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Light L16 - A Camera Breakthrough!


DBounce
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Well not sure how this one made it under my radar, but it would seem that this thing is something of a breakthrough. The Light LT16 utilizes 10 lenses to take pictures and soon 4k video, and is the size and shape of a smartphone. The multiple lenses are at different focal lengths, and the camera automatically stitched the images together to yield an image that has more dynamic range and post adjustable depth of field. Lowlight performance is 10x that of smartphones. You can read more about it here. Oh... and it's been available since July 14th, 2017.

camera-front-1.jpg

lightl16back-800x633.jpg

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2 hours ago, DBounce said:

Well not sure how this one made it under my radar, but it would seem that this thing is something of a breakthrough. The Light LT16 utilizes 10 lenses to take pictures and soon 4k video, and is the size and shape of a smartphone. The multiple lenses are at different focal lengths, and the camera automatically stitched the images together to yield an image that has more dynamic range and post adjustable depth of field. Lowlight performance is 10x that of smartphones. You can read more about it here. Oh... and it's been available since July 14th, 2017.

camera-front-1.jpg

lightl16back-800x633.jpg

I also feel that the l16 Light Camera is such a marvellous feat of both imagination as well as engineering. It is also arguably, one of the most difficult projects in photography in recent years. Lytro was great, but their final image was tiny in MP size. Even after their V2.0.

Most important of all, this thing is TINY. Most DSLRs and even DSLMs can't really be put in most pockets. Especially with a (zoom) lens. 

I am very curious to Full Res photos from this. Since a few have already already been shipped, I hope owners (aren't under any kind of curious confidentiality agreement and) share their photos with the general public and let everyone see how good this thing is. I wonder if the processor can handle all the processing power needed to handle this magnitude of processing from a fat smartphone sized device. 

Also, I hope it trickles into Samsung and iPhone's Flagship phones soon.

 

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Interesting concept. I've yet to see one image that matches or exceeds the DR of the A6500 or A7rII. Quite frankly they still look like iPhone shots IMO. But I haven't seen actual raws from one either. I hope this succeeds, but the price - again IMO - means it will die a slow death once the initial shipments are fulfilled. Hopefully someone with deeper pockets will buy the IP and get the price point down.

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Computational cameras are indeed the future- this (and Lytro) are early baby steps in that direction. Unless they've got GPU-level computing power, it's unlikely that video will use more than one lens at a time (and thus no computational video- live zooming or DOF changes. Multistream video which can be processed in post is more possible, though would still require a lot of computing power and storage on the device).

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What's with the lens positioning? Looks random!

Portable full frame quality is already here... RX1 II

But this could be nice if it works properly and is affordable... Love that it makes practically a 28-150mm F2 portable

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4 minutes ago, Andrew Reid said:

What's with the lens positioning? Looks random!

Portable full frame quality is already here... RX1 II

But this could be nice if it works properly and is affordable... Love that it makes practically a 28-150mm F2 portable

It looks random as that's what it took to fit the camera package elements. Since everything is corrected/stitched computationally, random is OK since all positions are carefully calibrated. More info here: http://web.media.mit.edu/~raskar/photo/

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2 hours ago, jcs said:

Computational cameras are indeed the future- this (and Lytro) are early baby steps in that direction. Unless they've got GPU-level computing power, it's unlikely that video will use more than one lens at a time (and thus no computational video- live zooming or DOF changes. Multistream video which can be processed in post is more possible, though would still require a lot of computing power and storage on the device).

Couldn't agree more.  I just wish the company didn't have it's head so far up its a___ marketing wise.  They believe "normal" people are going to buy these cameras.  They believe us camera geeks just don't get it.  That's my impression.  For example, on the site they boast "over 5x optical zoom".  Really?  OPTICAL ZOOM?  I thought it couldn't be done ;)   They say "Massive 52 MP resolution"  Pardon me while I sound sexist but most women would read that and say, "um, maybe not".  Glad to see they're not phased by all those Canon 5DR owners dumping their cameras on CL.  They should be selling to people like you and I.  If they're not on Andrew's radar then that says it all about their communication skills.

Anyway, if they can do the computations at 24 fps, or even 15 fps, it will be one seriously cool camera that can get looks currently impossible.  HDR video with deep focus would rip through the product photography domain.  My worry is, like Lytro, they over-promised to their investors and will die before the technology takes root.  We'll have to see.  I certainly want one!

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41 minutes ago, maxotics said:

My worry is, like Lytro, they over-promised to their investors and will die before the technology takes root.  We'll have to see.  I certainly want one!

It's similar to VR- lots of hype but until certain elements are massively improved, these technologies won't be desired by the mainstream. There will be casualties along the way, though neither will completely disappear. At some point in the future, when VR gets 3D without glasses and computational cameras produce quality HDR 3D video (from high quality 3D depth data), they'll get married and everyone will be happy.

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The camera was reported as shipping 4 days ago and still no samples or even an unboxing video ... this has important smartphone implications - a few less modules (get rid of 150mm) and it would fit in a bigger screen phone. So far, multiple camera phones haven't really done anything all that impressive. Hopefully, Samsung brings something good to the table, since they are late to this party.

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28mm * 5 = 140mm

They are using optics to achieve that even though they're several prime lenses, not a traditional optical zoom.

So in my opinion it does have an optical zoom.

52MP is a bonus as well.

2 hours ago, JurijTurnsek said:

The camera was reported as shipping 4 days ago and still no samples or even an unboxing video ... this has important smartphone implications - a few less modules (get rid of 150mm) and it would fit in a bigger screen phone. So far, multiple camera phones haven't really done anything all that impressive. Hopefully, Samsung brings something good to the table, since they are late to this party.

The clickbate media speak like it's in the shops.

Actually it's only pre-orders that have gone out (after a BIG wait) and the camera won't start shipping properly until Christmas!

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My issue with the L16 is that I don't trust the company that makes it. This kind of technology is not easy to make successfully, and I doubt what seems like a kickstarter-style company will be able to pull it off. The best they can hope for is to have a proof of concept which impresses one of the big software houses enough to acquire their company. I hope they prove me wrong.

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14 hours ago, jcs said:

It's similar to VR- lots of hype but until certain elements are massively improved, these technologies won't be desired by the mainstream. There will be casualties along the way, though neither will completely disappear. At some point in the future, when VR gets 3D without glasses and computational cameras produce quality HDR 3D video (from high quality 3D depth data), they'll get married and everyone will be happy.

Maybe, but this is nonetheless interesting. I would certainly like to give one a go. Where I would really like to see this tech head is to achieve anamorphic aspect ratio without a massive unwieldy lens.

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1 hour ago, DBounce said:

Maybe, but this is nonetheless interesting. I would certainly like to give one a go. Where I would really like to see this tech head is to achieve anamorphic aspect ratio without a massive unwieldy lens.

I think this will be possible (and more!) since everything can be computed from the light field capture.

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23 hours ago, Trek of Joy said:

Interesting concept. I've yet to see one image that matches or exceeds the DR of the A6500 or A7rII. Quite frankly they still look like iPhone shots IMO. But I haven't seen actual raws from one either. I hope this succeeds, but the price - again IMO - means it will die a slow death once the initial shipments are fulfilled. Hopefully someone with deeper pockets will buy the IP and get the price point down.

Yeah their "Light Gallery" isn't really exceptional considering marketing would be curating their very best shots.

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