Steve Jobs Met with Light Field Camera (Lytro) Company's CEO

Monday January 23, 2012 8:20 pm PST by Arnold Kim

In the upcoming Inside Apple book by Adam Lashinsky, it's revealed that Steve Jobs had expressed interest and subsequently met with the CEO of Lytro, the makers the first light field camera. The relevant book quote posted by 9to5Mac states:
The company’s CEO, Ren Ng, a brilliant computer scientist with a PhD from Stanford, immediately called Jobs, who picked up the phone and quickly said, “if you’re free this afternoon maybe we would could get together.” Ng, who is thirty-two, hurried to Palo Alto, showed Jobs a demo of Lytro’s technology, discussed cameras and product design with him, and, at Jobs’s request, agreed to send him an email outlining three things he’d like Lytro to do with Apple.
Lytro received a lot of press last year when the first of its light field cameras went on sale in October. The product even received Popular Science's 2011 Innovation of the Year.

Light field cameras are a different take on photography by capturing "the entire light field" and saving all that information into a single file. Photographers can then edit the file afterwards in a number of unique ways -- including refocusing the image. This video walks through this unique ability:


One of the limitations in the early light field cameras is a relatively low resolution. The first Lytro camera produces final photos of only 1.2 megapixels (1,080x1,080). The cameras also don't take any video and start at $399 for an 8GB model. The camera carries an elongated form factor that seems to be a result of the unusual optics required.

Given the hype surrounding the technology, it's perhaps no surprise that Steve Jobs found interest in meeting with the young company. That meeting, however, is getting special attention due to the fact that Walter Isaacson had said that Jobs wanted to reinvent television, textbooks and photography.

Apple just released their first digital textbooks for the iPad, and is expected to get into the television space. Apple's future goals for photography, however, remain unclear. Apple includes a digital camera its iPhones and has made progressive improvements in camera quality over the past few generations. While Apple no longer makes a standalone digital camera, they were one of the first to product a consumer targeted digital camera back in 1994.

Given the popularity of smartphones and the subsequent decline of point and shoot camera popularity, we'd expect any future Apple movement into photography would be centered around the iPhone.

[ 81 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
nagromme
105 months ago

Okay, let's have a show of hands: How many people here have taken photos where they wish they could re-focus at will to emphasize one element of the photo?

Wait, before you raise your hands, let's limit it to those people who take such photos often enough to pay extra for the capability. And lug around a bigger device.

And let's limit it to those who aren't professional photographers, since this $399 1.2MP model would be useless for such.

Okay, so now let's see all those raised hands.

Anyone?

Buehler?


How many people—NON-professionals, please--have ever taken a photo with bad focus?

Wait, before you raise your hands, how many of you would be willing to carry a still-very-small device, that’s also fun and cool?

A see a certain niche raising their hands!

Thank goodness for niche products: imagine a world where no products existed except those that appealed to all people? You’d never find what you wanted...

And those early adopters can lead the way to higher-res versions to come :)
Rating: 13 Votes
Avatar
dethmaShine
105 months ago

Okay, let's have a show of hands: How many people here have taken photos where they wish they could re-focus at will to emphasize one element of the photo?

Wait, before you raise your hands, let's limit it to those people who take such photos often enough to pay extra for the capability. And lug around a bigger device.

And let's limit it to those who aren't professional photographers, since this $399 1.2MP model would be useless for such.

Okay, so now let's see all those raised hands.

Anyone?

Buehler?


This is what this forum has really become.

Constant bitching about any new technology or implementation or experiment. It's like you people cannot appreciate any effort.
Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
ABernardoJr
105 months ago

Okay, let's have a show of hands: How many people here have taken photos where they wish they could re-focus at will to emphasize one element of the photo?

Wait, before you raise your hands, let's limit it to those people who take such photos often enough to pay extra for the capability. And lug around a bigger device.

And let's limit it to those who aren't professional photographers, since this $399 1.2MP model would be useless for such.

