I think we can all agree that the situation with cameras and megapixels has reached maddening heights. DSLRs are expected to have insane resolutions, but mobile phones? No one was really asking for 50+ MP shooters in their iPhones and Galaxys by the end of 2016, but it’s looking possible thanks to a new startup called Light.
In some ways, it makes sense — we’re cramming displays with resolutions greater than a majority of notebooks (and even desktops) into our mobiles, so shouldn’t we also be improving the hardware behind smartphone cameras too?
As you can see from the concept image above, Light aims to use a bunch of lenses to produce its photos, which Rachel Metz of MIT’s Technology Review reports will generate images 52 megapixels in size.
Metz writes that we won’t be waiting five to ten years either — Light is aiming for the close of next year to get its stuff into consumer-level handsets. Foxconn is apparently on-board already, so manufacturing is taken care of.
If it all sounds too juicy, it is. A “full product” prototype doesn’t exist yet, just the preliminary hardware and software for capturing and producing the photos. And, as we’re well aware, megapixels aren’t the be-all, end-all of quality photos — sensor, lens and processing quality all play major roles. No one wants a high resolution, yet noisy and / or poorly exposed images.
Still, it’s hard to be negative right now without seeing examples. Hopefully we’ll be sated in the months to come.
[Light and MIT Technology Review, via Petapixel]
Image: Light