Cinemagraph is an exclusive app for the Nokia Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices such as the Lumia 920 that lets you create animated GIF files. The app captures a series of photos and then presents it in a still picture style that brings any animation within the picture to life. Cinemagraph also allows you to adjust the amount of animation present on the image and once you get things just right, save it to your Pictures Hub.
Cinemagraph files are a bit on the huge side and we found image quality wasn't always consistent. Still, Cinemagraph is a nice photographic tool to have on your Lumia 920 or 820 Windows Phone.
Cinemagraph has a fairly straight forward user interface. You line up your picture, press the shutter button and hold your Windows Phone steady. Cinemagraph will then capture sixty frames of footage. Once the image is captured, Cinemagraph will highlight the areas of animation for you to choose.
Once you choose your areas of animation, you can increase the animation area by rubbing the screen. The shaded areas are not animated and as you clear the shaded areas by rubbing, the animation area increases. If you want to decrease the area of animations, just tap the brush button.
Once you've gotten the GIF image fine tuned to your liking, you can save the file to your Pictures Hub. From there you can share it as you would any other picture in your Pictures Hub.
Cinemagraph is a handy app for your Lumia Windows Phone but the GIF files are huge. The sample GIF (click to animate) is just over 5mb before it was resized. You can download the full size GIF file here.
While Cinemagraph generated decent animated files, I found a lack of consistency at times with regards to image quality. If you move the Lumia 920 too much you'll generate an error with Cinemagraph and the process fails. But minor movements won't sound the alarm and can cause files to be soft or pixelated. Then there are times everything falls into place and the animated GIF files look great. A tripod might be a good option to improve image quality but that option might not always be practical.
All in all, Cinemagraph is a no frill animated GIF creator and just another tool to increase your Windows Phone camera capabilities. It is a Nokia exclusive for the Lumia Windows Phone 8 devices (Lumia 920, 820, etc). Cinemagraph is a free app that you can find it in the Nokia Collection on your Windows Phone or through this link.
