iPhone 5 panoramic mode: What it means for railfans

So, like an idiot i was standing outside an att store friday morning for several hours. However, i wasn't in line, and i was not there to buy the new iPhone 5.

I was there to check out the new panoramic photo feature for myself. 10 minutes with this new feature was worth a million reviews. So, after scoring some free coffee and donuts outside, i went in (they only let a certain number of people in at a time), and first i watched people buying the phone, to see what the process would be for the new phone. A few minutes of that later i found myself by the demo kiosk, iPhone 5 in hand with the camera app open, fiddling with the new panoramic mode.

So here are my thoughts, then a few questions...

After a few years of transportation and specifically rail photography, it has become a fact that image outcome of each shot when time is limited is very important. With every camera i've ever heard of there is no real guidance from your device, it all has to come down to knowing the exposure and all that nonsense. You hope your 3 shots of equipment abc or station xyz are satisfactory, something you can say "wow i really made it count and got a great result".

With the iPhone 5 and its new panoramic mode, i can trust the software to tell me if i'm getting the right shot, that the result will be worth the time and effort. I've never been able to get a good shot of trenton transit center even though i've spent umpteen hours there. With this new feature i could get a good shot in a minute or so and finally have that in my photo library. Additionally, capturing the ambiance of waiting at a well constructed reading era station all alone, or a busy northeast corridor station's platform during a snowfall will finally be something easier, with much more satisfying results. As a day to day person the iPhone 5 does make sense for me, but as a photographer it would give me a tool that i've never had before. I don't have to go home and upload the images to some software to be stitched together and hope it works, it's all ready to go right in my hand, and in a few minutes i could have it posted right here in this thread. That is a huge deal to me. A combination of things that greatly improves the ability for me to capture and share really great and fun photos.

So i have to ask now.. Who of you out there reading this will use their iPhone 5's panoramic mode to enhance your rail photos? What do you think your first attempts will be? A train? A platform? A grade crossing? Maybe something as simple as a waiting room?

Moderator's Note: Moved to Railroad Photography & Video.

I'm hoping to get a riverside line from the opposite bank with a bridge going over a tributary and a church steeple in the background near sunset (I'll be facing west) during autumn.

I'm VERY happy that panorama mode is supported on the iPhone 4S.

friend of my get the Iphone 5,he was one of the first to get one,and he had a try with panoramic mode
first,he had to choose the starting point,press the buton and turning slowly,following the arrow showed in the creen,ass soon the arrow is out,the picture is worked by the computer and after,we can see it in the screen,there a line that you can use to guide yourself in the processing movement..
but the rsult is not too bad and look good,but it's not the same thing than a conventionnal SLR camera and take many shots to get it..

the only thing,it's limited to 10 degress,so,we can't do 360 shots without taking two panoramic pictures and once is started,you have to turn slow cause if we turn too fast,the picture comming blurry.

For what it's worth, many of Sony's cameras have had this feature for the past two or three years. They call it Sweep Panorama. They've been continuously improving it during that time. Based on what I've read, it's considered the best in-camera panorama capture/processing in the business.

The iPhone 5 is a fantastic device, but if you're ONLY buying it for the panorama feature, it's probably overkill (especially the monthly fees!).

Here is a Sweep Panorama demo video from 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe91g07yQUc

An article about Sweep Panorama by technology guru David Pogue:

The New York Times wrote:Not only do they take gorgeous photos, every time, but they incorporate Sweep Panorama, a feature of many Sony cameras. To use this mode, you simply swing the camera around you in an arc, squeezing the shutter button the whole time. You hear the shutter snapping away like a machine gun as the camera captures slice after slice of the scene, all the way around you in a 220-degree arc. It’s surprisingly tolerant of your arm-swinging speed.

When it stops, you look at the back of the camera: there, INSTANTLY, is a perfectly knit, finished, seamless panorama. You didn’t have to do any stitching work yourself.

And when I say perfectly knit, I mean it. This technology works.

Read more at: http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/ ... -panorama/

Speaking from experience, the Sony's sweep panorama is *nice*. Used it many times on recent trip. Looking forward to comparing results with the iPhone.

I don't know if anybody has come to think that iphone5 is the first phone to have the panoramic shot. Because if so you are wrong. I have the notorious HTC titan windows phone 1st Gen and just being the 1 Gen it will out perform the I phone by size,quality and diversity. Only problem it really has is that there is no freaking cases for it. Haha. So you have to hunt for them. But it is 3 years older from the iPhone 5 and has a 130' panoramic shot, burst, face camera and has a 38 mp frame rate (I think that's how you explain the resolution for cameras haha) which makes great photo shots for a phone, but seriously I was just putting my opinion out there that iPhone 5 is not the only phone manufacture. That can put out A good phone.