There’s been a lot of talk about cameras lately. With Sony releasing their camera app into the Play Store, then Google pushing theirs, and now Sony has put their Background Defocus app into the Play Store. This app is still exclusive to Sony smartphones at least for now. Sony was actually the first OEM to put in a background defocus type feature in their phone, with the Xperia Z1, then HTC followed with the One (M8) and Samsung with the Galaxy S5. Basically what this does is it allows you to defocus the background and make it a bit blurry. This is a popular feature with DSLR’s, in fact I love this feature. And love that it’s coming to smartphones now. The app is pretty simple to use, Sony hasn’t changed much with it just yet. But since it is in the Play Store now, this means that Sony can update the app without going through the carriers with an OTA. But that would mean they’d be selling the Xperia Z2 in the US, which they really aren’t.
Here’s how to use Background Defocus; Start the Camera and select Background defocus as camera mode; Tap the object you want to focus on in the viewfinder; Tap the camera key to take a photo; Change the blur level and blur effect with the controls on the screen; Tap the save button.
Right now the app is only available for Xperia owners, and I don’t see it becoming available for everyone. At least not anytime soon. But it’s great to see it in the Play Store. It’ll be interesting to see what other kind of updates Sony does to the camera and what else Sony pushes into the Play Store. That seems to be the thing to do these days, which is great. It means more updates, less carrier interference and I think we can all live with that, right?