PhotoVista Panorama

Rating:
Updated: 11 Sep 2004 at 10:42 GMT, by Smooth

This review is on PhotoVista 3.0 for PC 11/09/2004

Firstly this software is an incarnation of the original released a long time back in 1996. Originally owned and developed by Live Picture and then MGI who then changed the name to Roxio it is now owned and distributed by iSeeMedia a Canadian based company.

Photo Vista 3.0 is capable of stitching images from almost all cameras with most types of lenses. (Though full circular fisheye images) are no longer supported. This is a major disappointment if you happen to own a fisheye lens. Previous version 1.01 (Live Picture) did support this style of lens.

The program runs on “lens files” to suit your camera/lens combination and customs lens files can be made using the in built Custom Lens Interface. For this you will need to know the focal length of your lens and also the FOV of your lens.

Lens files are basically just a text file (made with notepad) laying out the relevant required parameters with the file extension removed. These files are then stored in folder within the software folder structure for future use. (Multiple lens files can be stored) This is good if you have multiple cameras or lens combinations or you have just updated your camera.

Some lens files do come preconfigured with the software, although these files are to suit older digital cameras and most people will know find these useless. This to me points to a lack of interest from the current program owners. That said you can go ahead and make your own lens file. Albeit that you may require help from either forum members or the lens calculator available on the www.panoguide.com website.

The program does stitch very well (once you have the correct lens file for your camera) and is quite speedy when compared to other comparable software programs. You can output your stitched panorama as a *.bmp, *.jpg or as a *.fpx (Flashpix) your options include cylindrical – spherical or cube faces.

The program also writes the HTML and offers two types of java output notably one that’s requires a iSeeMedia plug-in and one that doesn’t. The program also offers it own limited version of FTP support to upload your finished panorama files to your website.

You can also import finished panorama images and then reconfigure should you wish too. Say into cube faces or regenerate the HTML and Java applet.


Things of note:
• Software GUI opens to a ridicules small sized window (800x600) that cannot be resized.
• Manual “Image Wrapping” is available in case you need to make fine adjustments.
• Printing is available directly from the software after you finish your stitching.
• Clicking on the “Download More Lenses” button results in a web page telling you to visit www.panoguide.com to figure out your lens so you can attempt writing your own. (Although this is good for Panoguide) You would think the page would have a selection of downloadable current modal cameras lens files.
• Tech support from iSeeMedia is very poor
• The company relies heavily on it’s user forum which is maned by panorama faithfuls.
• There is a known issue of the iSeeMedia applet calling the image “twice” from the server (for no apparent reason).
• Program price varies depending their mood it would seem from as high as $79.95 USD to as little as $19.95 USD (the price I paid!) via an email marketing advertisement.

All in all this is good software without being great! (Though wouldn’t take much for good programmers to fix it) Basically it is the same software that was released in 1996 with some minor improvements and some major benefits removed. For me I have trouble getting past the lack of support and can’t understand why a product with so much potential is being wasted in the hands of the current developers. For a product to have been around for as long as it has it really should be much further advanced and priority should given to supplying current lens files for today’s cameras. I say if you want to learn panorama stitching and your budget is limited then this is a good tool for your panorama software toolbox.

Recommended

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Rating:
Updated: 10 Aug 2004 at 21:21 GMT, by lithop

Having to re-install my OS caused me to look for some new pano stitching software as I couldn't find the code for my much used Panostitcher(Pixtra). After reading the review of Photovista Panorama 3 on Panoguide I decided to try it. I was immediately impressed with its speed and accuracy of stitching and had no hesitation in purchasing it.Having previously spent much time in Photoshop it is now a pleasure to find the amount of after corrections needed substantially reduced.Not that my old Panostitcher was bad (it still has much in its favour) but for ease of use and quality of output I thoroughly recommend Photovista Panorama to anyone producing large numbers of panos.
Recent sample image1 mb) myweb.tiscali.co.uk/lithopa/traders1meg.zip

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Rating:
Updated: 21 May 2004 at 0:00 GMT, by David Locke

I purchased Photovista 2.0 (and later upgraded to 3.0) for three main reasons: it was cheap, it could stitch fisheye images and it could output cubic, spherical, and cylindrical formats. After reading James' review, and his technique in making full 360 x 180 panormas in Photovista, I purchased it. I was not disappointed.

