Lytro's New Digital Camera Can Change The Way Movies Are Made

The National Association of Broadcasters Show begins this Saturday and continues through Thursday, April 21. The NAB show brings together representatives from every sector of the media and entertainment industry to showcase cutting-edge technological innovations. It’s here where companies can introduce new technological advancements that can push the broadcast medium forward and change the way people make entertainment forever.

READ MORE: Attention, Filmmakers: Best Filmmaking Tools from NAB Convention

A new product from Lytro Cinema set to debut at the 2016 NAB Show seeks to do just that. Lytro will debut a new light-field cinema camera that aims to break through “fundamental limitations of cinematography” and can theoretically change the way movies are made. The new camera can capture “volumetric data about a scene, rather than a single image from one fixed perspective,” which essentially means that it can capture “information about the direction light is traveling, along with the intensity of light hitting the camera’s sensor.” The implications of such technology are simple: It could potentially make two-camera 3D rigs and green-screen photography obsolete. Though the Lytro Cinema camera won’t be cheap (it’ll be available on a per-day, per-production basis starting at $125,000) and it’s being positioned exclusively as a VFX tool, this “disruptive technology” could find its way into other areas of the filmmaking process.

READ MORE: National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Launches Multicultural TV Conference Because… #Diversity

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.