Panoramatic 360 Review

Create panoramic photos with the iPhone.

by Pu on March 9, 2011

Panoramic photography is a technique producing images with elongated field of view. It is also commonly referred to as wide format photography. Panoramic images are usually composites of several images stitched together. These days, the stitching process is often carried out with the aid of a photo editing software.

Panoramatic 360° brings to Apple devices a tool conveniently designed to allow accurate stitching of individual images to be assembled as panoramic views.

Main Features

  • Panorama and Poster modes;
  • Exposure, contrast and vignetting correction;
  • Automated stitching;
  • Autosave and restore;
  • 360° panorama creation;
  • 3D VR visualization of 360° panorama;
  • In-app tutorial;
  • Share via email, Facebook, wi-fi, Panoramatic 360°

Appotography Opinion

Panoramatic makes the task of creating panoramic photos as easy and immediate as it can get.

You can can choose among Panorama and Poster modes. The first mode allows the user to take pictures either in landscape or in portrait orientation in order to create the final wide format image. Poster mode works in a similar manner, but images can be imported also from your albums and they don’t necessarily have to be horizontally taken.

All you have to do to create your wide format views in Panoramatic is taking a series of photos following the help of the app’s visual guide. As an additional reference, you are also shown the inclination of the camera and the total number of pictures taken. The more you get used to keep an eye on these indicators, the more accurate the stitching of your photos will be. After you take the pictures, you have a preview of what your panoramic image will look like. You can improve it by deleting a few shots, by adding some others, or you can just proceed to the final rendering.

Panoramatic 360° for iPhone

You can take photos manually or use the Auto function that will help you to know when to shoot. To be honest, the Auto function is the one thing I really didn’t feel very comfortable with while using the app. If you rotate too much or too fast or even in other unfathomable circumstances, the calculations of the compass won’t be accurate enough and you won’t be able to shoot when in the right position. It may seem a paradox, but from my experience I would say you need more training to make Auto function work properly than you need to make the app do a good job when this feature is disabled. Anyway, to get the most out of Panoramatic, I suggest getting used to shooting with Auto turned off.

When you have enough photos to work with — a minimum of two is required, but how many photos to take is up to you, depending on how you want your final image to look like — you can make a few adjustments to contrast, exposure, colors and vignetting; then the app will create the composite image for you to save in your camera roll, to share, or to explore as a 360° panorama. All the rendered panoramic images are stored in the app’s gallery, where you will be able to access them at any moment.

Panoramatic 360° is not difficult to use but, differently from the greatest majority of other apps, getting used to it does require some time. All the elements in it can at first seem overwhelming and I recommend reading the tutorial before starting taking photos. Although the app works very well and in general results are quite accurate, some of Panoramatic’s features are not perfect, so you have be in the best possible conditions to expect extremely good results. For example, the picture below was taken with Panoramatic 360° with auto vignetting correction enabled. As you can see, some flaws due to vignetting are still visible on the upper part of the final image. Color correction was also enabled, but lighting conditions sometimes are hard to overcome and it’s probably not completely the app’s fault.

Panoramatic 360° for iPhone

Panoramic image generated with Panoramatic 360° - Click for larger view

Obtaining a panoramic photo and obtaining a good panoramic photo are different things entirely and it goes without saying that Panoramatic 360° can only help you in the first task. Taking the photos to be stitched together and making them actually look good together is up to you.

Overall

Name: Panoramatic 360°
Developer: floaty
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad. iOS 3.1 or later.
Price: £1.19||$1.99||€1.59
Vote: 4/5

Panoramatic 360 - floaty

Luc March 10, 2011 at 1:33 am

J’aime bien PAnoramatic. Je prends de belles images avec cette application.

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