What is a FocOz Camera?
The FocOz® camera system can solve a big problem for you!
It produces
professional quality photos with extreme Depth of Field. It means high
image definition all over the picture, i.e. from nearest foreground
objects and up to the horizon. You may also portray persons at
different ranges - all showing up with optimal definition on the
resultant photograph.
The FocOz camera is thus solving an old fundamental problem of
photography, namely how to keep the whole scene in optimal focus - on
a single photo.
It's a FocOz camera on the pictures below!
The FocOz Camera System
It consists of a modified high performance digital camera, which works
'normally' except for the focusing. An additional high-tech electronic
unit with its own microprocessor is added and integrated, converting
the standard camera into a slave unit with regard to focusing.
A sequence of differently focused frames is automatically exposed, and
it goes fast: 0.3 second intervals in between the 5-Megapixel shots.
The FocOz micro-processor is running the focusing step motor inside
the camera very accurately, so that focusing takes place precisely
during the short interludes in between exposures. It even awaits a
coming refocus if exposure times are prohibitively long.
An even more important part of the system is a recently developed
computer program which processes these shots: The best- focused image
'parts' from the sequential frames are identified and merged into one
single photo with superior depth of field.
The new auxiliary electronic housing is sturdy: Machined from solid
aluminium and is designed with the professional in mind: The extra
handle - containing batteries for dedicated FocOz electronics -
is transforming the original consumer camera into something much
more sophisticated - it can be grasped and held conveniently with one
or two full-grown hands. The feeling is metal and it's just heavy enough
to stabilize your hand-shake when operating by free hand.
And for the frequent outdoor photographer: An optional
add-on magnifying glass
shuts off sun stray light from the LCD presentation screen.
(We all know how hopeless these
screens are when 'blinded' by sunshine - don't we?).
FocOz Camera, Easy to Use
The camera is provided with a unique Focus-Memory. You may focus
the camera like normally onto various objects by operating its Autofocus
(AF) or Manual focus (MF) functions. Having done so, you may save
a particular focus setting in the Focus-memory , by pressing the Green
'Save' knob. This done, it stays there in memory and you may now aim
the camera against some other object to focus upon. And you may repeat this
procedure until you have saved up to 8 differently focused frames, being
the maximum. Want to redo the focusing? Just press the red reset button
below the green one and start from the beginning again!
Focusing done! Time to make the shot:
Decide about the final image composition - aim the camera and press the
'normal' camera shutter button once - just as for any other camera.
A fast and automatic sequence of differently focused shots, of the
same scene, will now be executed. The focus for each frame corresponds
to a focus you've just put in memory. The camera 'knows' how many
focuses (i.e. frames) you have in memory, so don't worry about that.
It will execute them all, one by one (keep the camera still!), after one single
press-down on that knob.
The maximum 'speed' will be something like
3 frames a second. (Giving full size, i.e. 5 Megapixel jpg
pictures). And then:
Same focuses remain in memory, so you can make a second shot ...
and a third one.
Or you may decide about a fresh start with a new motif? Press the red
Reset knob and redo the focusing. Indicator lights will always tell you how
many focuses you have in memory.
Free hand photography is quite feasible
and mostly a success even with maximum tele lens plus tele-converter.
It's because the FocOz system compensates for your occasional handshake
and misalignments in between those successive exposures ... and it works!
So you've now finished taking shots and want to see the results?
Well, you have to transfer these photos to your computer, with the camera
'standard' software, just as you have been used to do in the past.
FocOz Software
You are furthermore provided with a highly sophisticated FocOz
processing program on a CD disc for installation on your computer
(Windows 2000/XP).
(Hardware requirements)
It's easy to use. In fact, the only thing you may
have to do, is to address the particular frame sequence you want to
process. Then: Click the 'Process' button and wait a minute or two,
using a standard computer (PC) with - say - 2 or 3 GHz
processor-speed.
However the program is more powerful and flexible than that:
Certain 'difficult' motifs may require special processing modes and the
FocOz program provides you with tools to optimize such photos.
How it works
The automatic program is comparing different frames, selecting image
elements of high definition from them all and rejects whatever is blurred.
The processed photo becomes a mosaic of the selected image parts.
The final result is often treacherous! Like the Still Life composition
below with centimeter-size Ducks at the front, 20 centimeters from the
camera lens while the rear window is 7 meters away. It's a 5-frame
FocOz tele-shot at F/2.8.
Success Rate
You won't have to retouch the 'successful' pictures. However, success
rate does vary, depending upon how 'difficult' pictures you aim at. A
properly tuned studio set up for product- or even portrait photography
should for example give you a success rate approaching 100%, while
unrehearsed outdoor shots against the light, super-close ranges, or
press conference scenes exhibiting significant movements, may bring
down your success rate to 50% and even less.
Our own statistics from
many hundred shots, of all kinds (indoor and outdoor, winter and
summer, macro, portraits, landscapes ... you name it) gave success rates
around 70 - 90% depending upon the number of frames being
processed. Two-frame-shots are generally the most successful
ones. However many "failures" only require a mild 10 minute 'fresh up'
retouch in order to qualify as 'good'.
No retouch was attempted on the
adjoining demonstration pictures, featured on this website.
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