The Lytro camera is a nice piece of hardware and it definitely is an interesting bit of technology. It’s difficult to be hard on this camera since it is brand new technology and the first generation is never the best, especially in a technology that has not matured yet. For $100, I would say this is a fine camera to take around with you and use when you get the opportunity to take an image that this camera does best. For $399, it’s a bit hard to recommend. This camera is expensive for being a one trick pony. It’s hard to say but it’s true, it only does one type of photography well and that’s a shame. It’s also not something I personally would pay $399 for, especially when you can pick up a point and shoot for less than that, get better JPEG images and you can create the same effect that the Lytro camera does. Again, I do not want to discredit the technology because the tech behind the camera is incredible and I see it going far (perhaps being implemented into a cell phone or DSLR) but right now in this early stage, for $399, I can’t say I can recommend it to the average consumer or to anyone who cares about picture quality over focusing after you take a picture.
The Breakdown
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Hardware / design
7
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Image quality
3
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Interface / controls
6
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Features
9
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Performance
7
Show the rest of this review and the breakdown
