Which one do you prefer?
I'm thinking about either PF or Autopano. Of course, AP costs double. Is it worth it?
Posted by Bill Chambers on July 18, 2006 at 10:48 AM
I haven't tried PF, but have been very pleased with the APP results. Their documentation leaves something to be desired IMO, but is very easy to use. Somewhere I heard that PF can't do multiple row panos. Don't know if this is true or not, but if it is I couldn't even consider it, because sooner or later you will want to do multi-row panos. Maybe someone else can share info on PF ability or lack thereof to handle multi-row?
I used PTAssembler for a while and it works well enough but still requires a lot of manual work to get things the way I want them. I ended up switching to APP and like the user interface better, and it's much faster.
I still go back, to PTAssembler for images that require manual checkpointing but with good technique that's rarely the case.
Autopano Pro is the most powerful and most accurate stitcher that I have found so far and is well worth the extra cost in my opinion. You can do multiple rows and they don't even have to be in vertical alignment. They can be all over the place, so long as they overlap on all sides. You just point the software at the folder full of photos and it will find all possible merged combinations and show you low res samples. If you forgot to set your camera on manual, it doesn't matter. You have to get deeper into the adjustment part of the program but it can blend frames seamlessly when they have significantly different exposures. You can set manual match points if you want/need to but I haven't done a stitch yet where it was necessary. Sometimes, especially if the frames are handheld and rotated in relation to each other, it will result in some fairly distorted composites but most of the time you can straighten them out with the manual adjustments. For single row panos, Panorama Factory is an excellent and very low cost program also. I used it for a couple years until I discovered Autopano Pro.
PS CS2 does a decent job in some cases but doesn't support 16-bit files. I have both PTAssembler and Autopano Pro which are far better (when you add Enblend and Autopano to PTAssembler).
Autopano Pro is far and away the easiest to use and has some nifty color correction features as well.
Discussion
8 repliesI'm thinking about either PF or Autopano. Of course, AP costs double. Is it worth it?
I still go back, to PTAssembler for images that require manual checkpointing but with good technique that's rarely the case.
Guy
Pete D.
Windoze only though.
Autopano Pro is far and away the easiest to use and has some nifty color correction features as well.
Guy