Vantage Point for Windows 8, a photographic glimpse at the past

Vantage Point is a neat photography app for Windows 8. It provides you with current scenic photographs from twelve cities from the U.S. and Europe with the ability to overlay a postcard frame on the picture to reveal how the scene looked years ago.

Vantage Point will map out the location of the scene as well as provide the ability to share the images with friends. It is an interesting perspective on how much the world has changed and a fun Windows 8 app to explore.

The main menu for Vantage Point offers a thumbnail selection of the cities covered in the app. They include cities from the U.S., the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. Tap on a city tile to pull up a series of images from various landmarks and points of interest in that city along with a map pinpointing these locations.

A postcard frame will appear over the image that can be moved about the image to reveal how the scene looked like about 100 years ago. The postcard frame can be enlarged to reveal a larger cross-section of the image.

From the pull-up menu you have the options to reverse the postcard image (older photo will be shown with current image seen through the postcard), hide the postcard, and unlock the full screen view ($1.49 in-app purchase). Images can be shared from the side bar menu of Windows 8.

The city selection for Vantage Point is fairly limited and hopefully more cities will be added in the future. Still, Vantage Point gives you an interesting viewpoint of these locations’s history.

Vantage Point is a free, ad-support app for Windows 8. You can remove the ads and unlock a full-screen view of the images with an in-app purchase of $1.49. You can find Vantage Point here in the Windows 8 Store.

Note: There is a similar Vantage Point app available for Windows Phone 8 (you can find it here) that will let you create these "windows into the past" type photos. I really like the concept of the Windows Phone 8 version but in trying out this version of Vantage Point, the app constantly crashed and lacked any stability. It was more frustrating than useful and if the developer can iron out the bugs, we'll take a look at it a little closer.