I have never used previous versions before 2.0, so this review is solely based on using 2.0 and later, 3.0. I shoot all my immersive panoramas for my site with a full frame fisheye lens. Photovista is one of the very few stitching programs that can handle fisheye images. The gui is very simple and well laid out (I prefer 3.0's layout to 2.0, as it is more userfriendly). You simply tell photovista what kind of panorama you want to make: 2-D flat horizontal or vertical panorama, or an immersive 3-D 360 degree or 180 degree panorama. Load your images. Once they are loaded, select the type of lens you are using. You can also completely customize your lens, if it is not listed. Click on Preview, the software will quickly put a very rough cut together for you to look at. Then fine tune it by double clicking on the image and realigning the center of the images. Click on 'stitch image' and away it goes! In a few minutes the panorama will be completely stitched together with a minimum of stitching errors (assuming you have shot the images correctly and choosen the correct lens). I have stitched at least a hundred or so panoramas with this software and I have to spend very little time in PHotoshop editing out the flaws.

The third reason why I purchased this program was it's rare ability to output the final stitched image as a either a cubic, cylindrical, or spherical image. This is useful for manually editing those top and bottom 'cap' areas in photoshop. The panoramas can then be saved with or without a built in viewer. Your viewer options are a simple java applet that does not require a plug in, or you can use the built in proprietary viewer. Photovista will output the code you can then paste into your website. Personally, I don't use the built-in viewers as they are not as customizable as using Helmut's PTViewer, which is completely customizable.

At under a hundred dollars, Photovista 2.0 (about $49), and Photovista 3.0 (about $70) is outstanding stitching software. Photovista's website is currently selling 3.0 but if you can get your hands on 2.0, it is equally as good as 3.0.

I have been using Photovista for a couple of years now and I developed my entire Virtual Tour of Big Bend National Park site with this software and I highly recommend it. I hope that future versions will output QTVR files.

Hope this helps!

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Rating:
Updated: 29 Aug 2000 at 5:00 GMT, by James Rigg [Panoguide]

This is a review of version 2.0

PhotoVista is only one of the programs that also features in ISeeMedia's suites of photo/image manipulation software (Reality Studio and PhotoVista Virtual Tour) with which entire interactive VR websites can be produced*. The target audience is clearly the end consumer, web author or designer, yet PhotoVista is perfectly capable of producing extremely high resolution image suitable for printing on large format printers.

There were few changes between version 1 and version 2 except for rebranding... but the latest version does perform slightly better too. The interface is wonderfully simple yet deceptively powerful - you can control the lens and accurately adjust the image alignment.

Performance is very good, but it's worth noting that best results are often achieved by letting PhotoVista second-guess the lens settings even if you know what they are supposed to be. One thing that sets PhotoVista apart from most of the competition is that it has an intelligent blending algorithm that attempts to find a line along which it can blend which will result in the least disruption to the picture. So if there is a sign on a wall right in the middle of a seam area, PhotoVista will normally try to blend around the sign meaning that if any ghosting or blurring is caused during blending at least the bricks are blurred and not the sign.

At the time of writing PhotoVista 2.0 had produced the best results to date for the two new wide angle test sequences (better than in the 1.32 test). The images are not perfect, but there were not many flaws and they could all be edited away.

Whilst PhotoVista is powerful, easy to use and produces good results, it does lack a few features that would really set it apart from its competitors. In particular if you try to manually align extremely large images, it is difficult (if not impossible) to pan around - you can pan by moving the left hand image, and adjust the alignment by moving the right. So with large images it becomes very difficult to check alignment along the whole length of the stitch.

Some users will want more control than PhotoVista gives: you cannot control the degree of blending, account for rotation left-to-right (roll) or tilt. Having said that very few stitching applications offer these functions at the moment. Overall PhotoVista has a very clean and easy-to-use interface yet with sufficient controls to satisfy everyone from the amateur hobbyist to the semi-professional. It is a shame that it doesn't support QTVR so you'll have to combine it with another stitching tool or use one of the free utilities from Apple to convert to QTVRs if you really want QuickTime panoramas rather than Image Worlds format images.

* note however that there is no upgrade path from PhotoVista to Reality Studio

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