Rajiv Laroia
Co-founder and CTO of Light, reimagining photography
Discussion
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
Hi, I’m Rajiv Laroia, co-founder and CTO of Light, makers of the L16 multi-aperture computational camera. I previously founded and served as CTO of Flarion Technologies, which developed the base technology for LTE before being acquired by Qualcomm in 2006. Prior to Flarion, I held R&D leadership roles in Lucent Technologies Bell Labs. I hold a Ph.D. and Master's degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a Bachelor's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, all in electrical engineering.
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Clyde
@cgrapa
@drrajivlaroia Since there is no hotshoe on the L16, would it be possible to sync to an external flash via WiFi or Bluetooth?
adam
@adam_i · Adam I
Thanks for answering questions. I've pre-ordered. My few are:
-There is no removable memory. This worries me as these images are likely very big files. Any plans to add this feature?
-Same for removable battery. This makes some kinds of travel very hard. Any plans to add this feature?
Do either of the above concern you?
-Here's an easy one. Is there a anchor of some kind for a wrist strap? In the preview images and videos no one is ever wearing a strap. This is a pretty expensive product to just walk around free wheeling it.
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@adam_i As for memory, there is currently 128G of non volatile memory. We are looking to see if it makes sense to add a slot for removable memory, but we are not sure at this point. However there is a usb interface and people can attach external usb memory to the device. As for the battery, we are also going to be offering a removable grip with a secondary battery that doubles the battery life. As a pre-order customer you'll get a complementary battery/grip.
Armando Heredia
@gunshotlead
In an interview series with ProLost, you referred to use of wide open aperture as "corner cases." But it's a very strong likelihood that buyers (including) myself will want to shoot at this setting. Since there is no aperture priority per previous interviews, by default the camera is shooting at wide-open is it not? When do you plan on having sample photos for this scenario, and for varying the DoF, will we have to download the photo and adjust in your post-process software?
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@gunshotlead We'll be releasing more sample photos soon that have shallow depth of field. Look for these in early 2016.
Armando Heredia
@gunshotlead
What is the strategy for post-process? Is your file going to be proprietary format? Will the end user need standalone software to process? Are there plans to integrate with COTS editors and which? What can the end user do offline in the editor (refocus, adjust DoF, HDR, other)? Can any post-process be done in-camera and what is the plan to integrate with Social Media apps? Will the apps reside directly on the camera? Is there a plan to integrate 4G/LTE connectivity or are we limited to WiFi/Tethering?
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@gunshotlead Yes, there is plan for integration with COTS editors. We will have our own software which will take the multiple images from the camera and combine them into a single image. We will also consider producing plug ins for COTS editors to do this.
Lejla Bajgoric
@lejlahunts · Intern, Product Hunt
Thanks for being here Rajiv! What would you say is your biggest accomplishment, outside of professional developments?
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@lejlahunts My amazing family. I have four kids :)
Christopher Stark
@christark
Not sure what a COTS editor is, but I would love a better understanding of the post-process. So you'll have files that can be downloaded from the camera? Are these RAW files? What type of file format? Would one be able to work on these in Photoshop or Lightroom? Thanks.
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@christark The data from our camera contains 10 different images, and our software or plug-in is required to combine images into a single image. This can then be exported in multiple formats (PNG, JPG, TIFF, DNG, etc...) for editing in commercially-available editors like Photoshop and others.
Vivek Gani
@vivekgani · workin on @thimbleup (a mac plugin)
Pretty excited about this camera, already sold my slr and preordered this! Have a few questions:
- Is long term (several minutes) exposure possible for night sky / light painting photos?
- How well does the stitching work with motion photography shots (e.g. a photographing a vehicle while moving in another vehicle) ?
- Will there be a panorama feature?
- During the October launch, there was a photo of a sunset dinner scene on the light.co's image gallery that was later removed. Why was this photo removed from the gallery?
J and J Studio
@jandjstudio · DOP J and J studio
@vivekgani already sold your slr? You know this isnt out until fall next year right?
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@vivekgani Great! Thanks for your support :) We are working to enable long exposures. For very long exposures we may need some cooperation from the photographer to physically block light from entering the camera while we take a second exposure. Stitching for motion photography shots works well. There are no added undesirable effects. The smallest focal length that we support is 35mm for the L16. Right now there's no plan for a panorama feature, but we're hoping to change that soon... not sure about the sunset dinner photo... I'll have to ask our marketing team ;)
Vivek Gani
@vivekgani · workin on @thimbleup (a mac plugin)
@jandjstudio @vivekgani Yeah, I know it isn't out till next fall. Was using my old slr less and less though since it was a pain to pack for my main needs (travel/hiking/snowboarding).
Armando Heredia
@gunshotlead
Can you give more details on the Autofocus capabilities? Will there be face detection? Is it contrast or phase detect? How many points? How does it work if the user wants to automatically track a subject across the screen? Or override for single point?
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@gunshotlead It's a hybrid auto-focus. Since the mirror isn't blocking the sensor, the entire sensor can be used for auto-focus points. The first phase of auto focus involves depth estimation by parallax. And then we refine by contrast feedback.
Armando Heredia
@gunshotlead
Can you expand on the metering used? Will the user have options for multi-segment, CW, and spot? How will that work in conjunction with the HDR?
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Rajiv Laroia
@drrajivlaroia · CTO & Co-Founder of Light
@gunshotlead Since we're taking 10 shots, which can be metered separately, it doesn't make sense to give that much control to the end user. However, the user can specify normal metering modes as they are used to with traditional cameras. We can adjust the exposure of different cameras differently, and we have simultaneous HDR which the camera will control.