Nicoloas
Posts: 5
Location:
Registered: 9 Dec 2005
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so many stitchers, which one??
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 13:13 GMT
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there are so many stitchers, which one to get?
what puzzle me more is their price range, from $0-$600?
why such a big difference? due to functional difference or image quality? or ease of use?
which one has best value?
I do still panos and want to try QTVR.
thanks in advance.
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VistaGrande
Posts: 281
Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States
Registered: 12 May 2004
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Re: so many stitchers, which one??
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 13:41 GMT
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hi nic,
let me be the first to tell you this:
higher price DOES NOT EQUAL better stitching, better image quality, or even ease of use.
I will throw my vote in for PTGUI 5.5 (about $70) with panotools (free), best stitch, best value, hands down, no question about it. Be sure to download the autopano and enblend plugins as well, they are free. Also get pano2qtvr (about $24) as well for cubic conversion (to stitch your zenith and nadir) and convert to mov file. If a java applet is what you are after, i recommend using immervisions G2 (free).....
downside to PTGUI for stitching: slow and big learning curve...
hope this helps,
David
www.virtualbigbend.com
ps-my second choice for a stitcher is IseeMedia's Photovista, it's cheap, about $70, pretty good stitching and very easy to use! Plus it will convert your spherical images to cube as well!
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NYCreate
Posts: 496
Location: North Yorkshire & Northern England, United Kingdom
Registered: 21 Aug 2005
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Re: so many stitchers, which one??
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 15:24 GMT
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PTGUI PTGUI PTGUI!! We have tried most stitchers available on the market and PTGUI wins everytime for overall capability. We used to have 3 different stitchers depending on what source images we used, but PTGUI does the lot! and unbeatable value for money! One thing though, as dave says it can be a big learning curve. Some knowledge of panos and how they are constructed etc etc would be advantageous before you even attempt using PTGUI.
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Nicoloas
Posts: 5
Location:
Registered: 9 Dec 2005
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Re: so many stitchers, which one??
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 17:06 GMT
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I notice there is post about Autopano Pro in this forum.
I have a look. APP seems very easy to use. it is 30 Euro more than ptgui. but not very much compared to $200+, 500+ stitchers. I know ptgui is famous. but every one says it takes some time to learn  . I see lots of new terminologies in it too. how long does it take to learn ptgui for you?
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John Houghton
Posts: 3487
Location: Hitchin, United Kingdom
Registered: 17 Jan 2005
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Re: so many stitchers, which one??
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 17:31 GMT
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In my experience, "easy to use" = lack of control. Yesterday, I tried Autopano Pro with a set of 6 images. It decided there were two panoramas - one of 4 images and the other of 2 images. In fact, all the images belonged to the same panorama. Try to stitch a single image and Autopano Pro will say "Select more than one image to build a panoramic !!!". PTGui very usefully allows the stitching of a single image to transform it in some way, e.g. to correct perspective distortion or to generate an image in a different form of projection. This is not to say that Autopano Pro is useless. Far from it. PTGui, however, is amazingly versatile and is worth having, whatever other stitchers you may own.
John
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GURL
Posts: 41
Location: Grenoble / Isère, France
Registered: 7 May 2004
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Free stuff
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 17:38 GMT
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Besides PTLens (new version), Autopano, Enblend and Smartblend (new version), I recommend:
Autostitch: the easiest one (but, of course...)
Hugin: can stitch anything, better and better, can use Nona and Panotols, wide range of tutorials, several languages
SPi-V is my preferred viewer: very fast, no cube to build, very interesting experimental features.
Besides that it's impossible to decide for you, it's like deciding that PS II or Elements is the best for you(it could be the (free) Gimp)
Some years ago, free stitchers were undocumented and had no decent interface. Free (or low cost) well documented stitchers now exist and use sophisticated techniques derived from academic research. Well established expensive stitchers are designed to satisfy their customers needs, this includes not spending too much time to decide which one is the best for them!
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VistaGrande
Posts: 281
Location: San Antonio, Texas, United States
Registered: 12 May 2004
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Re: Free stuff
Posted: 9 Dec 2005 at 21:56 GMT
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nic,
you may be surprised at how much easier ptgui has become....the newer version has "project assistant" now and makes stitching much easier. i would give it a go regardless if you think you may have a problem learning it. with this forum, you have lots of experienced ptgui users who are ready and willing to help you out...at least download the demo and check it out....
david
www.virtualbigbend.com
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rickdrew
Posts: 215
Location: Oak Lawn, United States
Registered: 18 Aug 2004
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Re: so many stitchers, which one??
Posted: 14 Dec 2005 at 10:07 GMT
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Having spent the $500 for a stitcher package I no longer use, I can say PTGUI! 1/10th the cost, 10x the speed.
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