This review originally appeared within iLounge’s iOS Gems series within the compilation article, iPhone Gems: Top Photography and Image Manipulation Apps. Additional details may be found in the original article.
PanoLab(Free) is a multi-touch enabled panoramic image creator for the iPhone. The app features three buttons at the bottom: an action button for saving the panorama, an add button for adding pictures to the panorama via the built-in camera or from the photo library, and a trash button to clear the current panorama. It uses a multi-touch interface to let users zoom and pan around in order to line up new pictures being added, and although the app doesn’t feature any sort of blending or transparency — leaving noticeable lines between pics at times — its results are still impressive.
The hemispherical panoramas created with the app can provide a field of view up to 180 degrees both horizontally and vertically, and the zoom and placement tools provided in the save panorama view give fairly impressive control over exactly what is included in the exported image. PanoLab saves images in 1024×768 resolution, which is an acceptable but not optimal size. Unfortunately, the app does not save the last panorama upon exit, meaning that an errant tap of the home button or an incoming text message could lead to the loss of several minutes of work. As with most panorama software, users will see best results when combining images that were taken from a single view point, which applies whether taking the pictures from within the app itself or with the iPhone’s Camera app.
Its lack of blending/transparency tools and auto-save features aside, PanoLab is a highly-usable, handy application, and it’s hard to argue with its free price tag. While the addition of blending tools and an auto-save feature would be welcome improvements, PanoLab is still currently worthy of our strong general recommendation, and is certainly worth checking out if you’re an iPhone owner who has even a passing interest in photography. iLounge Rating: B+.
Our Rating
Company and Price
Company: Originate Labs
Website: www.panolab.com
Title: PanoLab
Price: Free
Compatible: iPhones, iPod touches
