Picture the highest resolution photos you’d ever want to capture with your camera…and picture being able to stick that camera in your pocket…and you’ve just imagined the crazy L16 camera from Light.co.

Of all the cameras I’ve used, the Light L-16 is by far the most unusual…and I’ve tried some unusual ones.  Does anyone remember the Speed Magny 45?

While the Speed Magny 45 was unique, it was also clumsy as hell, and wouldn’t fit in any standard camera bag I ever owned. Conversely, the L16 doesn’t even need a bag – it’ll slip right in your pants or jacket pocket. [One of my favorite features.]  The grip is extremely comfortable, but I’d advise adding a Utomic rubber grip – a highly recommended accessory. The downside is that the camera will no longer fit in the supplied case – but I prefer my own case anyhow.

The L-16 is so named for its 16 lenses, all shooting simultaneously.  The picture is then formed by overlaying all those images internally in its onboard Android computer and output by proprietary software into some of the largest images you’ve ever seen.

Instead of trying to explain all the magic, if you need to know exactly what’s going on, visit their website at Light.co.

The best features of the Light L16

But obviously, not every camera is good at everything, so let’s explore the benefits and the drawbacks. I’ve been using it now for about six months, and I’ve come to love it – despite a few lover’s quarrels, which we’ll cover below.

First and foremost, I love the resolution.  If you shoot wide angle, at the 28mm equivalent setting, you’ll end up with an image 10,432 pixels x 7,824 pixels or approximately 80+ megapixels. Crop to your heart’s content and you can still end up with a usable image.

This image

was cropped from this image.

I find this amazing, especially considering I was really bouncing around in a small speedboat at the time I snapped the image.  Be aware however, this huge resolution is only attained if shooting at maximum width – 28mm.  As you zoom in with the camera, resolution can decrease to as little as 13MP.  The average is 52MP.

Another amazing feature of the camera is the ability to select a focal point and adjust the aperture AFTER the image has been captured. To do that, the camera takes the image at f15, giving you maximum depth of field.  Then, by selecting a foreground or midground section of the photo in their Lumen software program, the software will soften the other elements, resembling a photo taken at f2.

As you can see in the sculpted waterfall image above, the image on the left represents the f15 setting with everything basically in focus.  In the image on the right, I moved the focus point to the copper tree sculpture and reduced the aperture to simulate f2, blurring out all the real trees in the background. This is all non-destructive in the Lumen software that accompanies the camera.

Does it work every time on every image?  No, but I’ve been favorably impressed with results so far.

And that leads to the third major “like” with this camera.  Since the camera is built around a miniature Android computer, it can be constantly upgraded with new firmware.  Since I’ve been using the camera, Light had been coming out with monthly or bi-monthly upgrades that have improved the speed and performance of the camera.  In coming months, they plan to add HDR capabilities and even add the opportunity to shoot 4K video.  To date, all upgrades have been totally free. [Note to Light – let’s keep it that way.  Thanks!!!]

Street photographers should love this camera, as it appears to most people you are just shooting with a large cellphone.  Only on close inspection, will someone ever notice it’s much thicker than a cellphone, but it still looks so much less intimidating than having a large DSLR pointed at you.

Finally, if you are going to travel and you want to travel light, then the Light L16 is the way to go.  We recently took a week-long trip and I used the L16 exclusively.  Here are some images under all sorts of different and difficult conditions. They fill the bill for me just fine.

The “not best” features of the L16

There is no optical viewfinder, so all photos have to be composed on the LCD screen on the back of the camera.  While it is huge, it is often slow to resolve the image and I would never use it for sports or similar action photography.  Then, there is noticeable shutter lag. Again, not good for fast moving people or animals.  Also, in bright sunlight, like any LCD screen, you are going to have a hard time seeing all the detail you might want.

They do have a burst mode, but I’ve not been happy with the results – sorry.  [See here how to use it.]

The L16 images are a proprietary LRI format, that is presently not supported by any of the major photo editing packages (i.e. Lightroom, Photoshop, etc.) Therefore, you need to download the images to your computer and then convert them into either JPEG’s or DNG files. You need to do all that before you can do any editing. I understand that integration with Lightroom is on the drawing board, but no date is being discussed.

The metadata created by the L16 is a bit foreign to Lightroom, and I need to change it each time I import any files.  When reading the metadata for Date Created, Date Modified or Date Accessed – they all show the date they were converted from the LRI format – not the dates they were actually shot.  WTH?  Who cares when they were downloaded or converted?

I like to rename my photos using the “YYMMDD-File suffix” convention, and instead of it reading the date it was shot, it reads the date it was downloaded off the camera.  One more silly little step that delays the workflow at the end of a shoot. Again, supposedly this is on some engineer’s ToDo List.  At least I hope so.

The AYE’s have it

As I said, it isn’t perfect, but comparing the gripes with the oh-yeah’s, this is a great camera to stick in your everyday bag.  It’ll bring home some images you won’t be able to capture any other way, and it’s as portable as can be. I no longer have an excuse for leaving the office without a good camera.

I’ve read a review or two that discusses pixel distortion in certain parts of the image, but I’ve shot 3,000 images so far and I’ve never noticed that to be a problem.  Granted, I don’t inspect every pixel like those guys must, but as you can see from my video and from these other photogs’ portfolios, the images look amazing to me.

Get the whole scoop here, right from the manufacturer.