Review: <-360-> App: Panoramic sights and sounds
What does it do?
The <-360-> app from SEB allows you to take high quality, 360 degree panoramic photographs which can be accompanied by sound. The resulting panoramic shot can then be viewed in its entirety from within the app itself or with the dedicated <-360viewer-> app, or it can instead be saved as a series of separate photos.
Pros
Users can choose between free rotations that capture as much or as little of the scenery around them as they want, or a full 360 degree rotation.
However, the app doesn't just have to be used for a panoramic shot of scenery or surroundings, it can also be used to give a detailed 360 degree view of a specific object.
The app utilises geo-location technology, so you can tag the location of where you've taken the 360 degree shot on a map and add as many pins as you please.
To get the most accurate result, there's a line through the middle of the view finder and when you move the mobile device slightly, all the icons move to show you that you need to be more steady.
You have full control of the camera and the kind of results you'll end up with, as you can control options such as Torch, Automatic Focus (AFoc), Exposure (AExp) and White Balance (AWB).
If you're using an iPhone 4 device you can toggle between the front and back cameras, which means you can use the facing camera to take a 360 degree shot of you and your surroundings as an interesting alternative.
There's the option to record sound, which would be ideal in a setting where the sound played a major part, for instance the breaking of waves on a beach, or in a busy marketplace.
You can specify after how many degrees the app captures photos, so you're not having to take photos continuously like you do with other panorama apps, <-360-> captures them for you. If you set this to around 3 degrees, your shot will be more accurate but it will take longer to process.
The resulting image is of a very high quality and certainly rivals many of the other panorama apps on the market.
Cons
The only thing about this app that really doesn't work for me is that to be able to view the full panoramic shot, you need the <-360Viewer-> application. This means you can't send the full shot to your social networks or simply embed it into a blog post, which is a real shame as the results do look great!
Do you need it?
The ability to tag your location and the high quality results mean that this app would be ideal for those who like to travel, as it'd make an amazing log of everywhere you've been by capturing the sights as well as the sounds.
Although you can save and send separate photographs, the app isn't great for sharing your final panoramic shot which is a real let-down. This is understandable as it's less a shot and more like a slideshow, but all the same it's really annoying and also means I can't show you any sample photos!
However, if you're less interested in sharing your results and want a personal bank of good quality, detailed and very accurate panoramic images then <-360-> is one of the best available.