iPhone 5 Panorama

Here's a link to larger view of this panorama I just took with the iPhone 5. First try and it works pretty darn well. At full size you can see the camera trickery, especially in the center where the image washes out -- but it looks great just a little bit smaller.

Jason Weisberger is Boing Boing's publisher. He often does what he ought, instead of what he should. On instagram and twitter he is @jlw

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http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

Nice pic. This new feature of iOS6 works well on the 4S, also.
- http://flickr.com/dbtelford dbt
  
  here’s one from the 4S i took at the natural history museum here in london http://www.flickr.com/photos/dbtelford/8112253103/in/photostream/lightbox/
func

Love that beach – recognized it straight away, even though it’s been a decade since I’ve been there.
Pink Frankenstein

Is that a public place you’re in or a private house? I’ve never seen that there.
http://twitter.com/TheNewsIsBroken TheNewsIsBroken

The 360 app for the iPad does some fun stuff as well. This is from a walk in the woods in New Mexico a few weeks ago.
- acerplatanoides
  
  Ow. Ow. Ow. ooooooh.
acerplatanoides

Nice camera. Your gate’s unlatched.
- http://boingboing.net/ Jason Weisberger
  
  I like the reflection of the clouds in the window. The camera does capture nice detail.
slippy0

How does the iPhone panorama feature compare to the Android panorama?
- FourFeetOfCurl
  
  It works better.
- dolo54
  
  It works worse.
- pjcamp
  
  It works like the Canon feature from ten years ago.
xzzy

The inability of the iphone to set exposure prior to starting the panorama is the biggest weakness of the feature. It sets exposure based on where you start the camera and that’s what you’re stuck with until you hit the ‘done’ button. It can’t adjust exposure while panning, either.

The latter is an understandable limitation, adjusting settings in the middle of a panorama looks even worse, but it does mean you can’t just sweep the phone across the sky and get a work of art. It takes just as much planning as any other photograph.

Fixing the alignment glitches is a bit tougher, as humans are notoriously bad at holding their hands completely steady. I predict we’ll see mount conversions for tripods before too long, allowing you to perfectly pan the camera every single time.

That said, it’s by far the best solution for producing wide shots that I’ve come across. The day that I never again have to stitch a series of photos together will be a good day.. and smartphones gaining this ability gets us one step closer to it.
- http://boingboing.net/ Jason Weisberger
  
  Best solution for wideshots is a 14-24 2.8F Nikkor. This is nice tho.
- http://soundcloud.com/pocketsquare grumble-bum
  
  The inability to set exposure or other settings (such as presets for “sunset”, “night”, etc.) is indeed annoying. But all the phones with panorama functions that I’ve used — Androids like the now “ancient” Galaxy S — have automatic framing guides that pop up during the process. Unless you try really hard to subvert this, the resulting picture has only minimal distortions. (Not by any means looking for fan-boy fight here, but better than the post example.) I rather suspect that “perfect” in-camera pans are not far off.
Carolin Shining

OMG – you live in my dream home!! Exactly that home!! Darn it all!! Are you sick of brunch at the Scottish place around the corner? Lucky for you I’ve moved to Los Angeles. Darn darn it.
Carolin Shining

p.s. did you get my complaints about the new format? just askin’…
Mark_Frauenfelder

I see Jackhammer Jill peeking out the window!
- http://boingboing.net/ Jason Weisberger
  
  Hahah! You do!
http://www.facebook.com/Edie.Howe Edith Howe-Byrne

Like any camera, the iPhone camera works best if you’re not shooting into the sun. Further, there’s lots of software out there to correct for the exposure issue that Xzzy mentioned. Here’s a recent image I captured at Mono Lake, and then processed and converted in Lightroom 4 and Silver Efex Pro 2. If you’d like to see it full size, go to http://littleredtent.net/MonoPano/Tufa2.jpg
Be warned, that’s a really large image, and will take a while to load.
The one bit of oddness I could find was to the left of the central tufa structures; take a look at the wavelets in the water at the shore.
- xzzy
  
  Software can’t recover blown highlights no matter how much you fiddle with sliders.
  - http://littleredtent.net/LRT Edie Howe
    
    You’re right. Software won’t correct egregiously overexposed sections of a panorama, even if the image was captured with a Canon 5D Mk XXXVII 800MP Dilithium Crystal-coated sensor.
    
    Even if you didn’t get the sun in your shot, you’d still get the reflection off the water.
    
    The trick with any camera, whether it’s a Holga, a cell phone, or a Leica, is to find out its limitations and work within them.
    
    Try another shot early in the morning just after sunrise, I bet you’ll be more pleased with the results, Jason. What have you got to lose?
    
    Edie
    One of the nicest things about photography is the warmth of the sun on your back at sunrise as you work your composition.
Edie Howe

Sorry, forgot to mention that shot was with my iPhone 4s, iOS 6.
Cowicide

Is there an option for HDR panoramas with the iPhone?
- evanplus
  
  That would be a trick, since the slightest movement during an HDR capture causes ghosting.
  - James Maxwell
    
    I get beautiful HDR shots on my Galaxy Nexus with an HDR camera app. It can match up the three pictures it takes quite well in software, despite hand movement.
    - evanplus
      
      iPhone does that as well but swinging the phone 180° is a different trick.
      - James Maxwell
        
        Oh, yeah, panorama, jeez. An HDR panorama would be super tricky. There are cameras which are in development with multiple CCDs so that they can take HDR shots in one exposure, and these might work for HDR panoramic like this.
  - Cowicide
    
    Each shot would need two exposures (taken automatically & quickly). I think it could be done. It wouldn’t be perfect, but it’s possible. You would need to use something that will warp the pixels in the images together. Like I said, not perfect, but possible.
UncaScrooge

The most fun with the panorama feature comes from abusing it. I recently shot a “self-portrait” by pointing the camera at my face and then slowly rotating my whole body in place. The software sees the background moving by and stitches it together properly while unintentionally creating a hideous fourth-dimensional frankenstein version of my face. You’ll think of further abuses, I’m sure.
darladoon

Ahhhh, Muir Beach. Used to go there every day when I stayed at the Zen Center back in the misty valley. There was always this naked guy, with a dog that seemed perpetually lost, wandering around in a trance. Great place. Interesting people. Wish I could afford it.
techdeviant

On the iPhone does the image get stitched together as you move your phone around? I have an Android phone and that’s what it does. Seems like the result is nice under the right lighting, like all camera phone pictures.
- acerplatanoides
  
  Android panorama hurts my neck
http://twitter.com/msisk Mike Sisk

I took a few Pano pictures with my iPhone 4s running iOS 6 during a recent vacation and I’m pretty impressed with this feature. http://flic.kr/s/aHsjCzrpQT

This feature seems to turn the phone’s camera into a slit scanner and uses the phone’s accelerometer to get the rotation and shake data it needs.
jimkirk

I hold the phone with my arms rigid and pan with my waist. I get much better results that way.
http://www.facebook.com/craigmaher23 Craig Maher

Try walking in front of it as your friend pans the shot. Weird effect. craigmaher.net
http://deansli.st/ Dean Putney

Here’s one my friend Dannel took in a yo yo store we found in Tokyo: https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9dkwbqt9zzb0j8t/2012-10-23%2015.48.31.jpg
http://twitter.com/jmtd Jonathan Dowland

How well does this perform compared to the Photosynth app?

PS Are you showing off the camera or your view? :P
Tommy K

Looks nice until you see the jagged, tilting horizon.