The German company K/Lens previously announced the development of an unusual «world’s first light field lens» One. K/Lens announced a fundraiser on the Kickstarter platform. K/Lens One is a lens that captures the depth of photos and videos in addition to color images. This lens, according to the developer, has an unusual optical design. This design uses a special «mirror tunnel» that creates a grid of nine images on the camera matrix taken from different angles. The resulting images can be used to create a depth map of the scene, which can be used to obtain 3D images, as well as editing based on depth and adjusting the focus plane after recording.
The illustration below shows a picture taken with a K/Lens One on a Nikon Z7, and a depth map created in the company’s software using information collected from nine images that a mirror tunnel creates in the lens.
Fundraising on the Kickstarter site for the release of an unusual K/Lens One light field lens has been canceled due to «financial problems».
Nevertheless, the company intends to continue working. She will try to change the concept of using K/Lens One optics from consumer to industrial.
This video is a short introduction video we made for our Kickstarte page.