Coco Rocha is the name of the model. The photographer for this shoot was Eric Chen. 

Coco Rocha is a world famous model, not a photographer. 

Well when you see the still images from the shoot, it doesn’t seem like this technology was helpful at all.  I don’t think there’s any pro who will buy into this system and actually use it for something you can’t do more easily with DSLRS or MF.

still in the “neat” category for me. Patrick, GREAT use case would be forensics, as you said. Take a picture of the scene, be able to focus on different areas back at your desks, months after the crime, and see a new detail or missed piece of evidence. As long as the quality supports it, that is. Interesting.

Yea I don’t think this would allow for decent bokeh either like a few others said but beyond that I wanna see what the damn thing looks like. They censored it out or had it in some sort of box it seems everytime it was shown

I can only imagine combining this type of image with a touch screen billboard.  Imagine how effective that would be in drawing crowds and making an advertising campaign memorable!

Another use could be in product shots where they use software to “stack” extra images to create even more depth of field.  Of course that depends on how this camera is actually working…shooting at f/50 in macro still might only allow for only so much DOF.  

I am very impressed by the technology and I do see this eventually catching on at all levels.  However, right now the images seem to be low resolution and interporlated.  The posted images are just also too small to make any sort of conclusion on quality.

I also just didn’t like the photographer’s style which doesn’t help.  Alos, I do not think take photographs of a model’s reflecton can be a good judge on the technology.

As teh tech progresses though, I think this will be very awesome and I want it bad, just not right now.

I still don’t believe this camera to be real!,
My reasons being is they never actually show the unit! they just blur everything out, now I know it maybe to protect its design but for technology to be this breakthrough wouldn’t they atleast show a concept model? also shouldn’t this device capture along the whole focal plane not just key subjects that you would natually select. And a Reserve by email box! Emmmmmm anyone remember the recent hoax we all fell for! you know the transparent camera ;).

Thinking divergently (stuff aside from the camera technology):

1. The skillful use of a gold reflector in this video intrigued me far more than official videos intentionally talking about reflectors

2. Serves an irresistible example of the inherent power in an expert model who knows how to pose

when I only see her making those faces and poses….I have often worked with pro-models and it is often the same over the top la-di-da face and pose in which every model looks exaktly the same and absolutly not authentic like coco in this video. But it seems to be common. I have always disliked it, it is so god damn boring. It is straining to slowdown the model in shoot and get her authentic. This has nothing to do with good pictures. There I really prefer a non-pro-model which can pose naturally! where do they got all that unbelievable ugly grimaces from?

Shifting focus in video (i.e. “rack focus”) is used intentionally as an effect. The same cannot be said for photography though as obviously a photo is still.

Only way I see this useful if for someone shooting at an extremely shallow depth of field (~f/1.2) to perfectly nail the focus (although photographers have been shooting with lenses of such a shallow depth of field for quite some time now without difficulty).

I’m with you on this one Patrick. I don’t think this will actually be used for photography. I see it more suitable for other purposes (as you mentioned).

I can definitely see how this would be useful for event photography.  Perhaps for those moments that would have been a great shot, but you had to take a picture without the viewfinder or it was too dark for the AF sensor.  It may very well be a gimmick, but at one point video on DSLRs was too.

You mean like what they do in CSI? Hehehe

The tech is sound but the shots seem to lack sharpness and contrast or saturation. I’d imagine you can’t normally do PP on these because you’d probably lose the whole refocus property, but the video (obviously taken from a regular camera) looks much better than any refocused shot from the Lytro. That’s a telling tale on its own.

I don’t know if exporting these into flat, single focus images and doing PP would make it look better than one taken with a good DSLR with a sharp lens, but I’m sure the tech will also improve over time.

Will it replace traditional photography though? If ever, it won’t be anytime soon.

If the tech is indeed real, I wouldn’t judge it too much at this point.

Since we don’t know the specs of the camera itself or the lens used, it’s impossible to know how the photos will look with an RTM camera and even more so if the technology can be put in a pro body and combined with pro lenses.

Alexei Rivera brings out a good point about post-processing images from a Lytro camera. I don’t see Lightroom supporting them any time soon, but then again, I might be wrong (I often am). Initial guess is that post-processing would have to be done in an external editor and doing it without flattening the image would be quite processor intensive task.

One interesting thing with this camera would be to make animations out of a single shot like Joshua K suggested above. That would bring a new dimension to a slideshow or you could let the people choose the focus point themselves. I’d think that would be pretty cool with decent resolution and a pad-like device.

In any case and even if one doesn’t really see the “point” for this kind of camera, this kind of new technology might open up some other possibilities which no-one can even think of today. In which case it’s more than welcome and I wish the best of luck to the Lytro camera.

P.S. The modeling bugged the heck out of me also.

This could be a quote about the first digital cameras in 1982. 

Another thing that just crossed my mind is that it claims the light is received at all angles possible which is how it manages to receive all focal planes! but for its sensor to receive light from all angles possible then the sensor would have to be exposed directly as any lens would distort the light somewhat (If only by a niggle) when it travels down the barrel towards the sensor unless the lens can invert then de-invert the direction of light instead of conventional lenses just focusing the light towards a single sensor (I’m only a 23 year old Irish guy so if I’m wrong go easy on me XD )

First dance – when trying to focus in the dark – even pro DSLRs hunt for focus sometimes. Or for super quick spur of the moment shots where you don’t have time even for Autofocus.

I lol’d