Panasonic Light Field sensor Patent No. 20140078259. Light Field forum coloured the most important elements.
Imagine a MIcro Four Thirds camera with a sensor capable of taking full sharp pictures and where focus points and bokeh will be determined in post production. Imagine a MFT Panasonic camera that can take pictures in a way where you can change the perspective(!) in postprocessing too. As most of you will know such a technique already exists and is used by [shoplink 45611 ebay]Lytro cameras (here on eBay)[/shoplink]. They allow you to do this: CLick on the image to refocus and drag to change the perspective:
The current issues with [shoplink 45611 ebay]Lytro cameras[/shoplink] is that the resolution is very low. As Light Field Forum reports right now the maximum effective image resolution of 25 % the sensor’s resolution. Well the good news is that Panasonic latest Patent No. 20140078259 shows how Panasonic solved that problem. They created a technique to achieve 100%(!) of the sensor resolution by moving the lens array below the Pixel layer.
Light Field Forum writes:
In contrast to today’s microlens setups, the microlens array in this system lies behind the photosensitive layer. Thus, light rays first reach the imaging layer (1d in the figure below) and create a standard 2D image. They then pass through the microlens array (1a) and another layer which can be controlled to let light pass through or block it (1b). If allowed to pass through, they finally reach a reflective layer (1c) and are transmitted back to the photosensitive layer (1d) as a microlens-coded image.
By finely tuned control of layer 1b (transmitted light controlling layer), the camera can record both a full-resolution 2D image and a 4D light field image in rapid succession, collecting all the information necessary to reconstruct a full-resolution light field.
The authors note that the presented system is compatible with “every camera that uses a solid-state image sensor”, including “digital cameras, digital camcorders and other electronic cameras”.
I would love to have a Micro Four Thirds camera with such a unique sensor! And you?
[poll id=”235″]
Found via Dicahub and Image Sensor World.
33 Responses
Super amazing! That’s what I like about the m43 system. So much can happen due to so many companies producing stuff for the system. Hope it doesn’t take too long and it holds. 😀
Another issue of Lytro cameras is the slow download of files. Then you have to “work” with its program, and forget post processing tools such as Lightroom. I see it useful and funny for a point and shoot at the moment.
this kind of features exists already on many smartphones like Nokia Lumia with an application called Nokia Refocus, the app takes 10 pictures varying the focus allowing post processing
Try to take 10 pictures of a moving kid and than refocus. It will be a mess 🙂
for moving kids they have another app 🙂 Nokia Smart Cam
Photography is a choice. Where to focus, how to expose the frame… This is not photography, sorry…
That’s what folk said about Impresssionists, surrealists, photographers, digital photography….need I go on? Consider this: most art is open to interpretaion, and that’s the way most artists like it. Surely an image where the viewer can chose their DOF/POF is enlarging on that ideal?
It seems to me that it’s innovation…is simply cheating. Photography is the act of interpretate a single moment in a single moment. Not to build that after some time in post production. Call it whatever you want. It’s not photography, for me. And yes… I do love innovations. But any kind of innovation has to be reasonable.
Federico, what type of photography is true photography to you? Because photographers have always been able “change” an image in PP, this is taking it a little further. Sometimes I take images where I would like to go back and do it differently. Sometimes I am entirely satisfied with what I took, but a viewer of my work may wish for a different approach. I don’t think a method of dealing with that is unreasonable.
The whole digital photography is one big cheating exercise. Colors are faked. Fine details are too guessed, rather than recorded. And do not get me started on the AF. Or metering. Or AWB.
And still, even with all the might of digital cheating, only rarely we can create a captivating image.
Think of light field tech as a continuation of the AF development, where you can fix minor AF problems in the post.
Post production was always a crucial part of photography from its very begining. All great photographers do heavy post production from the begining of the film era. Maybe you dont like it, but it is indeed photography.
Photography is cheating. We should all go back to painting.
Photography will never be able to reproduce the sensation or the mental image you have at certain place and certain moment. Therefore it must stand out in some other way. Increased contrast, (de)saturated colors, use of filters, composition, altered lighting, depth of field, you name it. People have been doing it for ages. Some of that processing happens before the light enters the lens, some of it is post-process. An ideal camera would have the ability to store all information – wavelength, polarization, direction, etc. What you do with this information would be a matter of post-process.
“Photography is a choice.”
You are not talking about “choices”. You are talking about “problems.” It’s only given that progress would go on solving the problems.
It’s not like light field can fix the composition or alter post factum wide angle/compression distortions. Plenty of “choices” stay.
