The AOSP Camera app could still use some improvements in handling lighting. The issue is that as you take a Photosphere or panorama, the phone takes multiple shots to be stitched together. As it does this, it changes the exposure of each shot. This leads to artifacts, rather abrupt shifts in light levels, and poor stitching in some of the resulting compositions.
Those who know the finer points about photography know there are different ways of handling exposure (ISO level, aperture diameter (f-stop), and shutter speed being the primary three). Typically, changing the shutter speed allows for the most granular changes in exposure, followed by ISO level and then aperture setting. Depending on how the smartphone camera is changing the exposure level, the 'minimum change' in exposure may still be enough to cause a substantial change in brightness. I can't pretend to say that I know exactly how the code behind Photosphere works, but I have my ideas. The ideal way for it to work would be for the software to capture the images in RAW format, and adjust the data later on to account for smooth exposure changes. For all I know, that's what's going on behind the scenes already, and it just needs some fine-tuning.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram