Home » Nexus 4: Photosphere

Nexus 4: Photosphere

So one of the features that comes packed in the Nexus 4 is the camera’s ability to give you a photosphere. For those not in the know, a photosphere is a panorama in two dimensions. So effectively, you can span all around you, hence creating a sphere of photos, which thanks to clever software, can all merge and get into one.

How to engage it?

Fairly easy actually. In the camera, just choose the photosphere mode. Once on this mode, the lines on the camera/screen display will tell you how to align your phone to give you a good starting point. After that, feel free to pan around the camera to capture different things around. Different little blue spots help you align your camera, and get you to take pictures. As expected, the pictures are not quite perfect squares for this purpose, and that is because you need certain overlaps in photos to capture the perfect sphere.

The perfect sphere?

Some may say, there is no such thing as perfect. Having said that, the internet is full of really great photosphere pictures. What I can tell you is that you can great images, or you can really mess it up.

Mess it up, you say?

Yeah. I found that if you are in a very small space, the image doesn’t quite look as good. An example is me trying to take a picture at my work’s kitchen. Another example, which I have shown, is when you move the camera too quickly, and the acceloremeters aren’t able to manage the panning as well.

2013-06-14 13.59.16

As you can see, the lines are a bit cut, the left side is skewed, and it doesn’t work very well.

But does it work at all?

Oh yes, it does. And when you take care and time, you get really good results. This is out in the Oxfordshire country side, and apart from the lovely people moving about, the picture is pretty good!

2013-06-15 17.36.54

Verdict

So is it worth it? Definitely. As far as gimmicks go, this is a great one. Also, as a photographer, you can use this to get some really good images. However, don’t expect this to replace your regular photo experience. Also, I imagine, this will probably come soon to other cameras too. However, a very cool feature to have, and a good day like the photo above, it is definitely a great way to show off how much fun you were having. Another great application would be holidays.

Also, I would like to thank the good folk at Three for sending us this phone to try out. You can find out more about the Nexus 4 at the following link:

http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Devices/Google/Nexus_4

Related Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *