Panasonic ‘snap first, focus later’ feature is live today

Panasonic today has released software making it possible to ‘snap first and focus later’ on flagship 4K cameras.

Effects with Panasonic’s post focusing software.

Panasonic today has released software making it possible to ‘snap first and focus later’ on its flagship 4K cameras.

Known as ‘post focus’, a user can identify the people and scenery they want in highlight after the photo is taken. Panasonic says it’s achieved by the camera capturing all possible focus points from foreground to background.

Photographers not only select areas of the photo they wish to emphasise in focus, they can create several takes of the one image that emphasise different parts of it.

The feature was available on Lytro cameras introduced in 2012, but now Panasonic is introducing the feature as a software download for its top range of Lumix 4K cameras.

It is available for the DMC-GX8 and DMC-G7 G series cameras and the DMC-FZ300 compact

super zoom. Currently the GX8 body costs $1399, the G7 body $899 and the FZ300, a fixed lens camera, costs $899.

Effects with Panasonic’s post focusing software.

Effects with Panasonic’s post focusing software.

The company says it is the first to bring the feature to an interchangeable lens camera, although it’s likely to be adapted best to macro lens use.

The Panasonic models makes use of the camera’s 4K engine to deliver post focus. When you take a shot, the camera records a short 4K video, and the depth from defocus system locks on all focus points in a given scene.

A photographer later can use the touch interface to select their desired focus point. The in-camera software presents an image and lets the customer save the photo as a 4K Photo in JPG format.

Post focus by a traditional camera manufacturer comes as they seek even harder to differentiate their offerings from the latest smartphone cameras. With their larger sensors and higher pixel ratings, smartphone cameras could further cannibalising what’s left of the traditional camera market. Post focus therefore gives manufacturers a new feature to promote.

Panasonic’s Scott Mellish said post focus was designed mainly for macro shooting, food or portraiture, where perfect focus was necessary in a creative shot. It saved the photographer from having to think about focusing during the fleeting opportunity they had to take the snap.

“An added benefit in this mode is access to adjustment tools such as Focus Peaking and 5x magnification to really finetune your image to the smallest of details and achieve stunning results.”

Users with the nominated Panasonic 4K cameras can download a software update to gain the feature from today.

Effects with Panasonic’s post focusing software.

Effects with Panasonic’s post focusing software.