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01-04-2008, 01:38 PM   #1
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Unbelievable Prediction From Adorama

This is my first post.

I went to the Adorama home page and seen that they have a list of predictions for 2008. The very last prediction involved Pentax and quite frankly, it blew my mind.

AIRC - Adorama Imaging Resource Center: 10 Photo Industry Predictions for 2008

10. We’ll be able to change focus after the fact

Refocusing technology, which was demonstrated in 2006, is going to burst on the scene as a new camera feature. A new generation of cameras with array of micro lenses between the lens and sensor will perform strain the laws of physics and capture all the focus fields at once. Viewers can then move a slider accompanying the image file (which will be a new format) and refocus each image file at will—an entirely new end-user experience. No way, you say? Look at this! (First camera company to offer this new technology? I think it'll be Pentax!)


I went to the site in that link. It is Refocus Imaging.

I played with the sliders in the gallery and all I can say is... WHOA.

If Pentax will pick this up, as Adorama predicts, it would be a VERY interesting feature.

01-04-2008, 01:53 PM   #2
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I'd call that "holographic" from the description...
01-04-2008, 01:57 PM   #3
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Mind blowing!
You don't really expect something like this in the forthcoming DSLR models however, do you?
It seems like something more likely to be included in some advanced P&S (to me at least), so it will only have to cope with a single lens.
Still, very impressive.
01-04-2008, 02:04 PM   #4
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I don't really know what to think of it really, except that it's a great feature. I'm just so blown away really. I'd even go and say if it's not in a Pentax DSLR, I'd maybe in fact jump ship to where ever it's going to be at.

On the technology page, it get's more interesting: Refocus Imaging

"The Digital Lens platform provides the following new capabilities:

- Focus photographs in software after the shot
- Choose the depth of field after the shot
- Dramatically increased sensitivity for low-light shots
- Revolutionary correction of lens aberrations in software

The Digital Lens platform enables the following advantages:

- A greater yield of good pictures by focusing after the shot
- A more responsive camera by reducing shutter lag
- Pictures with better lighting by reducing the need for flash
- New lenses with unmatched performance and low cost

The beauty of the Digital Lens platform is that it requires only two changes to a conventional camera:

- An incremental change in hardware: a new microlens array in front of the sensor
Refocus' proprietary software
- The incremental change in hardware creates an enormous increase in the power of the recorded light.

A conventional camera records only the average value of the many light rays striking each pixel. A Digital Lens camera records each of the individual light rays, providing much more information to compute better pictures."

Pretty interesting stuff.

01-04-2008, 02:05 PM   #5
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Is there a REAL way it can be done? I mean not in a Flash movie, this is of course possible, but in a real picture taken by a digital camera with ONE click?

EDIT: Ah I see so camera takes like 10 times more information with one shot...
01-04-2008, 02:10 PM   #6
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Plus, it fits with all the rumours about a new file format!
01-04-2008, 02:15 PM   #7
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exciting possibilities

I have no idea of what this really holds. At first I thought this sounds like something that would go on a P&S, but the more I thought about.. this is too revolutionary for a simple P&S. There have been some hints from folks with NDAs that what Pentax would bring to the table will be mind blowing. The fact that Ben suggests that Pentax could ever possibly overtake Nikon means somethings afoot. My guess it that we will see a 645D Medium format camera with this technology for sub $5K at either Dubai or PMA... or Photokina. I think its interesting that Pentax said the 645D would go away indefinitely, yet it has not died off. In fact I would that it is more likely we will see a 645D before we see a FF camera from Pentax. This is expensive technology were talking about... unproven and requiring lots of R&D. If this technology hits this year inside a Pentax it will be on a revolutionary pro body, not the K20D.

01-04-2008, 02:17 PM   #8
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If this is for real, it could explain why someone claimed to witness a wedding shooter shooting with the supposed new pentax camera and never taking their eye off the camera. I mean, if you can always correct this much stuff after the fact, why stop shooting to chimp or correct on the fly. Just shoot away and adjust in software if anything isn't correct.

Sounds very interesting.
01-04-2008, 02:18 PM   #9
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IIRC, I've heard about something like this (it was on the dpreview site). But the resolution was drastically reduced, so I don't really think we'll see this in a camera - not in the near future anyway.
01-04-2008, 02:21 PM   #10
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Nice first post. I knew that some people in Stanford were working for a few years on designs to speed up electron microscopy tomography and two-photon imaging. As you can imagine the equipment costed one lung and 2 kidneys. At any case, I dont think the technology is the same but what you posted doesnt seem impossible at all (in the near future). What it is difficult to believe is that they can deliver this under 2000 USD. Maybe the next high-end model
01-04-2008, 02:25 PM   #11
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One of the other interesting things was the:

"- Dramatically increased sensitivity for low-light shots"

I'm not a sensor junkie or anything but it's interesting to think of how this "dramatically increased sensitivity for low-light shots" would work together with your ISO or shutter speed. I guess it would mean that you could use faster shutter speeds for just about ANY aperture.

EDIT: Which makes me think more about this new technology being in a Pentax Medium Format DSLR with a new line of medium format lenses... since they would need more light than your "average" pack and head or monolight rig.

Last edited by Marcus; 01-04-2008 at 02:32 PM.
01-04-2008, 02:32 PM   #12
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Could this be a carry over of technology from the Pentax medical division that Hoya was so interested in? This has to be the most interesting speculation yet...well one things for sure, no one will ever have an excuse not to get the eyes sharp in a portrait lol.
01-04-2008, 02:47 PM   #13
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This could be a massive help for macro photography. Hmm...If you can adjust the focus point after the fact, doesn't that mean you could also move the focal plane using that same software, creating view camera like swings and tilts?
01-04-2008, 02:49 PM   #14
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Unbelievable is right

No need to register individual lenses for FF/BF. It would speed up focus because all you would need is general focus. For those of us with old eyes it would be great. Where's my credit card. That one feature would make it a must have body.
01-04-2008, 02:53 PM   #15
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Come on, where are the nda peoples' comments so we can start inferring things?
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