Nokia brings Refocus camera app to all Lumias running Windows Phone 8

Nokia’s Refocus app—which lets users play with the focus after a picture has been taken—is now available for all Lumia smartphones with Windows Phone 8.

Nokia has been launching new camera features and apps on its top-end models first, and then later making them available to cheaper devices.

Nokia Refocus lets users take a photo and later choose what they want in focus by clicking on the image. There is also a Color Pop feature which will not only refocus part of an image, but also highlight the color of that particular area.

A blog posted by Nokia on Friday gives a simple demonstration of what the effect looks like.

Nokia isn’t the only smartphone manufacturer that lets users play with what part of a photograph is in focus. New high-end devices such as LG’s G Pro 2, Samsung’s Galaxy S5, and the Xperia Z2 from Sony have similar features.

Initially Refocus was only available for the Lumia PureView smartphones. The app works best when the main subject is close to the camera, and the effect becomes greater with more objects at different distances in the background, according to Nokia.

Because Refocus captures several photos of the same scene, it’ll take a couple of seconds to finish a shot and users need to keep still for it to work. Nokia also recommends finding a stable spot such as a wall or a lamppost and then holding the smartphone tightly against it; users should hold their breath when they press the camera shutter button, it said.

Lumia owners who have used Refocus seems to like it; the app had received 4.5 stars out of 5 from 334 reviews on the Windows Phone app store as of Friday morning. For the app to work users must have installed the Amber software update, which arrived in August last year.