The World’s Fastest Camera? It’s Staying in the Lab, Thanks

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s 1-trillion-frames-per-second camera is already obsolete. Swedish scientists have built the world’s fastest camera, capable of capturing a staggering 5 trillion frames per second — that’s a 5 followed by 12 zeros.

This camera goes by the name FRAME (Frequency Recognition Algorithm for Multiple Exposures), developed at Lund University. It can essentially “freeze light,” capturing movement as brief as 0.2 trillionths of a second, or 0.0000000000002 seconds. The camera is currently used primarily for scientific research in chemistry, physics, biology, and medicine — all operating at the femtosecond scale.

Just how short is that? A human life spans roughly 2,491,344,000 seconds. And a single second contains 1,000,000,000,000,000 femtoseconds.

Lund University researcher Elias Kristensson explained: “Today, observing events at the femtosecond scale can only be done by capturing still images. We have to repeat the same experiment several times, recording the process over and over, and then compile it into a video. The downside of this approach is obvious: no two experimental runs are ever exactly the same.”

To test the camera’s performance, the researchers photographed “light particles (photons) traveling through a sheet of ordinary paper” — essentially having the camera record the brief journey of photons from the light source to the paper.

In reality, this lab-bound ultra-high-speed camera doesn’t work the way traditional cameras do. It relies on a novel algorithm: within a single exposure, it captures several coded images, which are then decomposed into a video sequence. Put simply, during the entire exposure, the camera emits light in the form of laser pulses. Each light pulse carries a specific code. Upon contact with the subject, the signal reflects back to the camera, where an encryption key separates the images.

The technology has been acquired by a German company, with commercialization expected within two years. But let’s be clear: even once it’s commercialized, this supercamera isn’t going anywhere. It will remain firmly — and rightfully — inside the scientific laboratory.