. Currently, in video, we're chasing higher and higher output resolutions, and a 10x drop in pixel count isn't feasible. Once the sensors reach 10x the pixel count we need for output, then we can take the resolution hit for the focal effects. 1080p-capable light field capture seems possible now, but 4k light field capture migh…
Be careful not to think of megapixel count as the end-all of photo quality. While it is very important, the quality of the image sensor makes the biggest difference. You can buy some 16MP point and shoot, but the image quality isn't going to match a quality DLSR at 10MP (like the Nikon D80). Think of megapixel count as just the upper limit of image quality.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#17It's great to see a high quality piece of hardware brought all the way to market by a startup. Within the realm of hackernews/ycomb there is a huge focus on software because of the relative cost of bringing it to market, it's understandable. But I would love to see some more stories on HN about some of the behemoth industrial plays that happen outside of the software world, this is a nice example of sorts although it is still a very software heavy company.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
For these cameras to be taken seriously, I think megapixel count needs to be a factor higher. Currently, in video, we're chasing higher and higher output resolutions, and a 10x drop in pixel count isn't feasible. Once the sensors reach 10x the pixel count we need for output, then we can take the resolution hit for the focal effects. 1080p-capable light field capture seems possible now, but 4k light field capture migh…
Be careful not to think of megapixel count as the end-all of photo quality. While it is very important, the quality of the image sensor makes the biggest difference. You can buy some 16MP point and shoot, but the image quality isn't going to match a quality DLSR at 10MP (like the Nikon D80). Think of megapixel count as just the upper limit of image quality.
I think the post you're replying to is referring to applying this technology to video. For feature films, 4K resolution would be highly desirable, and that's going to need some very large sensors.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
Be careful not to think of megapixel count as the end-all of photo quality. While it is very important, the quality of the image sensor makes the biggest difference. You can buy some 16MP point and shoot, but the image quality isn't going to match a quality DLSR at 10MP (like the Nikon D80). Think of megapixel count as just the upper limit of image quality.
I think the post you're replying to is referring to applying this technology to video. For feature films, 4K resolution would be highly desirable, and that's going to need some very large sensors.
Or several smaller sensors and fancier software.
Re: Wanted: A Light Field CEO
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
> For professionals this tech would also be useful in DSLRs - but ONLY for fixing perspective or composition. I disagree. In a few years light field photography will be mandatory for professionals. This technology lets you combine low light, long depth of field, and fast shutter speed in a single photograph. It lets you selectively blur distractions without tedious manual editing. Multiple cameras can be combined to…
I agree with both of you. For some professionals (sports photographers, journalistic photographers), this will be insanely useful (and maybe mandatory). For artistic photographers, capturing the moment as seen in the mind's eye will continue to be critical, so this won't be useful. The nice thing about the first group: they have the financial backing of large media companies (or contractors looking for ways to differ…
Why will a magic camera be useless to artists?