Microsoft is releasing its free Photosynth app for taking 3D panorama shots into the Windows Phone Marketplace.
The app works by letting you take extra wide photos of things that require this type of view like a long mountain range or a beautiful sunset over the ocean. You start out by taking a single photo within the app. Then you take plenty of additional photos as you slowly pan your smartphone across the desired view — the app works for horizontal or vertical panoramas. When you’re ready, Photosynth stitches them together to create one wide panorama shot up to 360 degrees.
I know what you’re thinking: these are just standard instructions to take any panorama shot with any device, but in my experience, Photosynth does a better job overall with creating panoramas than any other app I’ve used.
Plus, you can then instantly share the photo to Facebook, Twitter, email or upload it directly to Microsoft’s photosynth.net service to get an interactive view of the shot that you can play around with by zooming and panning. If you’re really proud of it, there’s a way to upload the shot to Bing Maps, so your panorama can join others from around the world on an interactive map that shows where they were taken.
Photosynth has been available for iPhone and iPod touch for over a year now, yet it’s been inexplicably absent on Android and Microsoft’s own Windows Phone platform — the latter of which is especially odd. Lifted out from under the dust, Windows Phone users can now head to the Marketplace to download the free app.