The platform brings a brand new feature along, called Lenses

Nov 7, 2012 19:51 GMT  ·  By

Last week, Microsoft officially launched its new mobile operating system flavor, Windows Phone 8, and provided a full rundown of the main features and improvements that users will benefit from, compared to previously available versions.

Among them, there are some related to the Photos and Video capabilities of the mobile OS, now complemented by a brand new feature called Lenses.

Those who will purchase a new Windows Phone 8 device will be able to take advantage of improved image quality, a new set of editing tools, support for cloud-based backup, as well as new ways to manage and share multiple photos.

“Previous versions of Windows Phone introduced several time-savers, including the ability to snap and share pictures without unlocking the phone and automatic face detection for easier tagging,” Microsoft explains.

“The Photos Hub also shows all your pictures in one place—whether they’re saved on your phone, Facebook, or SkyDrive—so you don’t have to fumble with a bunch of separate apps.”

Lenses in Windows Phone 8 includes a series of apps that have been integrated directly into the viewfinder and Camera Roll, and which deliver brand new features and capabilities to users.

Whether it comes to fixing the goofy face a person made in a photo, apply a new filter to an image, create an immersive 3D panorama, or change something else in the photo, Lenses should be able to deliver.

Furthermore, developers receive increased access to a handset’s hardware in Windows Phone 8, which should spur the number of available Lenses.

In addition to Lenses, Windows Phone 8 devices will be able to provide users with better imaging capabilities, Microsoft notes.

“In our new release we really doubled down on capture quality, with a lot of help from our hardware partners. And new Windows Phone 8 models are already winning head-to-head photo and video challenges against competitors,” the company notes.

The picture taking experience has been improved as well, based on the manner in which users actually take advantage of their Windows Phone devices.

“For example, we found that many of you were frequently digging into Settings for the flash button. So in Windows Phone 8 the flash toggle was placed front and center, available in one tap,” Microsoft explains.

The new mobile operating system version also brings along more fluid zoom levels, so that users could be able to simply pinch or stretch their fingers directly on the viewfinder itself to zoom.