Light L16 Review: A clever idea on paper, but the current product falls well short
posted Wednesday, February 28, 2018 at 8:00 AM EDT
Click here to read our Light L16 Review
The Light L16 is the first hardware device from a company who claims their clever multi-lens computational photography technology will be a "DSLR killer." After years of hype and teasers, we finally got our hands on one, and suffice it to say, the image quality and performance leave a lot to desired. On paper the whole thing is a very clever idea: a multi-camera device that computationally creates high-resolution photos from up to 16 small, low-resolution sensors, and yet is more pocketable than a big DSLR.
In reality however, shooting out in the real world, the L16 is pretty much underwhelming on all fronts. It's quite large and likely won't fit comfortably in your pocket, and yet it is not a dedicated camera device, which means you'll still wind up to carrying a smartphone and a camera. More importantly, the camera's image quality is very inconsistent and often quite disappointing. And while I was able to capture images with lots of detail and resolution, more often than not, images were fraught with poor detail, odd artifacts and other compositing errors. Granted, the L16 is the first of its kind, so hopefully there will be improvements in successive models, but right now, we can't recommend this camera -- particularly given its nearly-$2,000 price.
For all the details, head over to our L16 Review or jump right to our L16 Field Test. And be sure to check out the L16 Gallery Images and Lab Samples Page.