Adobe controls DOF with their “magic lens”

The “magic lens” is Adobe’s first crack at manufacturing camera hardware. The company is well known and respected as a software developer, but this could signal a shift towards gear, or it could end up being a one-off experiment for Adobe.

The lens (video of it after the jump) is actually 19 lenses piled together and aimed at slightly different angles. The result is an image that lets you control the perspective (a little bit) and the depth of field in post processing.

It’s a marvellous looking device that could have a lot of potential. Here’s a video of the lens in action. Do you think you could use it?

12 Responses to “Adobe controls DOF with their “magic lens””

1. Sam Says:
   February 11th, 2008 at 3:17 pm

   When are the cameras coming out!? lol
   Seriously though that is a cool idea.

2. Garrett Says:
   February 11th, 2008 at 3:21 pm

   I just threw up in my mouth a little bit. That’s crazy.

3. Jason Says:
   February 11th, 2008 at 7:20 pm

   I know! It’s an amazing little invention. I wonder what kind of mount it has, and what the price point will be. I’m imagining five figures.

   DO WANT.

4. Timmermann Says:
   February 12th, 2008 at 3:00 am

   I wonder how the resolution of the image will be.. If you use it on a normal camera, there would be 19 pictures of about 0.5 Megapixel..

5. Jesse Says:
   February 12th, 2008 at 9:27 am

   it seems amazing, even though it looks like garbage.

6. Billyboy Says:
   February 13th, 2008 at 10:09 am

   Holy schnikies! I can imagine amazing applications with not only Photoshop, but After Effects as well. I want one!

7. Jason Says:
   February 13th, 2008 at 1:23 pm

   Still no word on price, what it will mount onto, or whether it fires seperate images for each “mini-lens” or breaks one image down into 19 smaller ones. I’d be interested to know — if anyone can dig that up.

8. ringlerun Says:
   March 3rd, 2008 at 12:37 am

   good concept… i think there is something in the concept… although, the final result will be quite different me believes… hard to get a true picture you can rotate around in if the lens’ are very close together… you really want cameras on all sides of the subject to get a true 3d thing you can rotate like in the matrix…

9. Jason Says:
   March 3rd, 2008 at 9:05 am

   @ringlerun
   Yeah, but mostly I think this is to control the DOF, and not the perspective so much, though that’s a minor side effect of the lens design.

10. ringlerun Says:
    March 3rd, 2008 at 4:20 pm

    here’s an idea for a lens… something like the ipix ones from years ago… a glass sphere with a digital sensor in the middle… aka, a crystal ball with a digital sensor embedded in it… throw it up, and at the point of turn (when its stopped for a fraction of a second), it clicks… complete 3d view from where it clicks the photo… :)

11. Dude Says:
    May 10th, 2008 at 2:52 am

    Photoshopped.

12. Jason Says:
    May 19th, 2008 at 3:32 pm

    I can tell this is a ’shop from some of the pixels and from having seen quite a few photoshops in my time. lol

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