Module 2: Emerging Technologies Tetrad

Our group selected the Lytro camera as our emerging technology. The Lytro camera offers a new approach to photography. Focus has challenged photographers since the very beginning. In 1839 the Parisian magazine, Charivari reported the following problems with Daguerre’s brand-new photographic process (Newhall, 1976).

“You want to make a portrait of your wife. You fit her head in a fixed iron collarto give the required immobility, thus holding the world still for the time being. You point the camera lens at her face; but alas, you make a mistake of a fraction of an inch, and when you take out the portrait it doesn’t represent your wife –it’s her parrot, her watering pot – or worse.”

This new camera provides a resolution for the focusing problem. You can view images of the Lytro camera that provides diagrams and explanations at http://stadium.weblogsinc.com/engadget/files/Lytro_FCC_User_Guide_November_2011.pdf. The Lytro camera refines the already awesome digital camera as we know it today.  As with any emerging technology it presents both pros and cons. A picture of the camera along with an itemized list of the pros and cons can be found at this website - http://www.spencergordon.com/2011/12/15/lytro-camera-a-pro-or-a-con/.

References:

Newhall, B. 1976. The Daguerreotype in America, 3rd rev. ed. New York: Dover.