Do They Have Cameras At Lansing Traffic Lights

It seems like just yesterday that dual cameras became popular, yet nosotros're already moving to triple and fifty-fifty quadruple camera setups. But HMD Global laughs in the confront of these smartphones, as its Nokia 9 PureView offers five rear cameras.

This is all thanks to Light camera applied science, equally the five rear cameras work in concert to deliver better quality photos. But who exactly is Light? Here's what you need to know.

Read: Nokia 9 PureView hands-on: 5 cameras aim for mobile magic

The Light photographic camera appears

Light shot to prominence back in late 2017 with the release of its first consumer production, the Lite L16, a dedicated photographic camera that featured 16 (!) cameras. These shooters, ranging in focal length from 28mm to 150mm, all offer 13MP sensors.

When you lot hit the shutter, the L16 snaps an image from at least ten cameras, smartly combining them to offer a 52MP shot. The visitor says the camera assortment also enables 5x zoom and 13 stops of dynamic range.

2018 was the smartphone camera's biggest twelvemonth nevertheless

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It all made for i of the most ambitious pieces of consumer tech in quite some fourth dimension, but the Light L16 had a mixed critical reception. One of the biggest problems centered on the photographic camera's apparent stitching/blurring issues, as reviewers noted you could conspicuously see where photos were combined.

Other noteworthy complaints virtually the Light camera included the inability to share the full 52MP shot from the camera (shared files were limited to 13MPs), poor autofocus functioning, a lack of image stabilization, and unpolished depth effects.

Even so, Light'due south approach has its merits, as critics praised the camera's quality in the correct situations, and the flexibility of the photographic camera organization. The Light camera is also capturing a ridiculous amount of data, using the 2016-era Snapdragon 820 chipset to process this stream of information.

What could Light camera tech practice on mobile?

The multi-camera arroyo behind the Light L16 also applies to its smartphone division, as it offers mobile solutions from two to more than ten cameras. This seems like a slightly less bonkers approach to multi-lens computational photography. Then what tin y'all potentially do with a Light-powered phone?

Well, a peek at the Light website says its solution can capture up to x times the amount of light data compared to conventional smartphone sensors, every bit well as 13 stops of dynamic range for HDR snaps. Additionally, the company says it tin can generate 3D depth maps with over k layers, opening the door for finer control over depth effects.

The proof is in the pudding, withal, and the Nokia 9 PureView represents the outset fourth dimension Light photographic camera tech finds its style into the smartphone loonshit.

What does the Nokia nine PureView offering?

HMD and Light delivered a penta-camera setup on the dorsum of the phone. The phone packs 2 RGB cameras and three monochrome cameras, all offering a 12MP resolution and f/1.eight discontinuity.

The Finnish mobile firm says the monochrome cameras each offering ii.9 times the light capturing capabilities as a traditional mobile camera. But the ability to combine all this photographic camera data for one shot means we can look ten times better low-lite snaps compared to your conventional snapper. So this should effect in better low-calorie-free operation in theory.

The Nokia make custodian is as well using Low-cal photographic camera silicon to assist with the sheer volume of image processing required. A dedicated Light flake seen on the L16 handles image fusion tech in addition to the Snapdragon 845 processor — subsequently all, what's the point of 5 rear cameras if the phone doesn't have the ability to adequately process these shots?

All of this represents a starkly dissimilar approach to today'southward multi camera phones, which tend to offer normal, wide and telephoto shooters. Whether this approach is the best one remains to exist seen, but it definitely makes for a less versatile solution than rival phones.

Where next for Calorie-free?

A render of phones powered by Light camera technology.

The Nokia ix PureView is indeed official and then, simply Light announced a new partner several days before the Nokia launch. The company revealed that information technology'southward working with Sony, combining Light camera tech with Sony camera sensors. Lite and Sony'due south agreement also enables the former to work with other manufacturers, equally long as these brands are using Sony sensors. And with the exception of Samsung, nigh every major OEM uses Sony sensors in its device portfolio.

Practise nosotros really need more than three rear cameras on a smartphone?

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Just Lite has also been targeting the automotive, drone, digital camera, security camera, and robotics industries. This diversified arroyo could indeed pay dividends if mobile manufacturers aren't clamoring for Light tech in their phones.

The company has also been decorated securing capital in the past 12 months, announcing a $121 million injection from Leica and Softbank in July 2018. This is in add-on to a 2015 investment past Foxconn, before the Light L16 was even out of the gate. And so clearly major tech players run across something interesting in Low-cal photographic camera engineering.