Starting PanoMan™
Start PanoMan™ from the menu. Open the camera cover. The main camera application will start automatically. Press close to exit the main camera application. PanoMan™ will be visible again and is ready to use. If PanoMan™ is not shown, restart it using the menu while keeping the camera cover open.

Capturing a panorama
Keep still and press the camera key shortly once to start and later again to stop. When the first preview appears start turning left or right very slowly to create the panorama image. A preview of the emerging panorama is displayed on the screen. In the upper left corner you see the size of a single frame, the number of already captured frames and the overall number of possible frames using the selected resolution.

The green arrow indicates that you can slowly proceed turning. The red arrow shows that you should stop with the movement until the green arrow is being shown again. The red arrow indicates the moment when a frame is being captured. You can predict when the next key frame will be captured when the red rectangle moves to the center of the preview area.
The capturing can either be completed by pressing the camera key or ‘Stop’ or otherwise stops automatically when the maximum image width has been reached.

Saving the panorama
The panorama is being created automatically after the capture stopped and can then be viewed full screen. You can scroll left and right using the navigation keys. To save the image select ‘Save’. Otherwise select ‘Discard’ to start over again.

With PanoMan 3.0, you have even more control over the creation of your panoramic images. Check out the available settings:

Resolution
Depending on the available memory and the device’s camera, the application supports different frame resolutions for the panoramic images: 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480

Note that for memory reasons some devices do _not_ allow to stitch panoramas in the highest possible resolution available for the device’s camera.

Even more, it might happen that the number of available resolution (and the maximum number of frames) may vary upon each start of PanoMan. This is due to the fact, that the selectable available resolution are dynamically computed at program start, based on the free memory. This may vary depending on the memory management of the Symbian OS .

Example of typically available frame resolutions for panorama stitching:

N95 8GB:
2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480

N95 (with updated firmware):
1600 x 1200, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480

Please also note that on devices with high resolution cameras (like e.g. 5 MP on N95 8GB or N82), the resolution is set to a medium level to ensure a panoramic image creation within a reasonable time. You may of course set the property to capture with a higher resolution, but please note that the panorama may take up to some minutes to be created.

Also see PanoMan™ 3.0 Overview if you are keen to know what’s happening while a panorama is being created.

Storage
The image can either be saved to the phone memory or the memory card. Saving on the memory card is set as default. This option is unavailable if no memory card is present.

Sound
A sound will be played at every frame capture.

Exposure correction
‘Exposure correction’ will provide a smoothly blended final panorama, even if the exposure of two key frames varies drastically. This might happen e.g. if you capture a sunset scene, where one frame shot is directly aimed to the sun. As a result, one frame might appear much brighter than another in the overlapping area. ‘Exposure correction’ will prevent this. It is set to ‘On’ by default.

White balance
The white balance can be set to: ‘Auto’, ‘Sunny’, ‘Cloudy’ and ‘Incandescent’. Choose ‘Auto’ for an automatic white balance, ‘Sunny’ for sun light, ‘Cloudy’ for a clouded sky and ‘Incandescent’ for indoor shots with artifical lighting. White balance is set to ‘Auto’ by default.

Auto Focus
This setting is only available on camera devices with auto focus support like the N95, N95 8GB or N82.
If enabled, the camera is auto-focused at each captured key frame. This will result in sharper images. Note that the trade-off of auto focusing is that key frame capturing will take longer, so you have to be more patient when capturing panoramas.

Capturing high quality panoramic images depends very much on the scene you capture and the way you move during capturing.

Best results are achieved, if the captured scene

• has enough details (e.g. no white wall)

• is not too dark (increase of noise, no details)

• is not too dynamic (e.g car traffic, etc)

• is constantly lighted (no blinking lights etc)

During the capturing, the user should move slowly and continuously while viewfinder frames are processed and stop moving, when key frames are taken.

When capturing distant landscape scenes it is good to hold the device at arm-length and slowly turn on the spot. In contrast, when capturing nearby objects or indoor scenes, it is important to move the device as if it is attached to a tripod. Otherwise parallax effects might occur.

While moving, it is also important not to tilt or rotate the device with respect to the line of sight. In more technical words: the line of sight should always remain perpendicular to the rotation axis.

Last not least, note that perfect results cannot always be assured, but if you follow the mentioned guidelines and practice a bit, you will be able to capture great panoramas more easily and reliably.

Enjoy!