FocusTwist App: More Software Refocus for your iPhone

Last week, we presented the tap2focus iPhone App that offers Lytro-like refocus capabilities by way of manually recording several photos and combining them into an interactive picture.
Shortly after (but unrelated), Arqball announced the launch of their newest app FocusTwist which also promises this LightField-like feature.
[app 597654594]

There are a few differences between the two apps:

• With FocusTwist, all you do is tap on the object that’s closest to you. It then automatically takes a series of pictures with different focus levels. This means your camera is probably more stationary than with tap2focus, where each desired focus layer needs to be tapped on individually.
• Also, recording “dozens” of focus layers (as quoted by co-creator Ahbi Shelat) instead of a few individual frames will obviously give you more layers to refocus on.
• Tap2focus goes for an autofocus effect when refocusing, so whenever you click somewhere, the entire picture goes out of focus and then slowly blends the appropriate focus setting into the picture. In contrast, the FocusTwist effect is more closely designed after Lytro’s refocus transition.

Both apps allow you to share the resulting, interactive picture online, through a link to their respective websites with the necessary infrastructure. Arqball seems to be focusing more (pun intended) on social media and sharing: Use the Hashtag #focustwist when sharing on Twitter, and your “twist” will appear in the app’s feed section – which is also where you can find twists by other users.

FocusTwist screenshots and sample images:

More sample images are available here.

Software refocus is just one of the features of real LightField technology, but at the price of 0.99 $ (tap2focus) or 1.99 $ (FocusTwist), both apps bring an interactive new feature to your iPhone. The only thing left is to be creative. :)