June 22, 2011 01:36 pm EDT

Lytro's light field camera captures 'unprecedented' images, lets you choose focus later

Woah, could this really be as game-changing as it seems? A Silicon Valley start-up called Lytro claims it's working on a consumer camera that uses light field technology to radically change the way we take, edit and experience photographs. Whereas a normal digital camera captures a snapshot of light hitting a sensor, a light field camera first separates rays of light in order to individually record their color, intensity and direction. This extra information opens up a world of possibilities, including the ability to focus on any depth of field within a taken photo, observe a 3D-type effect even without specs, and boost images taken in extremely low light. Although light field cameras have been around for some time, they haven't been commercially viable. Now though, Lytro has secured backing worth $50million to bring a "competitively priced" camera to market "later this year". Can't wait that long? Check out the interactive photo (click on Elvis to re-focus) after the break, plus a video that also shows off the 3D effect. Both are the definition of mind-blowing.

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