I just released a new Android OSMO app, specialized for taking panoramas.  By panorama I mean much more than the flat, horizontal panorama supported in the GO app.  In fact you can create 360 degree panorama with 1-4 rows at varying degrees of camera movement (the app includes pre-defined panorama or select custom and define your own settings).

I noticed that there are a few for iOS but none for Android and since that is my area I found some time to create a version for us Android users.  The iOS panorama apps for OSMO I've seen are the same price (some more) and expect you to switch back and forth between the app and the GO app to setup the camera whereas my app includes most camera settings within the app itself, saving you the time moving in/out of the app.

https://play.google.com/store/ap ... enargo.osmopanorama

I'm collecting feedback on additional features you would like to see in the app so feel free to write to this thread or even email using the support link in the app listing and contacting me more directly.

If you create a panorama and would like to upload the files I have a page dedicated to panorama images.  Those sticked together using PTGui or PTGui pro display very nicely.

Update posted today; adds support for long exposure panoramas.

Appreciate your great job.
Good for you.

DJI-Adela Posted at 2016-6-12 04:37
Appreciate your great job.  
Good for you.

Thanks, more features coming; waiting to hear feedback on additional features users would like to see!

I would have given this a try, but in the UK this app is showing as £16.99 in the Play Store. Is that a mistake I wonder? I normally wouldn't pay more than a few pounds for any Android-market app, and I certainly wouldn't pay £16.99 for something that has no trial period in order to test it first.

However if it was more reasonably priced, or at least offered a testing period to check that it does what I need, then I might well be interested. Good luck with the project anyway.

Andre

I agree with Andre, I would also be interested but without a test period I will never but never pay such a price!

Do you have youtube tutorial?

andre@cix.co.uk Posted at 2016-6-13 02:10
I would have given this a try, but in the UK this app is showing as £16.99 in the Play Store. Is th ...

The app is the same price as the iOS app that does a bit less but as for a trial; I offer 7-days, no questions asked for a refund.  I know Play Store only give 2 hours but I go further because I want to get feedback and I want you to be happy with the purchase value.

jgrober21 Posted at 2016-6-13 02:40
I agree with Andre, I would also be interested but without a test period I will never but never pay  ...

The app is the same price as the iOS app that does a bit less but as for a trial; I offer 7-days, no questions asked for a refund.  I know Play Store only give 2 hours but I go further because I want to get feedback and I want you to be happy with the purchase value.

rjanik Posted at 2016-6-13 08:55
Do you have youtube tutorial?

I do not yet but the app is fairly self-explanatory.

If you take a look at the docs for my flight app the camera settings and operation of panorama modes are identical in the 2 apps with differences only where the devices differ.

This is the link to the flight app docs:  http://djiultimateflight.com/ima ... e%20Flight%20V3.pdf

I bought the application. Unfortunately, the application does not shoot in 4 rows. It does not work -30 degrees. It gets only 20 of foto

rjanik Posted at 2016-6-13 11:24
I bought the application. Unfortunately, the application does not shoot in 4 rows. It does not work  ...

If you choose "Custom" you can shoot in 4 rows.  The default "Sphere" is 0, 45 and 90.

ok . you're right . everything works

kenargo Posted at 2016-6-13 11:31
If you choose "Custom" you can shoot in 4 rows.  The default "Sphere" is 0, 45 and 90.

There has been some discussion on what the different "fixed" modes should do.  Currently there the horizontal is an 8-shot at 0 degrees and spherical is 20 shots at 0, 45 and 90.  Some feedback is that spherical should be -30, 0, 45 and 90 (28 shots) and that the current spherical should be renamed to somethin like "north hemisphere".

Comments/suggestions?

I'm willing to add/change based on user feedback.

rjanik Posted at 2016-6-13 11:35
ok . you're right . everything works

Thanks for confirming!

Please, please, comment on additional features you'd like to see.  I'm starting a list of "things to add" and user input is #1!

Hope you enjoy it!

everything works as it should . I did the first panorama 360 , now I know the program PTGui . You have tutorials ?

rjanik Posted at 2016-6-13 11:56
everything works as it should . I did the first panorama 360 , now I know the program PTGui . You ha ...

Do you mean on how to use the app or how to use PtGui?

I'm putting together the website and docs now but I don't have much additional content at this time.

I tend to use Hugin for stitching panoramas, it's an excellent open source project. £80 for the 'lite' version of PtGUI might be just about worthwhile for heavy commercial use, but for a bit of dabbling as a hobby? I don't think so!

Getting back on topic though, a couple of questions about this interesting Android app:

Does the full vertical tilt happen first, then the first horizontal pan movement, and then the next set of vertical images, etc. I ask this because motion (mainly people) tends to mostly be horizontal, so it makes sense to shoot a quick 0, 45, 90, 135 set, and then rotate one position and do the vertical sweep again, etc. Then at the end, one final (manual) 180 straight down with the tripod removed.

