Laser autofocus: How does it work?

Many of must have heard about laser autofocus in the configurations of many phone. But have you ever wonder what it is and how it work? Read the article below to know more!

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Laser autofocus: The fastest autofocus technology!

First of all, this kind of focus technology works based on a laser transmitter and receiver. The sensor of the camera emits an infrared laser. This laser goes to the object you wanna take photo of, and go back to the camera. Then the receiver records how much time it takes for the laser  to return. After that, it figures out the distance between the phone and the object by multiply the time recorded with the speed of the laser (which is constant). By that method, the object is located precisely and brought into focus!

The process seems slow and complicated but don’t forget that laser is extremely fast! So it takes no more than half a second for the object to be brought into focus and the picture to be taken! That’s why this autofocus technology is the fastest among other method. The user can take great photos of moving objects. However, this technology requires user to focus manually. That means the user has to tap the object they wanna focus on the screen.

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But I don’t think that step will make it less convenient anyway! Another advantage about laser autofocus is that it doesn’t rely on the light condition because the camera itself generates its own light. This technology is not only the fastest but also the best one for low-light condition!

Laser autofocus: The drawback

Everything has two sides. So does Laser autofocus. The only drawback of this technology is that the laser is quite weak (you don’t wanna the laser to hurt your eyes do you?). That’s why the object you wanna take photo of must be close enough for the laser to reach! So if you take a big landscape with mountains, clouds or the sea, this technology is helpless. However, today’s laser autofocus camera often goes with contrast autofocus, which will help when the laser one cannot.