Profoto continues to push its support for smartphones with the launch of AirX Smart-TTL support in the Profoto Camera Android app. Available now in beta, the app allows you to use select Profoto lights in combination with your Android smartphone.
Profoto has just announced (in their words) "an innovation that rewrites the rules of photography." Thanks to a technology called Profoto AirX, the company has made their B10 flash series compatible with the iPhone, allowing mobile photographers to use a Xenon flash to its full potential "for the first time in history."
The first known photograph was captured in 1826 when light reacted with a particular type of asphalt known as Bitumen of Judea. Since that first natural light photo, photographers have introduced artificial flash lighting to photos through all kinds of different ways. In this post, we're taking a look at a brief history of the camera flash -- from its humble beginnings with explosive powder and burning metal up through the latest LED lights -- to see how far it has come.
Taking photos is one of the main ways people use smartphones these days, and phone makers are trying all kinds of ideas for one-upping its competitors in photo features. ASUS just showed off its latest idea today: a powerful xenon flash dongle that attaches to the back of the phone.
Lenses and sensors weren't the only camera components miniaturized and dumbed down when digital photography jumped over into the world of smartphones: flashes did too. In order to fit everything into a tiny package, smartphone makers have largely opted for LED flashes in their phones rather than the bigger and bulkier xenon flashtubes found in proper digital cameras (a notable exception is the Nokia PureView 808). That may soon change.
Scientists in Singapore have developed a new capacitor that may lead to more powerful xenon flash units replacing the LED flashes found in consumer smartphones.
The "flash units" found on the backs of smartphones may be getting more powerful, but the general idea has largely remained the same: use a powerful LED light that can illuminate a scene when you need a little extra light. The power output doesn't really stack up to the flashes found on compact cameras, but Google has one solution for making the flash a bit brighter.
In a recently published patent, the company outlines the idea of placing multiple LED flashes on smartphones, perhaps in a ring around the camera unit.