Yeah, I’m pretty skeptical. And, I suppose that I am somewhat notorious for providing rather blunt opinions. Sometimes I even imagine that people ask me about things that they know that I’ll respond to with a firm, ‘Well, that’s bullshit’, just to hear my signature phrase.
I’ve never been a huge fan of Apple technology – the substance over hype ratio is too close to zero. The history of the company is too steeped in toy-making for me to have taken them seriously. Until recently that is. No one can deny the usefulness of the integrated approach that is shared by the Macbook, iPad, and iPhone, my skeptical self included. I have had the laptop and iPad for some time now, and a few months back, switched from my Android phone to the generation-5 version of the iPhone, aka, iP5. As anticipated, the iP5 is an excellent extension of Apple-tech.
Eventually, I stumbled onto the Camera app, and a bit later the rather curious implementation of pano capture.
Could the iP5 actually do something photographically useful? ‘Bullshit’, I’m thinking, but let’s just verify. After mucking about for a while, I started to make some progress, a recent result of which is shown below – note that you must click on the thumbnail to view the larger image.
I dunno, maybe it’s not too bad after all – certainly not just BS anyway. The image above was recorded at about 14:40 MST on February 15, 2013. The location is just west of the Capitol Reef NP Visitors Center along Utah State Route 24 (SR24).
The image above was recorded along the Notom Road, just outside Capitol Reef NP, at about 10:14 MST on February 16, 2013. The pano was shot looking east, and therefore includes the morning sun. I am positively impressed by the dynamic range of the iP5 camera.
Here’s one final image for this entry, shot looking west from the Notom Road towards Capitol Reef on February 16, 2013 at around 11:00 MST. I include this shot to remind you that all of the normal pano-oriented considerations apply (of course), including issues regarding dynamic range, and especially for this image, distortions associated with (not) rotating around the nodal point. Yeah, what does a nodal point for the iP5 mean?
I’ll write more about shooting iP5 panos, including recommendations for hardware and software, and illustrate same with more reference images in future entries. Stay tuned!
Copyright 2013 Peter F. Flynn. No usage permitted without prior written consent. All rights reserved.
Tags: Capitol Reef National Park, CARE, iP5, iPhone
Have you had a chance to determine the maximum recommended size for printing of these iP5 pano images?
Hi David,
Thank you for the question – it’s an important consideration of course. Typical dimensions of iP5 panos are in the range of 8000px x 2500px. The Epson inkjet printers would like to see 360ppi (pixels/inch), so from this typical pano, the print would only be about 24″ x 7″. To print larger, which is most probably what you’d want to do, you could either resample the image, or print at lower resolution. The lower limit for print resolution is around 180ppi, in which case that pano would print at about 48″ x 14″. The resizing/interpolation algorithms are getting pretty good (both in Photoshop and the OnOne-ware), and my observation is that the results with the resampled image are better than those obtained by printing at lower resolution. YMMV, obviously.
Note that the panos I post are generally down-sized to 2000px in the long dimension.
Cheers,
P.
I love the iP5 Pano feature. Quite fun, and is a snap to use. Low light raises the noise so best shoot in solid light. Sure is quicker than setting up the panno rig for the full frames. Nice shots.