Focus On This

Well, actually you don't need to focus right now - you can do it later...from any computer screen on the planet. Why? Because LYTRO is coming.

We've just sent two of our keenest staff members, Mike and Gavin, to Sydney to attend the Lytro University course. I am not sure if they get to wear academic gowns and sit at High Table now, but they did bring back useful information about the new Lytro camera system.

We'll be getting the Lytro cameras on October 10th.

We will get the red camera - with 16 Gb of memory, and the graphite and the blue cameras with 8 Gb of memory each. The red one costs $ 599 and the blue and grey ones cost $ 499. There will be various mounting accessories.

Gav and Mike got to play with the cameras in Sydney, taking numerous tourist shots, and we can look at them here on the shop computers. The camera shoots a picture all in one, with no initial focussing - you just press the computer screen when you are looking at it and it focusses at the point you press.

Apparently there will be provisions in the future for this sort of interaction on lots of the social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Users will be able to send the pics they take directly to these broadcasters and their viewers can then cruise around at will

Gav and Mike also saw something that seemed to produce a three-dimensional effect from a single image, but this was a pre-release development thing and we will have to await official announcements. And explanations, I hope.

Suffice it to say this is a chance for Perth photographers to try out one of the most exciting new technologies on the scene. It will not replace the DSLR for portraiture or weddings - it will not replace the medium format digital camera for complex studio shoots - and it definitely will not replace the wet-plate ambrotype camera for high speed sporting event coverage - but it will be a lot of fun. It might even challenge the people who take pictures on their mobile phones, though it won't allow you to order pizza.

You can reserve a camera right now - and several people have done so - by ringing us up and CC'ing us a deposit. If you talk to Mike and Gav you can get a lot of enthusiastic information.