The new LG/Google Nexus 4 smartphone has a camera feature called “PhotoSphere” that takes 360 degree photos. I tested this at a local garden recently.
The Nexus 4 360 photo feature was easy to use. After choosing the PhotoSphere option, you are directed to take an initial photo. Then you just rotate yourself (and your Nexus 4) around 360 degrees. The camera takes the pictures automatically at the right times.
You just have to keep the camera level. Nexus 4 helps you by showing a blue dot and white circle on screen. By keeping the blue dot in the circle as you turn 360, the camera is kept level. (In the picture, you can see the pale blue dot near the top of the white circle – so, not level.)
Downloading photos from the Nexus 4 to a laptop, produced the individual camera photos, an intermediate 360 photo with “seams”, and a final 360 photo. Here’s an example of an intermediate 360 photo (click each photo to enlarge):
And here’s the final 360 photo. This result was bigger, 7732 x 831 pixels, though for the blog it’s shrunk. See it at 1546 x 166 by clicking it:
Here’s another final Nexus 4 360 degree photograph. This was taken under a structure with 4 supporting posts:
I assumed that there’d be a learning curve to use this PhotoSphere camera feature, but these are truly my first two tries. I was amazed that it worked.
Other than shrinking, these photos are uncorrected, to show you an unaltered Nexus 4 camera result. The LG/Google Nexus 4 smartphone is currently sold-out, but they’re expecting a restock soon.