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Panorama Factory 4.x
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Panorama Factory 4.x has two basic modes of operation. You can go fully automatic wizard mode. Basically, you import your images, choose the stitching method, describe your camera, control image quality, select the panorama type, create your panorama, and finally save and print your panorama. With this mode you simply make selections in the options panel on the left side of the screen and then click next. It is fast and easy.

 

However, at the choose stitching method step of the wizard you can break away from the fully automatic mode and choose semi-automatic or manual. Once you do this the software takes you to new screens with assisted help or no help at all. For the most part these two modes allow you to place the stitching points (control points) yourself.

 

You would use the semi-automatic mode if your camera was tilted up or down and the frontal tilt (pitch) and lateral tilt (roll) are identical for all pictures. You'll need to place stitching points on one or more pairs of images. The Panorama Factory will determine the camera tilt angles and apply the same values to all images. This option will usually give good results if your camera was mounted on a tripod. The manual mode is for hand held images where the tilt angles may be different for different images. You'll place stitching points on all pairs of images so that The Panorama Factory can determine the individual tilt angles. This method is the most general, but also the most time consuming.

 

There is one more mode that doesn’t have anything to do with stitching photos together and that is Manual: Document Stitching, this stitching method is for large documents that were scanned in sections on a flatbed scanner.  You'll place stitching points on all pairs of images so that The Panorama Factory can rotate the individual images for the best match. This is great for stitching together large documents like blueprints that were scanned in segments using a flatbed scanner.

 

I ran 30 sets of images through Panorama Factory. They ranged in image number from 2 to 20. While all of them were stitched some of them had blending problems. For example in one that had a long segment of shingle roofing where the images came together there was major blurring and loss of detail I did find that after updating the program to the then recently released 4.2 version of Panorama Factory that the blending problems diminished quite a bit. There were still some problems areas (the same areas from version to version) but the effect was much less in the 4.2 version. This tells me that Panorama Factory gets better with each new point release. This is a good thing and it means always update to the latest version of the program.

 

Besides the blending problems mentioned above, there was also two big problems with Panorama Factory and it is these two problems that made it my #2 choice for panorama stitching software. First it doesn’t do tiled panoramas (panoramas that contain both horizontal and vertical images) and it doesn’t do vertical panoramas (Though there is a work around. However, there needs to be direct support for this and there isn’t.). So basically you are stuck with horizontal panoramas. Incase you are wondering our top choice for panorama software is PTgui 5.6, we have a review of it on our site as well. However, the only reason it is our top choice is because of the lack of these two features.

 

Like with most high-end stitching programs when you go in to semi-automatic or full manual mode you have to place control points (stitching points in Panorama Factory) so that the program knows how to align, overlap and warp the images. It seems that no matter what program you use that this procedure is pretty much the same (while there are programs that don’t work this way, these programs tend operate in a fully automatic mode only. Meaning they will either do the stitching right or they won’t and give you very little if any recourse if they don’t.) The program shows you the first and second image in the series and you place your control points in the same locations in both images for example the very tip of a tree or the corner of a persons right eye, etc. When you move on to the next set that is image 2 and 3 and you place the control points again. It is quite simple; however the control points need to be in the same location from image to image in the sequence and most programs that work this way (that is programs that use control points/stitching points) try to help by moving both images around as you move around in any one of the images this keeps you lined up. However, sometimes this auto movement isn’t accurate so you need to pay attention. For example say you have a duck in the water in image 1 and the same duck in the water in image 2 and you place a control point on the bill of the duck in image 1 you would need to have a control point (a matching control point) in image 2 at the same location on the ducks bill. This is how the program knows how to align, overlap and warp the images to get everything to match up and be kosher. This is a very vital procedure. In full automatic mode the program tries to do this for you. Most times they do a good job, but sooner or later you will have images that need this done manually or in the case of Panorama Factory semi-manually. That is when you will be grateful for the manual or semi-manual mode.

 

Panorama Factory 4.x is a great package. However, because of its lack of direct support for vertical and tiled panoramas (an oversight I hope they fix soon) it isn’t my top choice. It is my second choice for panorama stitching software. As I said I also had some problems with my test images. With version 4.1 I had more blurred and ghosting problems when stitching my images together, this didn’t happen on all of them, but on three of the 20 sets I stitched together. Many of these problems were fixed with version 4.2. With 4.2 I had a successful stitching rate of about 95%. That is very good. My top choice in programs (PTgui) had a successful stitching rate of 98%. What does this mean? It means that 95% of the time Panorama Factory stitched my images together with no problems.

