Everyone is fascinated by photography and own expensive DSLR cameras and lots of expensive lenses. Even though I have all this gear which would take phenomenal pictures I found myself taking more and more pictures with my cell phone because it was there with me all the time that is when it occurred to me that if someone can make a camera which has the same quality and features as a DSLR camera but it is not a form factor that can fit in my pocket and stay with me all the time then I would be taking much better photos all the time.
Trypophobia is the popular term for a fear of irregularly spaced holes or bumps, and if that sound like you, you might want to look away from the back of this camera. The device is called L16, which is one of a kind device that its manufacturer calls the camera of the future and you can avail this gadget by using AliExpress Cashback Offers. But at this point it’s such a work in progress that it feel much more like a prototype from the past. These are the peaks and pitfalls of the pricey Light L16.
A big touch screen, an Android operating system, and a symmetrical rectangular chassis; The L16 might look like a smartphone in pictures, but pick it up in person and you will see that it is a much more substantial slab than even the biggest Of Samsung’s. That makes sense because it is not really meant to do battle with the smart phones of the world. It is aimed at professional photographers instead who are more likely to edit their image on computer in Lightroom than Instagram them from a phone. The hand feel reflects that at 435 grams this thing demands two hands which will find their places easily on the casing’s textured rubber grips. Compared to a Micro Four Third’s camera, the L16 is actually pretty petite and it almost eliminated all the buttons, knobs and switches in favour of that capable five inch display. Thankfully a physical shutter button stays put with good springy action and a nice firm half-press to focus to tent.
Below that is a small touch panel that looks ready to do some thumb zooming, but as of press time it was not yet activated in the device’s software. Also awaiting future activation is the proprietary accessory port on the bottom and its neighbouring three and a half millimetre headphone jack. Well actually the headphone jack is active, but there is very little to listen to at this point since you cannot yet record on L16. That’s a feature coming down the road. Those gaps contributes to the feeling that this is a prototype, which makes sense because Light seems more interested in licensing its camera technology to other companies than just selling L16s. And that technology is definitely the most interesting thing about this device.
The camera’s used different focal lengths from 28 up to 150 millimetres and they are also assigned different exposure values per photo. Manipulating this when shooting is about as easy with the smart phone. You pinch to zoom, tap to focus or if you want to switch to manual mode you get sliders that are pretty easy to figure out. When you snap the shot, 10 of the sensors fire at once. With a software stiching the overlapping 13 megapixel images into a single large canvas. The file size varies but most weights in between 51 and 81 megapixels. A far cry from your smartphone’s typical 12 megapixels. They are saved in a special format, which lets you manipulate them using the Lumen desktop software so you can do the things like change focus and apply depth effects after the fact.
The promise of this technology is what convinced me. Light says the L16 should capture photos with exceptional dynamic range and it should feature excellent low light performance as well. I don’t have the expertise to test that claim as well as I’d like. A review done on the L16 showed that the L16 does a good job of preserving shadow detail and limiting noise in the lab environment which is a key limiting factor that typically reduces the dynamic range in smart phone photos. Moreover, there are various options available similar to this configuration and one can grab those using Flipkart Sale. I was encourages by that finding, and when the L16 got a software update that added local tone mapping, I was even more hopeful. The unfinished nature of software means there is no quick way to get photos off the unit without connecting it to a computer. I’ve read that there is way to do this though a built in browser but that browser has terms of service and a privacy notice that don’t load so No thanks! After a few modifications it will surely be a gamechanger.
