The Lytro still needs to be focused; the trick it uses is to focus to the hyperfocal distance as you zoom, and then it can capture the equivalent of focus stacking fore and aft of that point; but only on a finite number of focal planes ( fewer than 6 if I recall ).
So... your photos could end-up being nearly in focus, but also lacking in detail ( low-res sensor ) and blown-out ( poor dynamic range ).
That makes sense. I'd be curious to know of any wiggle room available in that regard. Seems it would be nice to do a few focal points that are "close" to each other near where you are focused, combined with a few far away ones. If that makes sense. Would make it possible to do sort of HDR images from a single shot, right?
And, regardless of that, this still goes a much farther way towards "solving" this problem than the camera phone. Right?
The simplest solution to your soccer practice photography dilemma is to get a camera that can focus quickly enough (or maybe to learn how to zone focus). There are many cameras that can do this, but the problem is that none of them are a smartphone.
As I noted in the sibling post, I have a decent enough (I think it is a dang good one, actually) camera for this. Right now, I just need more practice with my tools. We have only done three practices, my daughter is only four. :)
The example was more to get an idea of what this could help with. In short, if you are taking pictures of things in motion, or multiple shots in succession, the camera app that was recently displayed is nigh useless. Right?
The 5D Mark II is an awesome camera in a lot of ways but it has fairly slow autofocus speed for a camera in its class.
It is outpaced quite a bit by even "lesser" (more consumer oriented) cameras like the 70D (though as with anything this is a trade-off since the 70D is a cropped-sensor, so IQ not quite as good under ideal situations, worse low-light performance, etc).
Here's a photo I took a couple of months ago with the 70D, one of a series of 5 that were all pretty well focused (considering the subject was a cheetah running at nearly full speed) using the "AI Servo" autofocus mode:
(To be fair, such photos still aren't exactly point and shoot on my 70D, you have to be fairly decent at panning at that speed)
You do have a point though in that the current situation for me is needing to have multiple cameras (70D for fast action, Sony A7 for relatively still shots with very high image quality, Canon EOS M for carrying around everywhere). I don't think this Lytro comes anywhere close to changing that situation, though computational imaging in general will probably solve the issue eventually.
Yeah, I don't fully understand the tradeoffs yet. I know that it has much better noise level than my last rebel. And the full frame sensor is very nice. (Though, now I want a good 50mm lens).
I'm definitely game for any advice I can get. I hate that I let that example detract from the discussion, which is for average photographers, something like this could help a lot. Doesn't sound like it is fully there, yet. But it is promising. Especially in tandem with the app idea. Exciting times are ahead for getting folks into photography.
The Lytro still needs to be focused; the trick it uses is to focus to the hyperfocal distance as you zoom, and then it can capture the equivalent of focus stacking fore and aft of that point; but only on a finite number of focal planes ( fewer than 6 if I recall ).
So... your photos could end-up being nearly in focus, but also lacking in detail ( low-res sensor ) and blown-out ( poor dynamic range ).