Lytro camera in the test: innovative toy with pitfallsThe Lytro is intended to reinvent photography, as it allows the focus range of a photo to be determined retrospectively.The futurezone tested the camera.This article is older than a year!The Lytro is the first light field camera for non-scientific use.It was introduced in 2012 and launched shortly thereafter in the USA.The camera has also been available in Austria and Germany since summer 2013.The company behind the camera was founded in 2006 by Ren Ng.The Australian with Malaysian roots has been researching light field cameras (also called plenoptic cameras) at Stanford University in the US for many years and also did his doctorate in this field.The special thing about the technology of the Lytro is that not only the position and intensity of light rays is recorded, but also from which direction they are incident.In the case of the Lytro, this works with the help of a grid of lenses that sits in front of the light-sensitive CMOS sensor.This creates a series of individual images that are later put together using special software.This technique makes it possible to determine the sharpness of a photo afterwards with the appropriate software.This has a number of advantages: If you focus incorrectly at first, you can easily correct it afterwards.The fact that the camera does not focus before the shutter release also means that photos can be taken without much delay.According to the creators, the Lytro should be a camera like you've never seen before.You have to agree with this statement because of the idiosyncratic construction.The Lytro is more reminiscent of a flashlight than a device for photography.With a size of 41 x 41 millimeters and a length of 112 millimeters with a weight of 214 grams, the Lytro still feels good in the hand.The front part is made of brushed aluminum, the rear part is rubberized.The operation of the camera is simple and quickly explained.The Lytro is switched on with a button on the underside of the housing, and the trigger is on the top.The Lytro has an 8x optical zoom, which is operated via a touch-sensitive control on the top.Perhaps another solution should have been considered here, because in everyday life it happens again and again that the zoom is activated unintentionally due to the positioning of the controller.The Lytro is connected to the computer via a standard microUSB cable, which is also used to charge it.The corresponding connection is on the underside and is protected by a rubber cover.The camera has no slot for memory cards, all photos are stored directly on the internal memory, which is eight or 16 gigabytes depending on the model variant.There is no tripod thread.In terms of workmanship, the Lytro cannot be criticized.The case makes an extremely robust and cleanly built impression.The Lytro also withstood adverse outdoor conditions, such as rain, well and without damage in the test.Less positive things can be said about the Lytro's rear display.The manufacturer has exaggeratedly saved here, because the display is simply terrible.Not only is the display tiny due to its construction with a diagonal of 1.46 inches (3.7 centimeters), the quality of the display also leaves a lot to be desired.The resolution is only 128 x 128 pixels, which means that you can see every single pixel.The viewing angles look similarly bad.If you don't look directly at the display, but rather from above or below, the display immediately becomes too dark and the colors are distorted.This circumstance is extremely annoying in everyday life with the Lytro, since the idiosyncratic design in particular always invites you to take photos from somewhat more exotic angles and hold the camera particularly high or particularly low.However, you can usually no longer see anything on the Lytro's display.In contrast to the rather catastrophic display, the touchscreen offers a positive surprise: It works according to the capacitive principle and reacts precisely and reliably in most situations.Operating the Lytro is mostly intuitive.The photographer has to switch on, trigger and zoom using the dedicated buttons, further settings are made using the touchscreen.The small touchscreen is enough to have enough room for the few settings that the Lytro offers.A swipe up from the bottom of the touchscreen opens a menu that gives access to the options.You can move the bar with the options by swiping left and right.On the far left is a Wi-Fi icon that allows the Lytro to connect to an iOS device (more on that later).The second point offers the possibility to choose between standard and creative mode.The second lets the user set focus points manually, which should improve refocusing.In addition, you only have access to the full eightfold zoom in this mode, while you can enlarge by a factor of 3.5 in standard mode.The third item in the Lytro settings shows how much memory is still available on the camera, and the fourth provides information about the battery charge.You can also activate a self-timer (2-10 seconds) via the last menu item.How long the Lytro's battery lasts is very dependent on how you use it.With intensive use of the WLAN function, the Lytro lasted a tour with almost 180 photos in the test.If you do without the WLAN feature, you can expect about twice as many releases before the camera has to be plugged in again.By default, conventional photo software cannot do anything with the images that the Lytro produces.In order to transfer and post-process the images, special software is required, which is supplied with the camera for Mac and Windows (7 and 8, 64-bit only).The software allows to copy and catalog the images from the camera.Of course, the software can also be used to subsequently change the focus point.You can also give the images a "perspective shift" and then upload them to the official Lytro platform. From there you can share them on various online networks or embed them into your website or blog via iframe.Although all Lytro models have been supplied with a WLAN adapter since the market launch in the USA, the corresponding function was only released in the summer.The photos taken can be transferred directly to an iOS device with the appropriate Lytro app via the WLAN adapter and then uploaded to the Lytro online platform.The app is currently still in an early phase and is probably a bit cumbersome to use for this reason.She always tends to fall down.Due to the poor display of the camera, the app is still a valuable companion on the go.Because of its technology and the type of photos the Lytro produces, it's difficult to compare the quality to photos from conventional cameras.In any case, the Lytro delivers a less good picture on paper.If you export the photos as JPG, they only have a resolution of 1080 x 1080 pixels, which is just 1.2 megapixels.In terms of contrast, sharpness and color reproduction, the Lytro is at best on par with current compact or smartphone cameras.Nevertheless, it is fun to take pictures with the Lytro and to explore the limits of the technology.You encounter them when the objects to be photographed are too far apart, so that even the light field technology is not sufficient to shift the focus.However, the subsequent shift in perspective in particular always invites you to try out and play with different angles and motifs.You can see some more test photos here.The Lytro is something completely new and you can already see that from the outside."We are changing the rules of the game," said company founder Ren Ng in an interview with futurezone a few months ago.In any case, the technology also knows how to impress in practice.At the latest when you look at your photos on a computer for the first time and realize how great the possibilities are for the photographer if you can readjust a decisive part of your photos with the sharpness.Despite these possibilities, not every snapshot is a success with the Lytro.You still have to stick to the basic compositional techniques of photography in order to shoot an appealing picture, which means that the attraction of taking pictures is not lost.The fact that the resolution of the photos is only very small is annoying, but hardly spoils the joy of experimenting with the Lytro at first.However, after a few hundred or thousand photos, the image quality leaves a bitter aftertaste.While the concept makes for a positive experience, the creators of the Lytro should have paid more attention to the details of the camera.The display in particular, which repeatedly causes frustration in everyday life, spoils the joy of the new technology in many situations.A slot for an SD card and a removable battery would also have done the Lytro good.Overall, the concept is convincing, but there is room for improvement when it comes to execution.The first consumer light field camera is primarily a toy and a taste of what photographers can expect in the future.The Lytro is still a long way from being a perfect product.However, the insight into the future of photography is very expensive: with eight gigabytes of memory, the Lytro costs 479 euros in Austria, the 16 gigabyte version costs 579 euros.