Okay, so now let's see all those raised hands.

Anyone?

Buehler?


lol Just as it is with much of basically every newer piece of technology, it's going to cost a lot more in the beginning. Just like Blu-Ray players, SSDs, etc. I think what's a bigger story is that this is at least starting to develop, in a few years maybe things will be more reasonably priced and well-featured.
Rating: 9 Votes
Avatar
Zaqfalcon
105 months ago

iPhone's camera's next feature: Optical zoom, not just software zoom...

If that happens, iPhone's camera is the best point and shoot. (Alongside DOZENS of camera apps)


Dreamer by name...
Rating: 8 Votes
Avatar
MisterK
105 months ago
In 3D

I'm looking forward to what this tech could eventually do when it's used with 3D. Part of the problem with 3D, as I see it, is that the camera forces the focal point of all the shots. I'd love if I could have depth of field based on where my eyes were focusing. I know this is a ways off and that we'd need some serious processing power, but I dare someone to say computers will never be that powerful. This idea isn't perfect, but there's something here.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
Mr. Gates
105 months ago
I need this.

Not sure why but I do
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Renzatic
105 months ago

This is what this forum has really become.

Constant bitching about any new technology or implementation or experiment. It's like you people cannot appreciate any effort.


Either that, or they believe being dismissive and jaded about everything makes them look smarter than they actually are. What is this? Something new? Yawn. Pass. Whatever.

Or they have no imagination whatsoever. Which is even more tragic.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
flynndean
105 months ago
The people calling this niche or a gimmick are missing the bigger picture (if you'll excuse the unintentional pun).

Look forwards past mk1 and imagine you could point and shoot and TRULY capture a moment without thought for light levels, focus etc. This tech is going to create an entirely new market for Professionals/Artists to interpret/edit photos to useable form AFTER they've been taken so that fewer moments/memories are lost to the Dustbin. That moment the winning goal was scored?...or the moment the bouquet was thrown at your wedding?...or the exact moment that shark's teeth clamped down on that seal? Instead of those "once in a lifetime" moments being left to chance or requiring a skilled professional; all of this would move legitimately within the hands of an amateur to be navigated to some degree by the person viewing it "after the fact" or to be "corrected" in the future by a person with the correct skills into the perfect conventional image that matches the taker's intention...

I also almost immediately thought of combining this tech with the prospect of multiple-lensed cameras allowing for some degree of adjustable depth for 3D photography (rather than the approximated left-eye/right-eye illusion we have for 3D Photography now). Think the Photo-tech from 'Blade Runner' where Deckard was able to subtlety adjust the Photograph to change the focus on an 'already taken' image and even change angles to effectively see round corners!

We're talking about dynamic, adjustable Photography with potential beyond the singularly-focused, 2D convention of Photography that has existed for over a Century.

Allow your mind to take you beyond this version & you will begin to think of all sorts of possibilities!
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
Anaemik
105 months ago
Potentially a very interesting new technology. However, one thing is kind of bugging me with respect to the video demo of the refocusing: the "depth of field" looks incredibly fake and processed from the very short example in the video, and it certainly doesn't seem like a natural, photographic depth of field response - more like the image has somehow been separated into "depth layers" and then had selective blurring applied to one or more layers. This feels pretty artificial as far as first impressions go, but I'm more than happy to reserve judgement until a more revealing demo of the technology is made available.
Rating: 5 Votes
Avatar
danahn17
105 months ago
Cool technology (and camera form factor). I can see it becoming very huge in the future if it's implemented properly.

However, maybe I'm a bit old fashioned but it does also kind of make me sad. For me, part of the appeal of photography is to be able to catch the right moment in time and using your tools (i.e. depth of field, aperture, etc) to emphasize and deemphasize certain aspects of your shot. By making it easier to adjust those things after the photo has been taken kind of takes away from the art of photography IMO.

But then again, most people take photos to upload on Facebook and not necessarily for art :o
Rating: 3 Votes

[ Read All Comments ]