The program Combine ZM has been mentioned here before, and I thought I'd share an email I received from the programs developer. He is currently working on a new version and shared the changes that he has made and what is left to do.
1. All of the text handling in the program is wide characters, so paths with accents in should work properly.
2. All text in the program is now in the resource section so that translation into other languages is easy using ResHacker etc.
3. I have included the Pyramid method of focus stacking, this gives surprizingly good results with some stacks that other methods find difficult. It is based on the same method used by Tufuse etc. but with my own modifications. While there may be a slight overall colourshift on some stacks this method is good at removing haze etc. from a stack and seems to behave quite well with noisy stacks. Some Reflective/Refractive Highlights are not handled so well though, but the method complements the others quite well. In honour of this method I will probably call this version CombineZP.
4. The program now has a 'Simple' mode where the menus are replaced by a simple tool bar. All of the original functionality is still there if you switch back to the full menu mode.
All of this means that the older Macro Sets need transcribing before they will work properly, and new sets need developing to make best use of the Pyramid methods.
I have not altered the Batch Processor program yet to bring it into line with this international version yet, that's my next job.
When I release the test version it will be a package consisting of the full CombineZP.exe plus updated Macro Sets.
I still have to do some Help pages for the Pyramid functions.
There may also be a few changes in the Macro Commands.
For those that don't know, Combine ZM is a free image stacking program to increase the DOF of your images. Here is the homepage http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/combinezm.htm
Paul - There are quite a few good ones out there for free if you look around. People seem to enjoy this whole photography thing - even writing software for it. Take a look at Enfuse, Enblend, Autostitch, The GIMP, and one I just head about from John Mumaw, RAW Therapee.
Speaking of those, I think maybe a new thread for people to list ones they know of would be a good idea...
Discussion
2 replies1. All of the text handling in the program is wide characters, so paths with accents in should work properly.
2. All text in the program is now in the resource section so that translation into other languages is easy using ResHacker etc.
3. I have included the Pyramid method of focus stacking, this gives surprizingly good results with some stacks that other methods find difficult. It is based on the same method used by Tufuse etc. but with my own modifications. While there may be a slight overall colourshift on some stacks this method is good at removing haze etc. from a stack and seems to behave quite well with noisy stacks. Some Reflective/Refractive Highlights are not handled so well though, but the method complements the others quite well. In honour of this method I will probably call this version CombineZP.
4. The program now has a 'Simple' mode where the menus are replaced by a simple tool bar. All of the original functionality is still there if you switch back to the full menu mode.
All of this means that the older Macro Sets need transcribing before they will work properly, and new sets need developing to make best use of the Pyramid methods.
I have not altered the Batch Processor program yet to bring it into line with this international version yet, that's my next job.
When I release the test version it will be a package consisting of the full CombineZP.exe plus updated Macro Sets.
I still have to do some Help pages for the Pyramid functions.
There may also be a few changes in the Macro Commands.
For those that don't know, Combine ZM is a free image stacking program to increase the DOF of your images. Here is the homepage http://www.hadleyweb.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/CZM/combinezm.htm
Speaking of those, I think maybe a new thread for people to list ones they know of would be a good idea...