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... The Light Is Coming ...

Godfrey

Well-known member
The Light L16 that I ordered in Summer 2015 has reached production and is finally on it's way to me now! I'm looking forward to experimenting, learning, and making photographs with it.

It is due to be here on Tuesday ... If I have enough time to charge it and learn how to use it, minimally, I'll add it to my bag for my holiday trip to Ireland and the Isle of Man! :)

G
 

Knorp

Well-known member
The Light L16 that I ordered in Summer 2015 has reached production and is finally on it's way to me now! I'm looking forward to experimenting, learning, and making photographs with it.

It is due to be here on Tuesday ... If I have enough time to charge it and learn how to use it, minimally, I'll add it to my bag for my holiday trip to Ireland and the Isle of Man! :)

G
Looks like fun. Did you read this article: brilliant and braindead
 

daf

Member
The Light L16 that I ordered in Summer 2015 has reached production and is finally on it's way to me now! I'm looking forward to experimenting, learning, and making photographs with it.

It is due to be here on Tuesday ... If I have enough time to charge it and learn how to use it, minimally, I'll add it to my bag for my holiday trip to Ireland and the Isle of Man! :)

G
Looks interesting...could you share a «raw » so we can play :) ?
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I corrected your link in the quote:

Looks like fun. Did you read this article: brilliant and braindead
Interesting read. And no, I'm not selling my Leicas any time soon. :)

The L16 is new technology, something to play with ... not for the impatient or those seeing consistent, reliable, top notch performing photographic equipment. It sounds to me much like shooting with ancient Polaroid SX-70s using The Impossible Project film the past seven years: frustrating, variable consistency, weird problems, etc. And I've spent a tonne more on film than I did for the L16.

I suspect I'll love working with it, and will get a few really nice photographs too. :D

G


Polaroid SLR670a by MiNT + Impossible Project 600 B&W (Round)
Google PhotoScan to iPad Pro
Process in Lightroom
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Looks interesting...could you share a «raw » so we can play :) ?
Sure. Once I have the camera and learn how to get what passes for 'raw' out of it into a DNG format that can be played with, I'll post a couple of exposures for folks to enjoy and play with.

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
The camera arrived a day early.

I took it out of the box, updated its firmware, and played with it a little bit. Feels nice. There are lots of things to learn about it, but it's time for bed. I'll decide whether to carry it on my trip tomorrow.

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Having snapped a few exploratory frames playing with the controls, I then set it on a shelf, a 35mm equivalent FoV selected, and let it make a photo of me. I rendered the file with its app and with Lightroom to this first, full resolution (50Mpixel) JPEG. It's a pleasing result given the three different light sources in my office and my complete lack of experience in using this camera.


Light L16
ISO 511 @ f/8 @ 1/25 @ 35mm equiv

Full resolution JPEG:
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4730/39134202292_e4d97307b7_o.jpg

It's a very interesting camera and will take some time to master, never mind for the firmware and its processing app (Lumen) to become mature.

enjoy,
G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
It's definitely you, G ... :thumbup:
LOL! I suspect it is. Like the new sunglasses? :D

With respect to the L16's size, here are two comparison shots next to my iPhone 6:





Weight wise, it's 145g for the iPhone and 435g for the L16.

The L16, in its slip case, fits in my jacket or vest pocket easily, or into the smallest camera bag I have. I can carry it on the bicycle in the back pocket of my cycling jersey (or in a small sling bag) and not even notice it's there. It's quite portable: a lot of camera in a very small package. When coupled with a small tripod for best stability, I think it will make an excellent field camera for various types of subject matter.

And no: I'm not selling my Leicas any time soon... =:-D

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I posted my exposure #63 in the "Picture a Week" thread earlier.

This is a simpler example of what the camera can do without any effort or processing: A quick, out of camera snap at close range, hand held ... just passed through Lumen to render a JPEG and tap the tint slider a little magenta to kill the greenish light from my desk lamp:



Full 50Mpixel JPEG rendering: https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4607/39824048121_1912f0bd15_o.jpg

That's near/at the close focus limit at 35mm eFOV.

G

No matter where you go, there you are.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
The Light according to Forbes' review L16 camera
Interesting review. (Is that a passive-aggressive way of saying, "Yeah, but why all the bullshit about your expectations"? :D)

Much of what he says is true, particularly about Lumen. HOWEVER, he makes the same mistake as so many other reviewers do: he's applying expectations based upon marketing hype and a background in other high end cameras (for the size/performance/etc) with those expectations in mind.

Lumen is still beta software. The L16 firmware is still beta firmware. The camera certainly has a number of problems when compared to something like my Olympus E-PL7, which is a totally mature, very small, very fast, very proficient picture producer.

BUT: the Light L16 is a totally different thing. It doesn't have "16 lenses" which I heard him say about three dozen times, it has 16 CAMERAS that are being coordinated together to do the focal length simulation, the image production, etc. Each of these cameras has a very small sensor and one of three focal length lenses. The means to generate a full image is to integrate and synthesize the capture of up to ten of these cameras, working together, into a whole. For little sensors, you want to pack in as much light as you can per exposure to keep noise low, which cuts out some sharpness (we all know that lenses generally always work best at one or two stops down from wide open).

The larger problem is the matter of expectations. The very nature of this process means that images made with the L16 will have a different look and feel, a different range of sharpness and other attributes, compared to ANY camera with a good lens and a single sensor. They're simply not directly comparable in any real way.

