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Editor’s Note: This is a contributed post by Ricky Shah, an IT enginner and professional blogger from India. He usually writes on anything related to technology on his tech blogs Geniusgeeks and Windows Phone blog Withwindows.

In a pursuit to replace BlackBerry as third largest mobile OS ecosystem, the software giant Microsoft has jumped into the cut-throat competition already ruled by the likes of Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Unfortunately, many people have abstained from adapting to groundbreaking technology due to lack of apps and games present in WP7 marketplace. However, many of us have failed to realize that it takes some time for an ecosystem get out of the incunabulum stage.

This post is aimed to focus in enlisting some of the best Windows Phone apps to take Panoramic pictures. With panoramic capturing enabled apps, users can swiftly take panoramic pictures or elongated photos without the need of any special skills or equipment.

Third-Party Panorama Apps

Photosynth

[Free] Baked in its own backyard, Photosynth by Microsoft is amongst the most downloaded panoramic apps from the Windows Phone marketplace. Photosynth has a capability to take full 360-degree panoramic images which is a must have feature in any top-notch application. What sets it apart from other is that it allows you to take 360 degree panoramic captures both horizontally and vertically.

Afterwards, users can stitch these images together according to their needs. The other notable feature is its sharing option. It lets you share those screenshots to Twitter, Facebook and even on Bing. Sharing your screenshot on Bing may give you wide exposure and a much needed thrust to your photography career.

AutoPanorama

[Free, Pro: $0.99] AutoPanorama is a third-party app that gives you total control over images. It provides a transparent layer of previous images, which you can align with the next screenshot to create the perfect panoramic photo. This, of course, requires you to have steady hands while capturing the image. However, it also results in a better image alignment.

Unlike other applications of this category, it takes Auto Panorama almost no time to stitch the images to form your panorama. It also comes with functions like transparency-level adjustment, flash mode on/ off and red-eye reduction. There is also a plan for automatic picture-taking capability in the next iteration. You can save panoramas to the camera roll, upload them on Facebook or send them to friends via email/ text.

Pano

[$2.99] Pano lets you unleash the photographer in you. Already an award-winning iOS app, it now comes to the Windows Phone community. Pano lets you take 360-degree panoramas with up to sixteen photos to stitch. It also provides a semi-transparent guide to align each photo perfectly – the end result is something you want to brag about

Advanced alignment, blending and the colour correction algorithm ensure that you get near-perfect quality photos in all kinds of exposure.The absence of transparency control is an impediment when you take panoramic screenshots in an outdoor environment. Do note that it also takes a while for the stitching to complete.

Ztitch

[Free] Instead of stitching the images automatically, Ztitch places them in a 3D space from where you can pick and stitch them to create a 360-degree panorama.

It also serves as a Panoramic image viewer. Users can export images to Photo Hub or share them on Facebook, Flickr etc. Overall, Ztitch is a decent application that serves the purpose.

OEM Exclusive Apps

Samsung Photo Studio is a dedicated photography app for Samsung Windows Phone users. It comes with heaps of options along with the capability to take Panoramic pictures.

(Image Source: Windows Phone Central)

Nokia’s exclusive product, Creative Studio is by far the best app that exists in Windows Phone ecosystem. It has an abundance of filters and effects to make your photo stand out from the crowd. It also offers the panorama image capturing function. Users are also given an option to either share it via social networking sites or save them to the phone’s internal memory.

HTC has an in-built panorama tool integrated into the main camera app. It provides a horizontal line as a separator between two consecutive shots. There are no settings to play with. It will stitch three consecutive images to turn into a panorama then it will be saved into Pictures Hub automatically. From there, you can share it with social networking sites or save it to SkyDrive.

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