 

I don’t recommend any program that doesn’t have a strong manual mode. While we all hope that we will never need to use full manual mode it is naïve to think we will never need it. If you’re going to invest in a good stitching program then you want one with a good manual mode, like Panorama Factory has.
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Features
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  • A Wizard helps you create new stitching projects with just a few mouse clicks.
  • Automatic detection of focal length.
  • Detection of camera rotation and tilt.
  • Easy rotation of imported images.
  • Includes a library of over 800 digital camera models including digital SLRs.
  • Available in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and Russian.  Online help is "bilingual" (commands, buttons, etc. in the local language with explanations in English).
  • Lets you save user preferences for all applicable dialogs.
  • Includes automatic and manual "de-ghosting" tools.
  • Automatically or manually correct barrel distortion and brightness falloff.
  • Output to QTVR, IVR, PTViewer or HTML image map format.
  • Use hotspots to create virtual tours by hyper linking from one VR image to another.
  • Import existing VR images in order to edit and re-export them in other formats.
  • Create web pages from pre-defined templates or templates you create yourself.
  • Create thumbnail index web pages.
  • Accepts 24-bit and 45-bit color images (15 bits each for red, green and blue).
  • Reads and writes Windows BMP, JPEG, TIFF and PNG images.
  • Exports to layered Photoshop image format.
  • Optionally maintains full 45-bit data until final image output at 24-bits.
  • Can work from positive or negative images.
  • Includes a convenient and intuitive color correction tool.
  • Trims images from negative strips with a semi-automatic corner finding tool.
  • Focal-length refinement.
  • Image overlap from 1-99%.
  • Automatic image alignment with manual override.
  • Bicubic image sampling is used to maintain image quality.
  • Image rescaling with Lanczos2 filtering – perfect for creating thumbnail images.
  • Multi-threaded execution on multi-processor systems (including multi-core systems).
  • 64-bit processor support for the x64 Edition of Windows XP or Windows Server 2003.
  • Batch processing version available for bulk panorama renderings.
  • Printable user guide in PDF format.
  • Troubleshooting guide and frequently asked questions.
  • Comprehensive online help pages.
  • Dedicated support forum.
  • Free updates for minor versions (e.g.: V4.2 is a free update for owners of V4.0 or V4.1.)
  • Allows you to change intermediate images without starting over.
  • Enables archival storage with reduced disk space.
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Images
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Images Loaded   Panorama Created Finished Panorama  
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Images Loaded Panorama Created Finished Panorama  
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Summary
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Rating: Spacer Image 4 Stars
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Pros: Spacer Image Easy to use, great interface, powerful features, does a great job. Each new version just gets better, even the point updates.
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Cons:   No ability to stitch tiled panoramas (panoramas with both horizontal and vertical images). No support for vertical images.
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Final Comments:   With Panorama Factory creating stunning horizontal panorama images from digital files is fast and easy. With its fully automatic mode any one can use it. When the rare set of images comes along that it can't stitch full automatically the still very easy to use manual mode will prove a god send. Power and ease of use best describe this incredible package.
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Company: Spacer Image Smoky City Design LLC
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Web Site Address:   http://www.panoramafactory.com
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SRP:   $69.95
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Updates: Spacer Image Click Here
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Our Demo:   N/A
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Their Demo:   Click Here
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Requirements: Spacer Image - Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows x64 Edition.
- An installed web browser for The Panorama Factory Help Web.
- 64 MB of RAM – more for better performance.
- About 30 MB of free disk space to download and install the application and online help. Plus 5 MB for the printable User’s Guide (downloaded and installed separately).
- Lots of free disk space for saved panoramas (you can easily fill 1GB).
- Display size: 800 x 600 minimum; 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024 or larger recommended.
- Display colors: High color (16 bit) minimum, True color (24 or 32 bit) recommended.
- Processor speed:  The Panorama Factory will run on any reasonably current processor, but it will give you an excuse to upgrade!  Probably 400 MHz minimum, 1 GHz or faster recommended for large panoramas.
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