You may not recall Light, the company behind the L16 camera with 16 individual lenses. Back in the last year, reports about a smartphone with 9 cameras developed by Light have surfaced, but the time has passed and there’s no sign of a smartphone with such amount of camera coming, so the Nokia 9 PureView will probably be the only new kid with more than 4 sensors, at least for now. Anyway, Light has returned to the headlines today due to a new partnership with Sony that is meant to improve the multi-camera setups found on various smartphones nowadays.
Sony and Light will work together in order to develop a market “multi-image sensor solutions.” These will be focused on smartphones that carry four or more cameras and will combine Light’s multi-camera technology and experience with Sony’s powerful image sensors. The last year was marked by the debut of smartphones packing more than the usual dual-camera setup. The Huawei P20 Pro debuted with a triple camera setup, but in October Samsung introduced the first Quad Camera device in the form of Galaxy A9. Now Nokia is close to open the curtains for the aforementioned Nokia 9 PureView with its Penta Camera setup. In 2020, we may see Quad Camera and Penta Camera setups widespread and becoming a standard in flagships.
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“Sony is the recognized quality and market share leader in image sensors and we are thrilled to partner with them. We are entering an entirely new era of intelligent imaging applications that will transform smartphones, autonomous vehicles, and security systems. With Sony’s world-class image sensors, we can introduce new innovations in the multi-camera imaging space.”
-Dave Grannan, CEO and co-founder, Light
Light stated on the announcement that at least 85% of the images photographed today come from smartphones, and the company says that it is “thrilled” to be bringing the innovative and high-quality computational platform to the smartphone industry, giving a boost in the current quality of smartphone’s photography. The company also stated that it has the only mobile chipset that is capable of handling as many as six cameras at one time. With Light technology and Sony sensors, that are undeniably the best offering for the segment, we strongly believe that we may see the bright of a new era for smartphone photography.