Maybe it is not photography. But it is another cool form of art whatever you call it.
First DFD. Now this. Panny has an interesting vision!
I vote don’t know about it .
Does this means the sensor will even capture more lights ?
Clear & clean at ISO 6400 ?
Where is the implementation of previous tech known as MCS ?
Why not Pana put more efforts to Fuji to speed up the Organic Element Sensor ? This is much promising .
This patent if for cell phones. If you look at the patent you will see it only lets you select 2 focus planes, not continuously focus. With the deep DOF you get from a cell phone with a very small sensor only having 2 focus planes might be sufficient and would allow the phone maker to eliminate all mechanical focusing for cost reduction. Switching between the 2 focus planes electronically would also be much faster than doing so mechanically. But if you are the sort of person that likes to shoot with a fast medium telephoto and select which eye you want in focus this technology has a LONG ways to go.
All the samples I have seen from Lytro cameras have the same problem of limited focus points. I believe they support 4 and try to arrange their sample photos so everything of interest is in one of the 4 planes. Try to focus on either the eye, nose and ear of the squirrel and you get the same thing. With a regular camera you could have chosen the focus point.
Given the huge market for camera phones it is no wonder companies are spending a lot of resources developing technology for them. But not everything that works for a cell phone is going to be applicable for cameras with much larger sensors.
This means I spend much more time editing and making choices after I capture the image. Going out there shooting is the FUN part. Sitting at the computer editing or noodling on a tablet is not. I’ve spent my life learning, training my brain to make decisions in a studio or on location in the moment and walk away with pro-fotos. Not too excited about this
Oh, how the purists lament. Perhaps we should all go back to the paper-based calotypenegative and salt print process.
Who knows what kind of applications this could lead to. Always keep an open mind……
I agree.This is the new generation of digital photography and it’s presentation in the making. Purists can do what they want. This is irrelevant to them and they are irrelevant to it.
So you go out and shoot wide open with your brand new 42.5mm f/1.2 Pana-Leica lens and magically you get everything in focus so that after you can choose what to be in focus and what not (and also magically you get the Leica bokeh in what you choose to be out of focus).
Come on, this might be a good news for April 1st but not today. I’m afraid that something got lost in translation.
I had an argument with a DP of 40 years @ a NAB class who didnt believe me that pulling focus in post was the future and has about a 5 year tech curve before its implemented in video. Goes to show you cant teach an old dog new tricks… this will be a reality very soon and a game changer at that.
Was him the DP of the DPs?? The DP god?
lol yeah probably in his mind. He was good at what he did but not having foresight on this is just plain ignorance… I’m positive we will be pulling focus in post video here soon. If that quality is top notch in 5 years is debatable but I believe it is the inevitable next step. Also.. vector video and 5 axis sensors.. this gimbal craze is going to die real quick once that tech is refined.
Panasonic already makes several photos of a subject based on their DFD technology. Will this sensor based method be an addition? A new form of a FDR (fokus dynamik range) out of camera or in post processing?
Bue bye IQ…. 🙁
It’s good to know that there are companies that really want to innovate. We all shall benefit from newer technologies even if we’re not using the brand that brought those technologies to the market because good technologies became market standards that eventually all the makers will use. MFT is doing great imo and it’s here to stay (despite the trolling and the financial experts forecasts)
http://photobyandrei.wordpress.com/
I work on TV promos a lot and pretty often in meetings when we are discussing sets or backdrops the guys at the top say..”shoot it in green-screen” which is another way of saying, “let’s not decide now, let’s not commit to an idea”. The green screen (blue screen) answer always means they spend 10x as much in post production and it never looks organic. OK here we can get organic but just not a fan of making ALL the aesthetic choices in post production.
This is a good technology for taking vacation photos. You don’t always have the time to get the exact shot you want and sometimes you may only get one chance. Being able to ensure your vacation images are all in focus is a good thing.
I agree there are definitive documentary usage (journalism, travel…) but artistically, I am not convinced. Also Lytro pictures can be refocused but even when “in focus” images are soft, unless that aspect is truly just the result of the lens it might be a thing to address and a potential achile heel.
Bokeh will eventually be completely replicated via software. It won’t matter anymore the quality of the glass or aperature blade design. The way technology is going lenses will be obsolete before you know it.
Interesting development, although I am not sure that I would really need or use it during this life… But talking about sensor technology, what I do wish to have is an MFT with a *truly* panchromatic sensor. The technology is there, just need a sensor without Bayer matrix….