John Aldred reports on DIYPhotography that the K|Llens One lens is about to released on Kickstarter.

He says:

“The K|Llens One lens, teased earlier this year by German company K|Lens, is finally about to released on Kickstarter. They say that this is the world’s first light field lens that can be used with regular DSLR and mirrorless cameras — and it works for both stills and video. Designed for full-frame cameras, the lens is a “ground-breaking mix of state-of-the-art lens and software technology” which K|Lens says will open up new worlds of creativity to users.”

The lens shoots nine images at once, with each taking up 1/9th the area of the sensor in a 3×3 grid. Custom software then manipulates those images into the desired result.

Because this lens turns any camera into a 3D camera it might have application for specific tasks like Visual Effects, where having depth information is vital for compositing.

Aldred adds:

“Interestingly, while all of the software was developed in-house, the lens itself, they say, was developed in cooperation with Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, who they say will also be doing all of the manufacturing. So, while K|Lens might be a company that few have heard of, it will essentially be a Zeiss lens. And not just their name stamped on somebody else’s product as Huawei did with Leica, as they’re actually making the thing.”

See the company website.

My take: I’ve blogged about the light field a few times in the last decade and I really like the promise. Could it be the end of out of focus shots for ever? All we need is a similar “sound field” that would allow us to capture every sound source at once and later go into the soundscape to re-record those sources much closer. Right? (Hmm. Is this that?)