Panorama for iOS 6 and the iPhone 5 vs. the Canon 5D Mark iii

One of the new features for photographers in iOS 6 is a built-in panorama mode in the Apple supplied camera app. The new panorama feature allows iPhone 4s and iPhone 5 owners to take up to 240 degree panoramic photos. The feature is not available in the iPhone 4 or earlier, or any iPad model.

Of the two photos below, one was taken with the iPhone 5 and processed with Snapseed on the iPad and the other was taken with the 5d Mark iii and processed in Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS5. Can you tell which panorama was done with the iPhone 5?

OK, it’s pretty easy to tell the difference. However the iPhone 5 panorama only took, me about 10 minutes to take, process and email the finished photo. The finished iPhone pano was a 1MB jpeg file. Conversely, the Canon 5D Mark iii panorama took me much longer to upload, merge with photoshop, crop, straighten and process. For a quick panorama for travel and nature photographers (or if you don’t have a 5D Mark iii with you), the iOS 6 panorama feature doesn’t do a bad job.

How to Use the Panorama Mode in the iPhone

Select the Apple Camera App
Click on Options
Press Panorama.
Once in Panorama mode, click on the camera icon, and smoothy move the camera from left to right keeping the arrow on the horizontal line.
When you’ve finished press Done
Then press Done again.

iPhone Panorama Tips

You need to go to options and reselect Panorama mode after each shot. The camera defaults back to normal mode after every photo.
Slow and steady. The slower you go the better the image seems to turn out.
If you pan the entire 240 degrees, the recording will automatically finish.

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