Refocus Imaging

Have y'all seen this?

http://www.refocusimag​ing.com/home/

Looks pretty interesting if they (or whoever buys them) brings this refocusing technology to market.

I read an article about this a few months ago - I'm still a bit skeptical. Time will tell, though.

That's really interesting, I wish there were more information on just how this is a) possible and b) implemented. Adorama's description on this page http://www.adorama.com …cle=010208&op=a​cademy_new is:

"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 willóan entirely new end-user experience."

I'm going to jump out on a limb here and predict that the image quality of this technology will be crap .

Great for the average point and shooter but it takes all the skill out of photography (if it works--there was really no description on the website).

Weird. Cool idea, but I don't think it can actually work?

* 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.

Look closely the sensor boogers. It shoots and f/22 and wide open it appears - with microlens help.

I played around with some of their images, and it seems pretty cool -- you seem to be "limited" to a narrow depth-of-field, and moving the slider shifts the focal point, which is kind of cool.

I would say, though, that the combination of limited DOF and the apparent softness presumably caused by the micro-lens array in front of the sensor would make this of limited usefulness, but it would be kinda cool to play around with -- it would give macros an interesting twist!

cosworth wrote in post #4661102
Look closely the sensor boogers. It shoots and f/22 and wide open it appears - with microlens help.

That's sort of what I thoght, it must shoot at f/14 upwards (with a wide angle) and apperas to be at f/2,8 or something. Weird.

Sorry to bump an old thread (about 4 months old anyway) but I just read about this and I can't believe it hasn't generated more excitement around here. If anyone is interested in how the technology works there's a small article on Wikipedia with some good references. This could even be used to generate 3D images from a regular camera with a microlens array in front of the sensor. Awesome stuff.

maybe ...adaptive..could use it for his 1d?????