Depth of Focus

Introduction

Depth of Focus describes the range of distances where an object appears in focus. Objects outside this range will appear blurry.

In this article, we will explain the basic principles of Depth of Focus and how to apply these principles to Zivid cameras.

What is focus?

Focus is determined by the Circle of Confusion (CoC). The CoC is the radius, or area, covered by light from a point as it hits the imaging sensor after passing through the camera lens. An object is out of focus when the CoC is large enough to cover more than one pixel, causing signal loss and noise. When the aperture is sufficiently large, objects too close to the lens will be focused in front of the sensor, and objects too far will be focused behind the sensor, both resulting in blur. See the illustration below.

Drawing of focus plane in relation to lens and sensor plane/pixel

Depth of Field

The Depth of Field is the range of distances where an object is in focus. The boundaries are defined by the near focus distance (\(d_{near}\)) and the far focus distance (\(d_{far}\)). Outside these boundaries, the CoC increases, causing light to spread into neighboring pixels.

The angles at which the lens refracts the light rays grow with the aperture size. For Zivid 3D cameras, a large aperture can cause objects to lose focus, reducing the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and making the point cloud noisier. Therefore, selecting the appropriate aperture for the camera’s working distance is crucial for optimal image quality.

How does focus affect my point cloud?

As the image gets more out of focus, artifacts such as noise and Contrast Distortion will increase. When we speak about noise, we are talking about the point precision of the point cloud. This means that the capture-to-capture variations of a given pixel will increase and that the pixel-to-pixel variation within for a given capture will increase. It is important to be aware that a slight increase in noise may still be acceptable. Slight increases in noise may be acceptable depending on the processing algorithm used. Therefore, an unfocused image can still be acceptable in many cases.

참고

Zivid cameras are robust against defocus!

It is also important to note that only the out-of-focus regions of the image will be affected. Consider the camera’s working distance for the given application to achieve good point clouds with optimal precision.

Zivid 카메라의 Depth of Focus 심도

The table below shows the Depth of Focus for Zivid cameras.

Zivid 2+ M130/MR130

\(f\) -number

\(f/2\)

\(f/2.8\)

\(f/4\)

\(f/5.6\)

\(f/8\)

\(f/11\)

\(f/16\)

\(f/22\)

\(f/32\)

Stops

+3

+2

+1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

Focus, near (mm)

1115

1055

975

885

780

680

560

460

355

Focus, far (mm)

1560

1695

1945

2430

3880

15120

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Depth of Field(mm)

445

640

970

1545

3095

14440

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Zivid 2+ L110/LR110

\(f\) -number

\(f/2\)

\(f/2.8\)

\(f/4\)

\(f/5.6\)

\(f/8\)

\(f/11\)

\(f/16\)

\(f/22\)

\(f/32\)

Stops

+3

+2

+1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

Focus, near (mm)

800

720

630

535

440

360

275

215

155

Focus, far (mm)

1769

2310

4375

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Depth of Field(mm)

960

1590

3745

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Zivid 2+ M60/MR60

\(f\) -number

\(f/2\)

\(f/2.8\)

\(f/4\)

\(f/5.6\)

\(f/8\)

\(f/11\)

\(f/16\)

\(f/22\)

\(f/32\)

Stops

+3

+2

+1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

Focus, near (mm)

500

465

425

380

330

285

230

185

140

Focus, far (mm)

755

840

1010

1390

3200

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Depth of Field(mm)

255

370

585

1010

2870

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Zivid 2 M70

\(f\) -number

\(f/2\)

\(f/2.8\)

\(f/4\)

\(f/5.6\)

\(f/8\)

\(f/11\)

\(f/16\)

\(f/22\)

\(f/32\)

Stops

+3

+2

+1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

Focus, near (mm)

530

480

420

370

300

250

190

150

110

Focus, far (mm)

1040

1280

1990

7630

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Depth of Field(mm)

510

800

1570

7260

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Zivid 2 L100

\(f\) -number

\(f/2\)

\(f/2.8\)

\(f/4\)

\(f/5.6\)

\(f/8\)

\(f/11\)

\(f/16\)

\(f/22\)

\(f/32\)

Stops

+3

+2

+1

0

-1

-2

-3

-4

-5

Focus, near (mm)

680

605

520

430

350

280

210

160

120

Focus, far (mm)

1870

2870

14290

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Depth of Field(mm)

1190

2260

13770

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Inf [1]

Depth of Focus Calculator

Zivid의 depth of focus calculator 사용하면 작동 거리와 허용 가능한 흐림 반경을 기준으로 권장 최대 조리개를 찾을 수 있습니다. 관심 영역에서 선명한 이미지를 얻는 것은 최적의 포인트 클라우드 품질에 필요한 많은 것 중 하나이지만 어려운 제약 조건은 아닙니다. 위에서 언급한 바와 같이 Zivid 3D 기술은 블러와 디포커스에 매우 탄력적입니다. 이미지의 초점이 맞지 않는 경우에도 여전히 좋은 포인트 클라우드를 제공할 수 있지만 약간 노이즈가 있을 수 있습니다.