Nokia Refocus App: Now Available to all PureView Lumia Devices running Amber

Back in October, Nokia first presented their Windows Phone app “Nokia Refocus”, which offers a Lytro-like post-capture software refocus feature for Nokia’s conventional camera modules. The company promised to make the app available not just to owners of the brand-new Lumia 1520 phablet, but to all of their PureView enabled Lumia smartphones.
Just a few days ago, the app was finally released for the broader audience. Nokia Refocus is now available for the Lumia 920, Lumia 925, Lumia 928, Lumia 1020, and other PureView enabled smartphones that are running the Amber update.

You can get the app here in the Windows Phone Marketplace: Nokia Refocus (free, 5 MB)

As mentioned before, the refocus feature is not based on light field technology, but rather a “focus sweep” workaround which merges individual pictures with different focus.
To create a refocus picture, just focus on the nearest object to the camera and wait for a few seconds, while the camera records 2 to 8 pictures and calculates a depth map. Once the process is complete, you can upload your interactive picture to your SkyDrive and share it at 720p resolution, so others can play around with it online (either on refocus.nokia.com or directly within Facebook). Besides software refocus, you can also view pictures in “All in focus” and “Color pop” modes.

Images shared on twitter show that results are quite nice, as long as both the subject and camera are stationary during recording:

If you’re looking for more interactive refocus pictures from Nokia’s new app, a twitter search for #nokia #refocus nokia.ly will get you the latest uploads.

via