Slow Light

[KmH]

Imagine a camera that can make noise free images in near total darkness at a frame rate of 10 frames per second, and using a battery we would never have to re-charge.

In a vacuum light travels at about 186,00 miles per second - 299,792,458 meters per second to be exact. In various materials the speed of light is slower. Air, and the glass in our camera lenses, slows light down a teeny, tiny bit.

Twenty years ago physicist Lene Vestergaard Hau led a team that slowed the speed of light a lot - to about 17 meters per second. The team achieved that result by having the light go through a Bose-Einsten condensate - a unique and very cold (a fraction of a degree above absolute zero, −273.15 °C), state of matter. Later the team was able to stop, and then re-start, a beam of light.

The possible significance for photography is that slow light has the potential to reduce noise.
The noise reduction possibilities of slow light could allow all types of information to be transmitted a lot more efficiently.
Even more useful, slow light optical switches would use a million-fold less power compared to switches now operating everything from telephone equipment to supercomputers.

 

[Advanced Photo]

That would be a very large camera indeed to house the equipment to create and maintain a B-E condensate. And you thought lugging a heavy zoom lens was tiring.

 

[petrochemist]

Yes it's not likely to be a field portable set-up (just the insulation for handling it will assure that). It may have applications in astrophotography but I don't think it will be backyard stuff at any point!

 

[table1349]

Ohhh Your gonna get a call from the Apple lawyers. You just released the next big feature in the iPhone 7s. We all know that the iPhone 7 is replacing DSLR's and the iPhone 7s with this feature will replace all other forms of photography and communication. Way to go, spill the beans all over the kitchen floor.

 

[HeldInTheMoment]

....Mind Blown

 

[KmH]

The first digital camera was a pretty hefty piece too, but now a digital camera fits in a cell phone.

I apologize if I gave the impression such a camera is likely to be released in the near future.

 

[table1349]

The first digital camera was a pretty hefty piece too, but now a digital camera fits in a cell phone.

I apologize if I gave the impression such a camera is likely to be released in the near future.

You didn't see the leak from apple did you. It is one of the features for the iPhone 8.

 

[Advanced Photo]

The first digital camera was a pretty hefty piece too, but now a digital camera fits in a cell phone.

I apologize if I gave the impression such a camera is likely to be released in the near future.

...or ever in our lifetimes.