Review: Microsoft Photosynth for iOS

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

In Photosynth, Microsoft has built a stunning panorama and photo-stitching application out of technology that every photography smitten iOS user will love. There exist a host of decent panorama stitching applications for iOS that do within seconds what used to take hours to achieve in Photoshop.  Some are paid, some are free. Photosynth, which is free, takes this type of photography to another level and automates the process while managing to help create some stunning panoramas.

Microsoft? On iOS? Awesome app?It's all true.

Photosynth is a result of Microsoft's feature mapping and image recognition algorithm that allows even the clumsiest photographer to press a button sweep the iPhone towards any direction and produce decent panoramas. Not only does Photosynth know when to take the photos, it automatically stitches the images together to create an almost 3D like panorama.

Photosynth's user interface is completely in tune with Windows Phone 7 look and feel and we have to admit that this looks refreshing running within iOS.

Being inspired in look and feel by the Windows Phone glance and go ethos makes Photosynth fast and easy to use.

Take the panorama, stitch it and then you have multiple options to share your panoramas.

We found that Photosynth was intuitive enough to figure out it had ample visual information (by turning borders green) from the latest photograph taken before it moves on to take the next one.

The beauty of this system is that it can be deployed quickly, which helps in situations where movement (from people walking by) is a factor.

By analyzing the position of matching features within each photograph, the program can identify which photographs belong on which side of others. The results are generally seamless and the 'stitched' segment of the phot aren't always visible.

By analyzing subtle differences in the relationships between the features (angle, distance, etc.), the program identifies the 3D position of each feature, as well as the position and angle at which each photograph was taken. This process is known scientifically as Bundle adjustment.

If the scene is evenly lit, it works fine but gets a bit fuzzy when there are variances in lighting but we found it works out well most of the time. 

Photosynth does a great job at the U2 360' Tour concert from the nosebleeds

Photosynth works great for exterior shots and landscape but does an excellent job with interiors as well. So well, in fact that we think Microsoft should offer this technology to all camera manufacturer to add to their models. The video above shows the depth and power of Photosynth on a larger scale

We've not used any Panorama application on any platform that is this easy and straightforward and dowright addicting to use. Our previous favourite apps for this sort of photography, Panoramatic 360 and AutoStitch are still good apps that are highly tweakable and ideal for precision work but for speed, convenience and the whiz-bang coolness factor, Photosynth rules.

Rating  5 out of 5