The other thing that would be useful for me (and this would be assuming the use of a tripod or some other non-handheld mount) would be the ability to trigger each horizontal pan movement manually, so I can keep myself out of the way of the lens by moving round behind the camera for each set of photos. Also panoramas are great ways to 'fake' people out of the shot by waiting until each angle is clear before snapping it (I spent over an hour one night doing a single DSLR panorama of a hotel lobby to make the final result devoid of people).

Andre

I just uploaded the website which includes documentation.  The URL is http://www.osmo360.com/

andre@cix.co.uk Posted at 2016-6-13 14:46
I tend to use Hugin for stitching panoramas, it's an excellent open source project. £80 for the 'li ...

The current defaults are to take photos for each row, then move pitch and take the next row.  It could be changed or it could be a setting.  From past experience with other systems this worked much better than the vertical pan, move, vertical pan, etc.

I can see how a pause between verticals would make much more sense if the app moved vertically and then rotated.

I'm open to suggestions on how to express the functionality.  I could add a rotation mode (e.g, yaw first and pitch first) and if the setting is "pitch first" then include a checkbox to pause between shots.

Thoughts?

Sounds like an option would be the way to go.

With any panos that I've shot in the past, I've not worried about vertical anyway (I used a 10mm DSLR lens, which gave me about 100° of vertical FOV which covered everything I wanted for the shot in one sweep). But if I had needed to take multiple sweeps, the easiest way to do it with a traditional tripod head would be to do horizontal sweeps first rather than vertical - and without any movement in the frame that would be perfect - but with a head that can precisely and repeatably control all movement, vertical striping might work better for busier scenes. Presumably from an programming point of view there's little difference between either method, it's just a series of directional commands on way or the other.

Andre

andre@cix.co.uk Posted at 2016-6-13 23:35
Sounds like an option would be the way to go.

With any panos that I've shot in the past, I've not w ...

Let me try a few things out.  Stay tuned for the update.

andre@cix.co.uk Posted at 2016-6-14 01:46
I tend to use Hugin for stitching panoramas, it's an excellent open source project. £80 for the 'li ...

@Andre,
You have quite a few points.
I would suggest considering making panoramas from video frames (even timelapse videos).
It simplifies the process of recording imagery, but yet very few completely automatic solutions for this purpose.
I simply love ICE from Microsoft Research (free software) for how well can stitch any number of images from any angle.
If only DJI would provide an SDK for Windows / Linux, we would be able to see really powerful software around this product.

@kenargo,
Is your app able to stitch panoramas or only take the pictures?
Can someone also upload directly from the app to FB as a 360x360 pano?
Why are you so much concerned for giving a trial version of your app... you do realize that as soon as someone that paid for it shares the apk, only honest people will buy it? The same goes with or without trial versions, so not having a way for people to try it you're only rejecting potential customers. A better solution for your protection would be to have a lite version of the app that proves the quality of the paid app. Lets say the lite version only allows preview (zoom, pan of the pano) and does not contain any implementation to save it. Only the paid version of the app will allow someone to get the full resolution pano saved.
Regards,
Bogdan

bornish@gmail.c Posted at 2016-6-16 03:25
@Andre,
You have quite a few points.
I would suggest considering making panoramas from video frame ...

The app only takes the photos.  I was considering including support to stick together photos but most Android devices would not have sufficient memory or CPU power to stich the images together in a reasonable amount of time.  I might reconsider adding it in the future but for the immediate time I find PC software, which there are many free utilities, will do significantly better.

The app has a license check but yes, a dishonest person can crack the license and share the apk and that would happen no matter what I think.  As with any app developer I think we in general expect that there are more honest people who understand the work that needs to go into an app in order to maintain and grow the features and are willing to pay.   Software piracy is not easy to solve.

kenargo Posted at 2016-6-17 03:08
The app only takes the photos.  I was considering including support to stick together photos but m ...

Ken,
I feel your pain about protecting your work and think about this issue every time I write any piece of software. I am sure that even the price could be dropped if a better protection would be possible.
I do think that my suggestion to make a free lite version of your application might actually help you have more paying customers. If the lite version does not have all the code of the paid one, cracking it would bring no benefit, but potential customers may like its quality and trust more that the paid version will be what they need.
Regards,
Bogdan

Agreed bornish, I have never paid anywhere near £16.99 for any Android app (I think the most I have ever paid was £3.99) and without a trial (or lite) version I would be very reluctant to do so sight-unseen. I guess it's something that's very much an occasional-use product which I would have thought would either be supplied as standard by the hardware manufacturer (their app already does half the job, all it needs is a couple of extra angled sweeps added, which would be completely trivial for them) or be more of an xda-developers quick hack project.

I guess the problem is that it is such a niche product (a very limited task, for one very specific niche piece of hardware) that if someone wants to program it on a commerical basis then the tiny market would make the unit cost far higher than one might expect. And it's also too small a market to make building in advertising a worthwihle option.

I'm not saying it won't work and be great, or that there isn't good programming work in it, it's just that I would certainly want to see it with my own eyes and thoroughly test it first, unless it was freeware/shareware.

