Camera Company Light To Produce Smartphones
You may not have heard of this company unless photography and the photo tech industry is a particular interest. For those who do not know the brand, Light is a for-profit company focused on revolutionizing the photo industry. Their technology is powerful and innovative, to say the least. A relatively new company founded in 2013 by Rajiv Laroia and Dave Grannan, Light recently produced its first product in 2015 — the Light L16 Camera. The L16 is nothing to turn one’s nose up at dismissively. Utilizing multiple lenses, this piece of equipment puts the power of capturing breath taking photographs back in the hands of an everyday camera user by pushing the boundaries of camera technology past anything we may have seen before. Light’s L16 grabs a photo with multiple focal lengths and uses special engineering to combine over 10 images — taken in one shot — into a single, high-def resolution 52mp photo. And now they plan to pack the same algorithms and equipment into a smartphone, reports the Washington Post.
If you have to see the L16 and buy it for yourself, you may have to pump the brakes. This pocketable camera comes with quite a hefty price. The L16 rings in at $1,950 USD. As for what the smartphone will cost is anyone’s guess at this point, since it’s still in development.
What is known so far comes from a tech-savvy journalist at the Washington Post who ventured to Light’s manufacturing facility to witness the working prototype and several other concepts first hand. Some of those concepts included smartphones featuring five to nine camera lenses on the back, capable of taking up to 64 megapixel shots, with sophisticated depth effects and low-light performance.
Apple and Samsung already have a version of this design, only using merely two lenses on the phones. The purpose of the second lens for these smartphones is to help with zooming and to measure the depth of field, giving users the ability to create blurred backgrounds during the shot. Huawei has also introduced a version of this, called the P21 Pro, featuring three lenses which are utilized for monochrome, color, and zoom. Light plans to go above and beyond with their new designs.
Users of this potential phone would have the power of a dedicated camera rolled up into the convenience of their smartphone, all while being able to fit snugly inside anyone’s pocket. This smartphone is said to be packaged not much thicker than the iPhone X.
More details on the Light phone are not currently available. Even the release date remains a mystery. Tech Crunch has stated that they have reached out to Light for more information, though no news has been returned as of yet.
