Snapily3D Application for Taking 3D Photos With iPhone and iPad

Snapily3D is an interesting application for the Apple iPhone and iPad devices that allows you to take 3D photos with the 2D camera that these devices have. The way it works is similar to how Sony does it with their 2D digital cameras using the 3D Sweep Panorama function to generate 3D images from a single sensor/lens digital camera, so essentially you move the device like you are shooting a panorama swiping it around the object you want captured in stereoscopic 3D. The application itself offers a quick and simple visual guide on how you need to shoot in order to get the 3D photo generated and be able to view it in 3D mode, but I can say that I’ve had some trouble at first in actually getting a useable image. Snappily3D records a burst of few hundred photos in a time interval of up to 15 seconds, the time you have available so to move your iDevice, then analyzes if the captured footage is Ok for generating a 3D image or not. If it is not enough you get an annoying message and I saw it a lot at first (it is worse on the iPad, better on the iPhone as it has a better camera), if it is Ok the program starts to generate the 3D image that apparently consists of 10 different views.

After your 3D photo is processed and saved you can view the result in pseudo stereo 3D mode or as it is called Gyroscope 4D Mode in the application, this uses the built-in accelerometer in the device so that when you move it to the sides it switches between the different views for the 3D photo it has generated. The Gyroscope 4D Mode looks quite Ok, but if the movement between the different views can be made a bit smoother it would’ve been even nicer. The other option available to view the photo in stereo 3D mode is to use a pair of anaglyph 3D glasses (multiple color filters are supported besides the traditional red-cyan), use the cross-eyed viewing method or the Hasbro My3D adapter for viewing. You can also easily share the photo on popular social media websites, send it by email or just save it in the Photos folder of your device… if saving mind what is the currently selected 3D viewing format as is is the one you get the image saved in. Saving the photo also leaves a watermark on it “Created with Snapily 3D” which in the case of the using cross-eye viewing method for example misplaced the position of the watermark in the two photos making it unusable. On the Hasbro My3D adapter viewing method for example the watermark is only placed in the right eye view, and another possible issue is the fact that even in the modes where you see the left/right views of the image you still get the accelerometer movement of the image, so there is some more to be desired from this application, but these things should be easily fixable anyway.

Another interesting feature that the Snappily3D application offers is the ability to print the 3D photos you have taken with the application on paper in 3D using Snapily 3D photo printing services (lenticular prints). This will cost you $3.99 per photo print and thanks to the fact that the software already creates the multiple views if the photos are looking good in 3D on the device you shot them with, they should also be very nice on print… at least regarding the stereoscopic 3D effect. The resolution of the 3D images is unfortunately a bit low, especially for print, with Snapily3D you get two options available – SD quality (480