Device for picture taking in low light and connectable to a mobile telephone type device

A picture taking method, comprising the steps of:

• capturing, at 1/30 s or lower, a scene comprising lighting of 10 lux or below using a picture taking device comprising:
• a sensor of resolution higher than thirteen megapixels, a diagonal dimension of a photosensitive surface of the sensor being greater than 15 mm;
• an objective lens opening at minimum to f/2.0 for at least one focal length value;
• a digital processor to reduce noise in at least one image captured by the sensor;
• a rigid connector to connect the picture taking to device to a mobile phone or tablet type device comprising a screen;
• a power supply;
• a communications connector to communicate at least one of images and commands with the mobile phone or tablet type device;
• and
• wherein the picture taking device has dimensions meeting the following criteria:
• maximum and minimum of a height, a width and a depth of a smallest rectangular parallelepiped inside which the picture taking device can be inscribed are less than 70 mm and less than 30 mm, respectively, and a volume of the picture taking device is less than 86,000 mm3;
• and
• producing a visible image of a quality higher than thirteen megapixels, the image having an exposure configured to have elements of which the reflectance is 18% in the scene that is to be captured which reach the middle of the dynamic range, with a signal to noise ration midway through the dynamic range of 34 dB or higher, a spatial frequency response edge and spatial frequency response texture values which differ by less than 10% and which, at a quarter of the Nyquist frequency, are less than or equal to 120% and which, at half the Nyquist frequency, are greater than or equal to 50%.