

When viewing the latter, you'll also see that I missed one row of blue dots when capturing the sphere which results in the sphere not being 360° rotatable.


Click here and here to see our two samples from above on Google+. The easiest way to view your Photo Spheres on a computer is to upload them to your Google+ account. You can convert your sphere into a 'Tiny Planet' image in the gallery app. Inside the frame you'll see a blue dot and a circle which need to be aligned for the first image to be captured. This is used to frame the first image of your - at this point - 'empty' sphere. A small 'framing window' appears at the center of your screen. After starting the camera app you select the Photo Sphere mode which sits alongside the panorama, still image and video modes that were already available in previous versions of the app.
#Photosphere camera android#
We've installed Android 4.2 on a Samsung Galaxy Nexus and tried the new feature. However, from the photographer's point of view, the most interesting new feature is no doubt the Photo Sphere camera.
#Photosphere camera update#
But Google also had a pleasant suprise for those of us who were not lucky enough to snatch one of the shiny new Nexus devices: the Android 4.2 update for last year's Nexus phone, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, and other compatible hardware, was made available on the same day.ĭespite still sporting the 'Jelly Bean' label, Android 4.2 comes with a number of interesting updates such as multi-user support, wireless streaming to HD TVs, auto-resizing widgets and gesture typing. Surely, you already knew to do that, but hopefully it makes the next WorldStarHipHop brawl easier to watch in widescreen.Android 4.2's camera app lets you create a 360° Photos Sphere which is stitched together out of a large number of individual images.Įarly last week Google started shipping the first of its new devices running Android 4.2 - the Nexus 4 smartphone and the Nexus 7 and 10 tablets. One cool, but unmentioned addition to the app is a reminder for video recording that tells you to put the phone in landscape instead of holding it in portrait. Taking a Lens Blur photo is similar to a panorama - except for swiping the camera vertically, and we were able to go back and edit the resulting image quickly. We gave it a quick try, and while not all of the features are available on every device (no Photo Sphere option on our Moto G, for example) it worked pretty well. If you don't yet have Android 4.4 KitKat, there's still hope, as the team says this app will come to more devices over the coming months. So far their skinned retail devices have often skipped Google's enhancements for custom camera apps of their own, but like many other Android features over the years ( Gmail, Calendar, Keyboard) making it an app in the marketplace should bring its features to more devices, and allow for frequent updates. Of course, the other element is that Google can extend its camera setup onto Android phones and tablets by other manufactures like LG, HTC and Samsung. Panorama shots are better now too, with higher resolution, and Google's 360-degree Photo Spheres can be captured at up to 50 megapixels. Tired of tilt-shift effects after years of Instagramming, no matter how much math is at work? There's more to the new camera app than that it has all the other features we'd heard about, like a "100% viewfinder" that makes sure you can see everything that will be in the picture on your screen before the shot is taken with no "dropped pixels" and a larger capture button. Google's Research Blog has more details on how it's all done, including the Lytro-like ability to change which object is in focus after you take the shot.
#Photosphere camera software#
Taking the photo requires an upward sweep to capture multiple images, used to estimate the depth of objects for a 3D map that lets the software re-render the photo later and blur specific items based on where it thinks they are. Meant to emphasize the subject while blurring the background for an impressive depth of field effect, it uses algorithms to simulate the large camera lens and aperture your phone or tablet doesn't actually have. Beyond bits like Photo Sphere that we've seen before, Google is filling in the blanks on its new "Lens Blur" option. But just as we revealed a few weeks ago, now it's available in the Play Store, ready to run on any phone or tablet using Android 4.4 KitKat. While Google has continued to toss new features into the camera app shipped on its Nexus devices, many Android phones replace it with something else.
