Five long years ago, a company called InVisage showed off a new kind of smartphone camera sensor called QuantumFilm, which used quantum dots for improved sensitivity. Now, you can finally see a short film shot using the technology.
This 7.5-minute short is called PRIX, and it’s supposed to provide a sense of what InVisage’s hardware can achieve. Back in 2010, InVisage claimed its new camera modules, which use dots of semiconductor particles, could capture up to 95 per cent of light compared to their silicon counterparts, which can suck up 20 per cent at most. In turn, that should provide images that are four times sharper than the average camera’s photos, with double the dynamic range, producing results that are supposedly more akin to traditional film than electronic sensors. It also allows the device to use an electronic global shutter, which means footage doesn’t suffer from rolling shutter effect.
But anyway, you can judge for yourself the results by watching the video above. There are certainly some conditions on show here that would challenge normal smartphone cameras, such as fast-moving objects and bright sunlight. If you’re wondering, the slightly soft focus is said to be a result of the device being an early prototype, and it will be fixed in later iterations. All in, then, it’s fairly impressive and cinematic — we just wonder how long it might be before such a sensor finds its way into an actual phone.