Camera and smartphone manufacturers would often drown consumers with talk about megapixels with some value-added features like viewfinder technology and low-light capabilities thrown in for good measure. All in all, the differences are actually minor, making it difficult for a product to truly stand out. But this is not the case with the latest entrant to the market, the L16 camera.
Built by start-up company Light, the L16 harnesses not one, but 16 interchangeable analog lenses found in DSLR cameras today in one compact device. The technology combines the power of these lenses to condense an unprecedented zoom capability and picture quality in a breakthrough system called computational camera.
The camera zooms from 35 millimeters to 150 millimeters, using all 16 lenses, 10 of which shoot at multiple focal lengths at the same time, Dave Grannan, co-founder and CEO at Light, told Fox News. Collectively, the lenses and the computational system can shoot an image that could reach as much as 52 megapixels.
"We started out trying to solve a problem we know is very real," said Grannan in a CNN report. "There's this real anxiety people feel about wanting great photography."
The L16 seeks to replace professional cameras that use interchangeable lenses. Its value proposition is that, for the immensely great photo quality, the L16 user will only have to handle a very small device (roughly the same size as the average smartphone) at $1,600, the cost of a mid-range DSLR.
Each of the 16 lenses is a 13-megapixel individual module, according to the Verge. It is run by an Android system controlled in the device's 5-inch touchscreen display. It is now available for preorder on Light's website and will ship in the summer of 2016.
