Optical blur is an inherent property of any lens system and is challenging to
model in modern cameras because of their complex optical elements. To tackle
this challenge, we introduce a high-dimensional neural representation of
blur−the lens blur field−and a practical method for acquiring
it. The lens blur field is a multilayer perceptron (MLP) designed to (1)
accurately capture variations of the lens 2D point spread function over image
plane location, focus setting and, optionally, depth and (2) represent these
variations parametrically as a single, sensor-specific function. The
representation models the combined effects of defocus, diffraction, aberration,
and accounts for sensor features such as pixel color filters and pixel-specific
micro-lenses. To learn the real-world blur field of a given device, we
formulate a generalized non-blind deconvolution problem that directly optimizes
the MLP weights using a small set of focal stacks as the only input. We also
provide a first-of-its-kind dataset of 5D blur fields−for smartphone cameras,
camera bodies equipped with a variety of lenses, etc. Lastly, we show that
acquired 5D blur fields are expressive and accurate enough to reveal, for the
first time, differences in optical behavior of smartphone devices of the same
make and model