I've said this somewhere before: Shooting with the L16 is kind of like shooting with a Polaroid SX-70. If you compare the output of an SX-70 to that of a Nikon F with a lens that gives you a square crop enlarged to the same size image, the Nikon beats the Polaroid hands down in every possible technical analysis of the image. An SX-70 in use is large, a bit funky to hold, and slow; the limits of sharpness and quality in the photos it makes are the limits of its amazing "live in front of your eyes image processing" recording medium. BUT the SX-70 folds down to an easily carried package, is very simple to make photos with, and the emotional/aesthetic appeal of being able to make a photo and hand it to the person who you photographed right on the spot overwhelms any technical demerits. It makes beautiful photos in a sense of the word "beautiful" that is utterly different from how you would use that word with the Nikon. The same is true of the L16, modulo the clearly seen flaws in the image processing at the present time.

For me, I had no silly fantasy that the L16 was going to replace my Leica SL and its two zoom lenses, an 18lb lump of gear to carry about. I see the L16 as a digital replacement for the SX-70 ... something easy to carry, flexible enough to make a wide range of interesting photos, and producing a unique look and feel that is appealing and aesthetically right. Its 28-150mm effective FOV range gives it an additional flexibility in a smaller to carry package than my SX-70 with wide and tele lens converters, and higher technical quality too, and its speed of operation is remarkably about the same.

You always have to shoot subjects and use shooting techniques that fit the camera you're using for best results. That's always been up to you to figure out as a photographer. I certainly wouldn't bring an iPhone X to the race track to capture cars speeding by at 200 mph a quarter of a mile away just like I would never bring a Nikon D4 with a 100-400 mm lens out to dinner hoping to catch a nice picture of my date while having dinner. It's simple common sense. I don't care if the marketing hype that they trying to use to pique people's interest says that the L16 is going to replace my DSLR and a bag of lenses, it's simply common sense that that is just hype and the realities of the technology make it impossible.

(And how to hold the camera... Sheesh! I have no problem whatever holding the camera with both hands and not getting my fingers in front of a lens. It's simply not the same as holding my SL to do that job and requires your hands me in a different position. That comment was just silly. Same for the "how to put it down when connected" comment. He already found the solution: put something under it when you put it down. You're not going to do that while balancing your computer, your butt, and the camera on a rock in the field ... all it takes is a little swatch of cloth or the case itself to put it down on. And this is a major problem? :banghead:)

In other words, I liked the review and found most of his sensible complaints about the process, the software, and the state of maturity about right, but I question the reviewers assumptions and the details of his discontent. And beyond that, well, I am getting pretty darn good color and imaging qualities straight out of the camera despite all the problems... :D


Light L16
ISO 480 @ f/15 @ 1/45
Cropped, rotated, green tint reduced.


G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Notes from the Light notebook...

I've been carrying the L16 most of the time in the past week or two, beginning to get my legs with it. I'm finding that it does an excellent job as a people/street camera: it remains unobtrusive because, to most people nowadays, it looks like I'm playing with a cell phone.

The firmware was updated again just the other day: the shot to shot speed and AF/AE responsiveness is hugely improved in this release, and the camera now does tone mapping as it blends the images together for smoother rendering. They're working on a concept of "single shot HDR" that's not quite yet ready, but could be really interesting.

The more I use the L16, the more I appreciate its size, weight, and capabilities. It's never going to compete with my other cameras on certain bases, but it creates a new envelope of capability and use with its form factor, weight, and dynamics in use.

In other words, I'm having a blast with it. More pictures soon...

G
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
I owned one of these cars when they were nearly new, bought it for $1800 in 1972 when I graduated High School. Mine was Forest Green with a Tan interior ... four speed manual transmission, cheap Blaupunkt AM/FM stereo, no AC or power accessories at all. It was a glorious thing to drive: light, agile and trim, quick enough... But oh my was it expensive for an 18 year old to service and maintain! Loved it anyway, lots of fun...













Light L16 - ISO 100
Rendered to DNG, Processed in Lightroom 6
On Flickr: https://flic.kr/s/aHsks73yNP

Ah, great memories. Glad I ran into this car on my walk!! :D

enjoy,
G
 
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Godfrey

Well-known member
On one of my bus rides last Thursday, I was chatting with this lovely woman for a few moments and then she leaned back and dozed off...


Light L16
ISO 219 @ f/2 @ 1/60 @ 70mm
Focus zone narrowed post-capture.

enjoy! G
 

jdphoto

Well-known member
Peta Pixel mentions software anomalies and no in camera processing. Cool idea, but It's too computer based imo.
 

Godfrey

Well-known member
Peta Pixel mentions software anomalies and no in camera processing. Cool idea, but It's too computer based imo.
LOL! That's a crack-up!

The Light L16 is an example of a camera for computational photography ... It is designed to be photography which can only really exist with computer-driven image processing. If it's too "computer based" for you, fine; you're entitled to your opinion. Just don't buy one, no one's forcing you. :toocool:

The camera probably doesn't have enough processing power, RAM, or storage to make in-camera processing very effective or useful without making it much more expensive; the screen is also too small to do a credible job of adjusting the focus zone and evaluating color, etc. It's a trade-off. The Lumen software is very very immature as yet, it's still only a beta release.

But it all works, with some effort, and can produce some stunning results. I don't really care what Peta Pixel or other reviewers have to say ... as entitled to their opinions as they might be, I am also entitled to ignore them and have my own. I evaluate the camera and its software the only sensible way: by working with it and seeing if it can make photos that I like, and whether the effort required is too much of a PITA to be worth it. So far, it's clicking the notches as I learn it and the photos it's making are getting better and better.

So, IMO, it has a lot of future in it even if the present incarnation of firmware and processing software leave a lot to be desired. AND, very important, I like shooting with it. :D

G
 
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