Samsung files a patent that will give shallow depth-of-field to its point-and-shoots

Bokeh photography is a hit with many pro photographers, which is one of the few reasons why they do not switch over to point and shoot cameras. Unavailability of a good depth of field in the lower end cameras also restrain some of the creative minds who cannot afford a high end camera. To cater to these issues, Samsung is seemingly working on a patent which'll allow even the point and shoot camera to have a good depth of field.

Samsung cameras

Bokeh photography is nothing but the pictures where you see a certain object is in good focus while the rest in the background are blurred. And to create this effect, using a camera a shallow depth of field is necessary, which is available only in the high end cameras. A shallow depth of field means everything in the image will be blurred out except the object you have focused on, a feature that point and shoot cameras are not equipped with. Large sensors and wide-open apertures are needed to create shallow depth of field, which is available only in the high end camera at present.

So, to bring this feature on a point and shoot camera, Samsung has created a different mechanism for which it has applied a patent. This mechanism uses two cameras in one; one is the main camera while the other one is a small resolution camera, somewhat like a stereoscopic camera. When you want to shoot a picture, the main camera would take the shot, while the low resolution camera would take another shot. The difference of the depth of field between these two pictures would then be processed in the digital camera itself and the output image will have a digital blur applied to it.

If you are an iPhone or iPiod touch user, you would be familiar with the photography app, Synthcam, which works somewhat similar to the Samsung mechanism. Although the mechanism for both is a bit different. Synthcam uses low resolution video still and the main image to work out the depth of field, while Samsung uses two different cameras. And the whole process is a bit tedious in Synthcam, while in Samsung you just have to click the button and the image is delivered. It's a great way to make point and shoot cameras more powerful, however, it's only been applied for a patent and it's uncertain whether it will ever come to the market.

Via: Wired