First up, as detailed by PetaPixel, the planned 35-150mm (full frame equivalent) lens has been extended on the wide end to 28mm. In a blog post, Light says this move was in response to feedback from pre-order customers. The company says the new, wider lens will make for “more dramatic landscapes, more interesting street and architectural photos, and a more versatile camera overall.”
Second, Light has doubled the already respectable 128GB of internal memory. The company says it was able to secure “early access to a limited supply of a 256GB internal memory parts” and will provide the upgrade at no additional charge to current pre-order customers. This is good news, since the L16’s 52MP photos likely require a fair amount of space. Whether the boosted capacity will be made permanent is unclear, but it would certainly make the camera’s $1,700 price tag a little easier to stomach.
The final announcement made in Light’s July update was that it received $30 million in series C funding from GV (formally Google Ventures). Needless to say, that’s a significant chunk of a change. Light says it “will put these funds to good use as we scale our global supply chain to meet overwhelming demand.”
Overwhelming demand is right: the L16 has yet to ship, but a statement on the company’s homepage says the camera is sold out until 2017. In fact, Light has stopped taking pre-orders altogether. Interested buyers can sign up to be notified when pre-orders reopen, but it sounds like the wait could be quite a while. Apparently, revolutions don’t happen overnight.
