Skip to main content

Lensless cameras just got closer to practical use, thanks to MIT

Efficient lensless imaging with a femto-pixel: MIT Media Lab, Camera Culture Group
Lensless cameras are tiny — but their slow processing times have kept them from being adopted in real-world applications. Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, however, might just be moving the technology closer with a new technique for shooting lens-free by using time itself.

Lensless cameras are single megapixel sensors that need as many as a thousand exposures to actually create a clear picture, making them too slow to adapt into actual products. A group from the MIT Media Lab, however, has crafted a method that’s 50 times faster than earlier lensless camera attempts.

Recommended Videos

Lenses redirect the light into the camera sensor to create a sharp image. Without a lens, earlier systems had to send out a pulse of light and read that data in a randomized pattern — then do it again about 1,000 times in a different pattern in order to gather enough data to create an image.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Instead of taking thousands of exposures on that lensless sensor, the group instead uses time-of-flight imaging — the sensor essentially times how long it takes for each photon of light to reach it. Since light takes longer to reach the camera the farther away the source is, that time data gives the sensor an idea of just how far away the objects are. By assigning a time to the light, the camera can then use that data to reconstruct the scene.

The new method still requires sending the light through randomized patterns in order to make sense of the data, but only requires about 50 exposures instead of a thousand. By using both multiple exposures and time and distance data, the sensor can reconstruct a scene without a lens in less time than earlier attempts.

“Formerly, imaging required a lens, and the lens would map pixels in space to sensors in an array, with everything precisely structured and engineered,” graduate student Guy Satat said, who authored the paper along with Matthew Tancik and Ramesh Raskar. ”With computational imaging, we began to ask: Is a lens necessary?  Does the sensor have to be a structured array? How many pixels should the sensor have? Is a single pixel sufficient? These questions essentially break down the fundamental idea of what a camera is.  The fact that only a single pixel is required and a lens is no longer necessary relaxes major design constraints, and enables the development of novel imaging systems. Using ultrafast sensing makes the measurement significantly more efficient.”

Lens-free cameras are currently being researched for their small size and ability to compute large amounts of data, as well as for recording light outside the visible spectrum.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
Cyber Monday Sony camera deals: Save on camera body and lenses
sony-a9-best-mirrorless-camera

There are a lot of Cyber Monday deals that are turning out some impressive discounts right now. This is great news if you’re looking to save on a camera, as Cyber Monday camera deals have some of the best prices we’ve seen all year. This is especially true among Sony cameras, as some of its most popular cameras are seeing discounts. We’ve tracked down all of the best Cyber Monday Sony camera deals, and you can find them all below.
Our top pick: Sony ZV-1F vlogging camera — $398 $500 20% off

Vloggers and content creators regularly turn to the Sony ZV-1F for their camera needs. It can shoot in 4K resolution, which is pretty impressive for such a small-bodied camera. And while it’s designed with some features that make it nice for filming with, this is also a quality photography camera if you’re looking for something small and pocketable. You can grab the ZV-1F for under $400 with this Cyber Monday deal, which is a 20% discount and a savings of more than $100.

Read more
Best Cyber Monday camera deals: DSLR, action cameras, and more
Canon EOS R10 camera mirrorless with STM lens attached and flash up

Cyber Monday has come and gone, but many retailers still have excellent Cyber Monday deals. This makes right now your last chance to get some early holiday shopping done or to pick up some tech for yourself. Photographers should be glad to hear this, as there are a lot of Cyber Monday camera deals already available. We currently see models discounted from top brands like Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others. You can also check out these Cyber Monday laptop deals and Cyber Monday tablet deals so you can access content on the go.
Canon EOS R100 with 18-45mm lens — $350 $600 42% off

Canon is a favorite among photographers, and if you’re looking for an entry-level camera from the long-time camera maker, the EOS R100 offers up $250 in Cyber Monday savings here. The camera itself has a 24-megapixel sensor that can capture beautiful photos and 4K video. You’ll also get three free months of iCloud+ with this camera, and the Canon RF-S 18-45mm IS lens.

Read more
Don’t miss the chance to get this 128GB SD card for less than $100
The Lexar 128GB Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card on a white background.

Your new purchase from camera deals will need storage for photos and videos, but you can't buy just any SD card that you see online. It's highly recommended that you invest in a high-quality storage device like the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card, which you can currently get from B&H Photo Video with a $75 discount on its 128GB version that brings its price down from $170 originally to a more affordable $95. You may want to buy multiples of this SD card while it's available for less than $100, but you'll have to hurry because we're not sure how much time is remaining on this bargain.

Why you should buy the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card
More devices are using microSD cards for expanded storage, but according to our guide on finding the right memory card for your digital camera, most DSLR cameras and mirrorless cameras are still using SD cards like the Lexar Professional 2000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Card. Lexar is one of the brands that we wouldn't hesitate to recommend to photographers, and this SD card's read speed of 300 MB/s and write speed of 260 MB/s will enable quick transfers and smooth shooting. Additionally, as an UHS-II card, you won't have a problem with advanced functions such as continuous shutter bursts, rapid shooting, and raw and JPEG captures.

Read more