Neat future tech: Refocus a picture - after it's taken

[Kaido]

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/23/adobe-shows-off-plenoptic-lenses-that-let-you-refocus-an-image-a/

Keanu Reeves /whoa/

 

[Anubis]

software to do that has existed for a good number of years its just god awful expensive IIRC

 

[foghorn67]

They have a working demo? Haven't hit the link yet.
Adobe did illustrate the concept a couple of years ago.

 

[acx]

Yeah but if Adobe bundles this into the next Photoshop or Lightroom when are camera manufactuers going to integrate the lens into DSLRs?

 

[rivan]

Yeah but if Adobe bundles this into the next Photoshop or Lightroom when are camera manufactuers going to integrate the lens into DSLRs?

Presumably this would cut effective resolution of the final image dramatically. I think they're only using a small subset of the total data captured in the final rendering.

It might be made more feasible as sensor resolutions continue to rise, but I think this will be a niche thing for some time to come.

 

[Kaido]

Presumably this would cut effective resolution of the final image dramatically. I think they're only using a small subset of the total data captured in the final rendering.

It might be made more feasible as sensor resolutions continue to rise, but I think this will be a niche thing for some time to come.

Gee whiz, my 18 megapixel T2i will go to 9 megapixels I was fine with my old 3.2 megapixel Canon until it broke, lol.

 

[corkyg]

According to the article (one of many) Adobe does this with a plenoptic lens inserted between the normal lens and camera body. Any idea as to the cost of such a lens? I see it as a hardware solution first.

 

[rivan]

Gee whiz, my 18 megapixel T2i will go to 9 megapixels I was fine with my old 3.2 megapixel Canon until it broke, lol.

Except I'd imagine that it'd trim that 18 mp by far more than 50%. That grid seemed quite high resolution, and I think it'd just be choosing a few pixels from each supercell - more on the order of 18 mp -> 0.5 mp than halving the res.

It's exciting, and I could be totally off about it, AND I agree with your sentiment that most of the pixels in use today are extraneous.

Indeed, I think it'd be an excellent use for the megapixel bloat we've seen over the last several years, but I wonder how drastic the loss will be.