Some of you might have noticed that I picked up a Lytro light field camera recently. I actually ‘snatched’ it when I saw a 16GB version one that was 3 weeks old on sale in a local photography forum … at a very good price! After keeping it for slightly about a week plus … and a few test shots … I knew I had to say goodbye to it.
No … not that it isn’t fun … but I find myself not liking the way we are suppose to hold the camera. Hahaha! I just find holding the long piece of thing … a camera … and shooting with it very awkward! To make things worse, zooming with it is quite a pain the my old butt too! For those who haven’t already know, you actually ‘swipe’ on the top of the camera (the grey rubbery part) like you would do on an iPhone … left to right and right to left … to zoom in and out. Maybe it is just this old man that’s not used to holding a camera of that shape.
I’ve found a buyer and we’ll deal when I’m back on the 1st May since the buyer is busy and asked me to reserved it for him/her. I received at least 5 calls and messages … offering higher prices if I could let the callers have the camera instead. Too bad for those guys … I ain’t one who back out on an agreement despite the fact that some extra money could buy me more beer.
Maybe … someday when there are other variations of the camera … I might just buy one to play with again. For now … I’m happy to have a feel of how this new technology thingie works. The camera is sure lots of fun! I’ve only had time to take a few photos … so here they are …
https://pictures.lytro.com/fuzzyeyeballs/pictures/100057
Feel free to click on them to play with the focus. One thing I realize … if you zoom all the way in (or almost all the way in), you don’t actually get well focused subjects at the back even if you click on them.
https://pictures.lytro.com/fuzzyeyeballs/pictures/97232
https://pictures.lytro.com/fuzzyeyeballs/pictures/94172
https://pictures.lytro.com/fuzzyeyeballs/pictures/103319
I’ll be packing my stuffs tonight and unfortunately the Lytro will not be joining me for a week trip to Taiwan. As a consolation, I have another toy to bring along … the … *drum roll* … Fujifilm X-Pro1!!! No … it’s not mine! It is on a ‘try for a week and if you like it, let’s see if you want to buy it from me’ deal. Well … I sort of swapped a camera with a friend and the sexy X-Pro1 (with the 35mm f1.4) lens will be my travel companion this trip.
After messing with it for a day, I still find that the body feels a little light and doesn’t feel that solid. Maybe that’s because I was expecting something like those ol’ school heavy solid rangefinders or ermm … a Leica! No … I don’t own a Leica. 🙁
Anyway … after some very brief tests and getting familiar with the camera … I think it is a super performer! No … not in every department though. The auto focus … sucks a little. Not sure if it is just my fuzzy eyeballs … but I find my X100 focusing much faster than this big brother. I shall not write more about the cam as you can probably find tons and tons of reviews and opinions out there on the web. What I’ll do is try have as much fun with it as possible during the week and see if I can bring back any decent photos from it.
# Update : After the recent firmware update … the autofocus has improved lots!