The most important thing about the Lytro isnât its image quality, or its performance â itâs the tech. The camera is the first-ever consumer product using Light Field Technology, which Lytro Director of Photography Eric Cheng called "the first major change in photography since photography was invented." After using the camera for a week or so, itâs hard to disagree.

Basically whatâs happening inside the Lytro is that in addition to measuring the intensity and color of light like a typical camera, it also measures the direction the light is moving at any given time. Instead of just opening a sensor and absorbing light for an instant as it hits the camera, the Lytro is measuring all of the light in a scene, and then recreating the whole three-dimensional field of light more or less exactly as it was. Itâs collecting light, translating it into ones and zeros, and then processing the data for a variety of different uses.

It all stems from research into whatâs known as plenoptic cameras, which have been around since the early 1990s. Plenoptic cameras used multiple microlenses to capture light simultaneously from a variety of different perspectives, and then the cameraâs processing algorithm puts the photos together into one malleable shot. Lytroâs founders participated in much of this research, most of which required large rooms filled with large cameras, but now the company has boiled it down into a device that fits in the palm of your hand.

Two analogies help to understand whatâs happening with Light Field cameras. One is that the Lytro is creating the Star Trek holodeck, virtually recreating an entire physical space as viewed from a single perspective. The other analog is an orchestra. If a traditional camera records the entirety of the orchestra at once, hearing the totality of the sound as itâs projected out, the Lytro records each member of the orchestra individually. That gives it a tremendous advantage in terms of detail recorded, but also in terms of mixing later. If you want to hear more saxophone, itâs far easier to do so when youâve recorded every member individually than if you had an overall sound and tried to turn up the sax.

Light Field cameras make pictures similarly flexible. The incredible feature of this Lytro model is its ability to focus your photos after theyâve been shot â when you first take a picture, you donât need to focus at all. Then later, when you view the photo on your camera or computer, you can choose what you want to be in focus. It legitimately feels like magic the first few times you try it, and even now amazes me to watch a photo I took shift its focus on my computer. The company has much bigger plans for its cameras â more on those below â but itâs not hard to believe that Light Field technology is going to upend the way we take pictures.