Hi! I decided to take some time this week to continue my search for what program is best for my needs to share my 360° media. Today I’m focusing on the Panoskin web tool!
I used the Ricoh Theta SC Hatsune Miku to capture my photos/videos as usual. I am interested in trying out different 360° programs in order to find what fits my needs best; something quick, efficient, and optimized for social media.
Initial Thoughts
The Panoskin website is easy to navigate. Panoskin touts that it is able to quickly and efficiently round up your 360 images into a Google Tour. For this review, I signed up as a “free” user. The Panoskin application is a web browser based one, which is a plus in my book.
Upon opening, I decided to try changing my profile picture. It was at this point that I was told I had activated a “Pro” trial, and that I had a limited amount of time to use it. Fine, but I wouldn’t call that a “free signup” as much as a “free trial”. Anyways, you can’t change your picture yet, kind of a bummer but not really important.
In the application itself, you are able to host up to 50 MB for a tour. I originally input 14 images, but then decided to cut my tour down substantially (also didn’t love my face in a lot of them).
I decided to publish a tour to Google Maps rather than create a custom tour. This is because to create a custom tour, you must have a client already inputted into the application. The custom tour option doesn’t allow you to generate an audience, but the Google Maps option does.
The Panoskin tool calls folders “islands”, which is kind of cute. You are able to batch upload your images,as seen below.
Perhaps the biggest draw to Panoskin is the way it generates hotspots for you. I don’t think I did the world’s greatest job, but a program is only as good as its user. Go ahead and check out my tour here if you’re interested. Adding hotspots to my images was kind of strange as it generated hotspots for me. I kept the spacing at the recommended starting 3m.
Like the Ricoh Tours review I did, I will be adding in information when my trial ends about the analytics gathered in the analytics tab. In summary, here are my pros and cons for the Panoskin web tool:
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Integration with Google is easy | Auto Pro trial enrollment |
| 50 MB space | No POV setting |
| Smart hotspot placement | Application is still being built |
| Quick uploading time | Some changes don’t seem to go through (like location) |
| Analytics | No sharing to social media |
| No watermarks |
Concluding Thoughts
I thought that the Panoskin application was easy to use and fairly straightforward. I particularly enjoyed the cute mascot and constant explanations of their terms (like “islands”). I think if you are looking for something to export images to Google Street View, this is a great choice. On the other hand, no social media exporting and no editing makes this application not quite right for my general needs.
Until next time!
