
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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