Andre

andre@cix.co.uk Posted at 2016-6-13 14:46
I tend to use Hugin for stitching panoramas, it's an excellent open source project. £80 for the 'li ...

I want to be sure to understand the suggestion as I'm working on some new things this week...

* Give an option to take photos using vertical movements (aka, finish 1 column and then rotate)

* Have an option to pause between column shots.  Is this also needed for horizontal?

Do I understand the suggestions correctly?

kenargo Posted at 2016-6-21 04:45
I want to be sure to understand the suggestion as I'm working on some new things this week...

* G ...

Yes, exactly.

My logic was that sometimes you would want to be able to control when a specific view was taken - for example if you were waiting to someone to walk out of the shot before you snapped that angle, or so you can move yourself around to keep behind the camera view. And that would be easier if each vertical sweep was done in one go, and then move round horizontally to take the next vertical sweep (with an option to pause).

When I shoot panoramas manually with my DSLR and a pano head, I can often wait quite a while between shots to allow the view of that angle to be empty (or as empty as possible). Sometimes I'll even snap out of order to get the clean shots done first and then come back to the ones I need to wait on. It wouldn't make any difference with distant landscapes though, and the default should definitely be to do a full 360 sweep horizontally and then do the same sweep angled 45° up, etc. and complete as quickly as possible. Easier to work that way in post too I suspect.

Andre

andre@cix.co.uk Posted at 2016-6-21 01:34
Yes, exactly.

My logic was that sometimes you would want to be able to control when a specific vie ...

Thanks, I'm working on the vertical first process.  It will be available in the next update.

As a suggestion for features, how about motion time-lapse.

So have options to set rotation angle over time ie. 360degrees over 2 hours at 1 frame a second, or set key frames for camera angles, so point the camera and set a start point, point the camera set next point and the time or frames to get there, set next point and so on.

With different cameras modes we'd be able to create HDR time lapses, track the sun across the sky that sort of thing.

+1 for motion timelapse.  It's the biggest missing feature for the OSMO right now, IMHO.  Especially as one of the early marketing videos for OSMO clearly showed a motion timelapse!

kenargo - you are doing great work.  I know people think the app is expensive, but given the hours of effort you must be putting into it, and the comparatively small market I understand why this is.

BTW DJI are crazy not to have a proper spherical pano feature in the app.  They could market OSMOs to a bunch of realtors if they had this feature as standard.

geoffbennett@ya Posted at 2016-6-22 18:15
BTW DJI are crazy not to have a proper spherical pano feature in the app.  They could market OSMOs t ...

Hello Geoffbennett,
Our engineers will take this new feature into consideration.

Thanks for your concern and suggestion.

Kenagro I like the app,  and I also have an IOS pano app too.  My main use for the app is photo spheres for mobile VR and as a main android user id  much rather use your app full time.  However with a max of 4 rows right right now my spheres have a rather large black space in the southern hemisphere. I know there will be some but my IOS app is able to capture more in that region.  If I am missing something or you'd like to take my suggestion into consideration just reply l.  Thanks

yojo142@gmail.c Posted at 2016-6-22 04:47
Kenagro I like the app,  and I also have an IOS pano app too.  My main use for the app is photo sphe ...

The built-in panos use 3 rows but there is a custom setting that can use 4 rows.

Do you feel that custom should be any number of rows or would a fixed size of 4 (or 5) be acceptable?

I'm just now testing the next update and could easily add the additional support for custom.

Let me know,
Ken

geoffbennett@ya Posted at 2016-6-22 03:15
BTW DJI are crazy not to have a proper spherical pano feature in the app.  They could market OSMOs t ...

That's what the 3rd party market is for; building the specialty features for specific markets.

Not saying DJI couldn't do it but spherical panos are a much smaller market (IMO).

steven.cloke Posted at 2016-6-22 02:42
As a suggestion for features, how about motion time-lapse.

So have options to set rotation angle ov ...

Let me understand this pano type...

Include settings that define degrees movement (e.g., beginning and end degrees), time to move and photo shot intervals.

Do I understand this correctly?

kenargo Posted at 2016-6-22 11:23
The built-in panos use 3 rows but there is a custom setting that can use 4 rows.

Do you feel that ...

Ken thanks for the response,  in my opinion I believe a spherical panorama should be able to take up as much of the sphere as possible.  So as for the number of rows I think as many as it takes to fill as much of the spherical projection as possible.  Obviously the OSMOs has its limit but the app should go up to those limits so the app is only limited by the device.  TlR I want to have the most complete photo sphere possible.  Thanks for the feedback.

kenargo Posted at 2016-6-22 19:33
Let me understand this pano type...

Include settings that define degrees movement (e.g., beginnin ...

I think so, yes, but not just horizontal movement but vertical too.

So you could, for example, point the camera down to the left and over a period of two hours take one picture a second as it slowly pans right and up to a defined finish point.

yojo142@gmail.c Posted at 2016-6-22 12:27
Ken thanks for the response,  in my opinion I believe a spherical panorama should be able to take  ...

OK, I'll change the custom to support more rows.