Lytro Light Field Camera Teardown

[@savarg]

This was a literal teardown, all that ripped stuff all over the place haha!

[@PeterBrockie]

Half the fun of filming is figuring out the right way to take it apart - after you took it apart the wrong way. :D

[@mrljgibson]

At least it also shows how to take one apart without destroying it.

[@SiggyPony]

Neat teardown :) A very interesting Camera

[@DoRC]

5:48 you need Clive's hammer of knowledge!

[@PeterBrockie]

+Do R/C! I have my Dremel of Truth and Blowtorch of Understanding, but sometimes it's nice to just spend 45 minutes hacking at it. Haha

[@douro20]

These do have use in scientific and industrial applications where information about depth of field for each pixel would be advantageous. Raytrix has sold scientific light field cameras for several years now.

[@PeterBrockie]

Yep. They're also used in VR type stuff (which is what Lytro rebranded itself as, I think). When I said they were a novelty I meant as a consumer product. :)

[@Dstonephoto]

Just discovered your channel and finished your Canon XL teardown. That shutter mechanism on this Lytro is fascinating. Is it a twist on the leaf shutter mechanism but with two blades? Google image search here I come. Super weird question here: has anyone successfully figured out how to tap into (and gain serial or other input ) access the all-i video recording circuits of cameras? You are doing god’s work.

[@himeccms893]

Lytro does have a mechanical focus despite it's "focus after the fact" capable sensor. Also, I see that despite the image output being square, the sensor is rectangular. Thank you for this butchering/teardown video, it's much more detailed than the earlier one by another KZbinr.

[@DoRC]

man that's a hell of a lot of optical stuff for such a low end camera.

[@PeterBrockie]

+Do R/C! It's amazing how complex even an 8x zoom is. When you get into the more expensive stuff it gets to rather insane levels. The lens I use for bird photos (Canon 100-400mm II) has over 20 glass elements in it, including a synthetic flourite crystal element and that's just "4x zoom".

[@mrljgibson]

Though a prime lens would give you more light. But you can't zoom. Wish they would look into that instead of these gimmicks.

[@PeterBrockie]

+Lee Gibson A zoom lens can easily have a large enough aperture to make up for it at the cost of size compared to a prime lens. It all comes down to trading off size for a faster zoom or having a fast prime at the cost of flexibility. They might have had issues with narrow depth of field on the sensor and had to pick a middle ground of background blur to detail with a low res image.

[@danc2014]

This was a $300 multi focus camera with adjustable image after $20 may be The price since it did not sell well the new version is wel over $600

[@mrljgibson]

Lytro should have gone to video and got KZbin to support it. Instant market. I wonder if these can be hacked to support video?

[@PeterBrockie]

+Lee Gibson The problem with that is in 99% of cases you want to be directed to where you need to be watching by the creator. It's a similar situation to how 360 degree video works - it's cool at first, but you quickly realize you are watching anywhere on the screen while the action is happening somewhere else. You need to be directed to the area intended by the filmmaker.

[@mrljgibson]

Plus it really would need play and focus path controls. Maybe one day.

[@mrljgibson]

I don't think everyone wants to direct their own films. It really would have been great to see some more manual solutions to the product, they could have used manual zoom and focus controls instead of those clunky digital controls.

[@RoyHess666]

I found it a bit sad this thing still powered on and being taken apart, while being on still

[@PeterBrockie]

There are a million working ones on eBay. Nobody wants them. :P

[@paulchang3317]

thanks for sharing with us. Is there a part number on the ccd, or ccd assembly, they use? or if you can sell me a working one?

[@PeterBrockie]

Grab one off eBay. The camera is usually under 20 bucks.

[@DoRC]

man they have some high end stuff on their site now.

[@PeterBrockie]

+Do R/C! Plenty of these and Illums on eBay for cheap though. Haha

[@DoRC]

Peter Brockie the illum looks pretty nice. for the used price it might be a hidden gem for certain use cases.

[@DoRC]

Peter Brockie I'll bet they used those two models as research platforms on the way to what they order now. might as well make some cash while you iterate your tech.

[@jetraid]

Actually a heard about a cristal or filter with the microspheres that can be used on a DSLR camera line Cannon or Nikon

[@mrljgibson]

Is it a 4MP sensor like the Illum?

[@PeterBrockie]

+Lee Gibson This one is 11 megapixel (megaray), the Illum is 40. The image is of course much smaller than that because you only see one portion of the sensor data at any given focus setting.

[@mrljgibson]

It's given as an equivalence but in reality it clearly just isn't true.

[@PeterBrockie]

Lee Gibson From my understanding of the tech, it is a 40 (or 11) megapixel sensor with micro lenses added to give you a number of "focus levels". If the 40 megapixel sensor was split into 10 different areas of focus, you would get an image of 4 megapixels at any one point. 40 megapixels of data is there, it's just limited to showing you only the portion you are focused on. Basically taking 40 megapixels of 2d information and turning it into 4 megapixels of 3d information.

[@mrljgibson]

Specs are here, definitely would be 4MP. www.amazon.co.uk/LYTRO-ILLUM-Megaray-Light-Camera/dp/B00NFTVWH8

[@PeterBrockie]

+Lee Gibson The Illum is 4 (from 40 mp total), this one is 1.1(from 11 mp total). Assuming it uses the same number of light fields.

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

ZORAN seems to remind me of the Living daylights.

[@Johninadelaide2022]

Ha! I wasn't the only one then to remember that.

[@dandimusc]

Brute force, never is good!

[@PeterBrockie]

But it's so fun!