The FocOz camera allows you to combine the small with the large, like the toy car in the foreground and a full-sized car beyond it, in the same photo (below). Both in perfect focus!

It gives an illusion of two real-size cars. You may ask a person viewing this picture: 'Which one would you prefer to drive?' Some might pick the sporty yellow number--but they wouldn't be able to drive it! Use it in your ad: "Buy the van from us and get the yellow one for free!"

The procedure for this shot was simple: First focus the camera (Manually or by using Autofocus) on the small car, just 20 centimeters in front of the lens, and save this focus in memory by pressing the green camera knob. The next illustration features a FocOz camera:

Next, aim at the 'real' car 10 meters further away, focus and put into memory a second time. Then: Press the exposure button as normally done for a shot. What happened? The camera made two exposures. Each one focused according to what you saved in memory. A computer program later merges these two frames into one single photo, with both cars in equally sharp focus. This is an example where Depth of Field must not necessarily cover a whole scene: Two focal settings are enough, one for each car. The rest of the scene, being of lesser interest, may remain slightly out of focus. This is a common situation. In fact, it's up to the photographer to decide how many priority focuses he wants to operate with in a particular situation. Two frames may be entirely satisfactory if he makes an image composition like this one. The illusion continues if we enter a motor show with strange visitors and plants (below).

The cars are now between 20 centimeters and 200 centimeters from the lens, and 5 differently focused frames were processed this time.

Removing blur from Product Photography

An old problem with Depth of Field deficiency in macro photography is thus solved by using FocOz technology. Have you noticed how blurred some Product photos are? Here is one:

Or Food Recipe pictures from your daily newspaper? If not - take another look. We used to cut out and save the worst flops of this genre. But it was no sport. They were too many! Here is an example:

This is an ideal application for the FocOz camera, because the product scene is a kind of still life - no movements taking place while making such shots. A FocOz camera makes its exposures one after another and will only be disturbed by objects moving too much between exposures. It takes only about 0.3 seconds between consecutive shots (Hi-speed mode), so it goes pretty fast, and minor scene movements usually have no influence at all! Exposure time of individual shots of the FocOz camera may still be short enough (like 1/250 sec) in order to avoid classic 'motion blur'. This is a situation where a tripod can be useful. You may then operate with many more differently-focused frames, extending a continuous Depth of Field all over the picture if necessary: A sequence of up to 8 frames (maximum), 5 Megapixel-pictures, may be executed automatically in less than 8 seconds. And you can, if necessary, operate with small relative apertures like F/2.8 and full 3x zooming down to close ranges like 50 centimeters or even 20 centimeters from the lens. Manual focusing mode (MF) is feasible here, because you've got plenty of time to do so in a studio, but we recommend you to use autofocus (AF) mode instead, being precise and much faster in continuous mode. We usually want all frames in a sequence to be identically exposed, and recommend manual exposure control, continuous flood light illumination, but no flash.

A strange Super-macro world

The first shots are focused on the cloves and microscopical details, invisible to the unaided eye, may be recorded - while at the same time the background landscape is in sharp focus on other shots. The FocOz camera makes you see the world from a surprising perspective. Even well-known little objects are transformed into strange formations in this new context, where you are freely mixing the Big with the Small! And you may readily operate from the grass-roots level by putting the camera on the ground and twisting the presentation display upwards toward you, so that you can view the scene from above. It's a strange world meeting you down there. We recommend that you shut down the lens aperture as much as possible (F/8) when operating with Supermacro and extreme proximity distance (3 centimeters), because it's a hard test for the processing program and you are here approaching the limitations of the technique. Nevertheless, you will more than likely end up with spectacular 'infinite depth of field' photos of a quality which would be virtually impossible to achieve without the FocOz. Here comes another strange macro composition:

Informative Nature Photography

What do you want to show? A general landscape or minute plant details? Or both? An editor might add: Save printing expenses. Take for example the mushroom picture below:

Minute details may distinguish edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. So close-up views are a 'must' for the mushroom book. On the other hand: Growth place does also give important clues, because some species only grow in environments where there are certain trees. The FocOz camera depicts the close-up view as well as the growth place - in one and the same picture. This is only one example where a single FocOz picture may replace two 'classic' photos, as far as optimal image information is concerned. We do of course recognize other situations, where a photographer emphasizes specific objects and purposely or of necessity blurs the rest of the picture. We have seen artistic outcomes as well as a few disappointing results from this practice. The FocOz camera provides an escape option for those who occasionally desire more objects in sharp focus in one and the same photograph.

New Angles for Portrait photography

The focus ranges were 1.5 and 2.5 meters respectively. This gives a hitherto unknown freedom to compose studio portraits. Imaginative studio photographers are now learning to express themselves more freely, using this new tool. Portrait photography used to be 'flat' for the last 200 years or so, meaning that persons and objects were arranged (more or less) at one and the same distance from the camera lens. The FocOz technique makes it possible to compose these photos differently. An example: A family is to be portrayed. Let's say we want to enhance the small children by increasing their relative size! It's easily done with the FocOz technique: You seat them closer to the camera: Little brother with teddy bear at the front, say 1.5 meters from the lens. Next big sister behind and finally Mom and Dad at the rear, say 3 meters from the lens. Just 'save' one focus setting for each individual distance and we get a 3-frame (usually successful) sequence here. The photographer says: "Please sit still", pressing the button, and the three exposures are made within a second. This simple procedure does, however, become increasingly difficult with longer sequences. You may even use an old-fashioned background curtain, now perfectly focused, adding an illusion of summer or romance. The same basic technique may also be applied to production of newspaper stories, portraying interviewed persons in their natural environment all in sharp detail in a single photograph. See below for an example:

Press conference with a FocOz telephoto lens

Let's say you use the old trick of aiming your telephoto lens in a direction where both can be seen in the viewfinder at the same time. But the distances to them might still differ a lot, so you must decide: Whom are you putting in focus? The FocOz camera can save focuses from both of them in a matter of seconds by using the Autofocus and green 'save' button twice. Our attempts indicate that during a press conference, you can produce good photos with at least two persons in best focus, thus solving this old problem. This is exemplified by the 2-frame FocOz shot below, featuring a press conference with two square-dance leaders at the podium!

There are limitations, though: The persons portrayed must be reasonably (but not critically) stationary. Too much movement will disturb the image processing. This is not the classic motion blur, but rather a slight confusion created by objects moving during the refocus interlude in between two frames. Even so, it usually works fine.

And there is no risk of being stranded without regular pictures, because you may at any time fall back on the original exposures, preceding image processing.