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Panorama Software Comparison

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Panorama Software Comparison

Postby leek on Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:58 am

I happened to be at Bondi Beach yesterday and took a series of 11 portrait orientation hand-held shots with a view to making a panorama...

Here are the results from 3 popular software tools:

First - PhotoMerge within Photoshop - very disappointing due to the banding and the lack of subtlety in the merging of the photos

Image

Secondly - the same shots with Autostitch - a few problems with exposure balancing, but not too bad...

Image


Thirdly - Panorama Factory... Not Perfect, but by far the Best...
Despite the additional cost, I think that I'll be buying this software soon...

Image

Any similar experiences???
Any contradictory views???
Any other pano software tools I should be trying out???
Anything I could have done better with the various tools???
Cheers, John
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Postby Onyx on Fri Jun 10, 2005 5:25 am

I vote for Panorama Factory too. With nothing fancy, just handheld clicks - I've managed to produce quite good multi-shot pano's using Pano Factory.
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Postby Killakoala on Fri Jun 10, 2005 6:50 am

I went down this road quite a while ago and came to the same conclusion.

Panorama Factory (PF) is the best stitching programme you can get (IMHO)

All the panos i have done are with PF. As you say, it's not perfect, i've had quite a few panos come out looking crap. But it is the best and if your original shots are good, then it will do a fantastic job of stitching.

Good Examples:
http://killakoala.smugmug.com/gallery/292396
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Postby Glen on Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:07 am

Thanks Leek, great example to show the comparisons, helps us all
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Postby robw25 on Fri Jun 10, 2005 7:27 am

give paint shop pro photo album 5 a go ... i was impressed with it ... just drag and drop

cheers rob
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Postby sheepie on Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:03 am

I'm happy with Pano Factory :)
have I said that before? probably, and will probably say it again...

Image

in fact, here goes...
I'M HAPPY WITH PANORAMA FACTORY!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Postby Glen on Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:19 am

Leon, anyone would be happy with that pano :D :D :D
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Postby boxerboy on Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:46 am

Another vote for Panorama Factory. I'm very impressed with both the ease of use and the price. I stitched together 19 photos for a 270° view of Mt Isa. It took probably 20 minutes to complete, but the result is excellent, no visible joins at all.

cheers
Peter
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Postby beej on Fri Jun 10, 2005 8:53 am

My PANO software setup:

3 programs based on this tutorial:

1. Autopano-SIFT
2. Hugin
3. Enblend
It's a very twiddly and a complex procedure, but it is by far the best setup i've used (very powerful). The best part? It's all free!

You can start by just using Hugin, which is a frontend for command-based tool called Panorama Tools.

There are a heap of tutes based on PT out there. Give it a shot, if you got the patience you won't be disappointed.

Cheers
- beej
Last edited by beej on Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby kipper on Fri Jun 10, 2005 9:45 am

I've done some quite good handhelds with pano factory. I think it does a pretty good with exposure balancing, image rotation and stitching.

Take a look at autostich and then take a look at pano factory. Autostitch didn't do a very good job with the horizon, it's like a wave. PF has done a pretty good job though keeping it straight and level.
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Postby stubbsy on Fri Jun 10, 2005 10:43 am

Need I add... Pano Factory. Looked what Beej suggested a while back, but I'm a lazy sod & the complexity put me off big time.
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Postby ozimax on Fri Jun 10, 2005 11:00 am

sheepie wrote:I'm happy with Pano Factory :)
have I said that before? probably, and will probably say it again...

Image

in fact, here goes...
I'M HAPPY WITH PANORAMA FACTORY!

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Could you please say that again Sheepie?
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Postby tsanglabs on Fri Jun 10, 2005 1:58 pm

I would have to agree with most people here that I have not been disappointed by PF.

The PhotoMerge in Photoshop looks unusable.
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Postby Yedrup on Fri Jun 10, 2005 2:29 pm

Must admit to using only three methods in the past, they being Canon Photostitch, Photoshop and Panorama Factory.

Photostitch - good results, not great but good :) :)
Photoshop - must be to do with my proficiency with PS but not good result :cry: :cry:
Panorama Factory - very, very good results :D :D :D once I used this I stopped looking.


Cheers,
Terry
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Postby darb on Fri Jun 10, 2005 3:46 pm

ive always found autostitch to be the best, but can depend on the variables of the shot.
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Re: Panorama Software Comparison

Postby DanielA on Sat Jun 11, 2005 1:27 pm

leek wrote:Any other pano software tools I should be trying out???

I've used <a href="http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm">PTAssembler</a> which uses PanoTools, so I guess it would be similar to Hugin.

Are you source files available somewhere? I could run it through:
- Autopano
- PTAssembler
- Enblend
It only takes a couple of clicks.

Autopano does a awesome job. Enblend is alright, but I like to do the blending myself.

Daniel
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