Realviz StitcherPro 5.5 review

Introduction

In a previous technique article, Howto Panoramas and Digital Stitching, I discussed a variety of digital panorama stitching methods and software tools including Realviz Stitcher and PTAssembler (based on the open source PanoTools). And it was PTAssembler that I recommended for the amount of control, high quality output and value for money that it offered. I had tried Stitcher in the past and found it slow with a limited file output size. Well nothing has changed with PTAssembler, it is still a great piece of software, but a steep learning curve for complex projects, or relearning curve when I had not used it for a while and encountered problems, forced me to review other alternatives during a recent commission to produce panoramas for a client with a planetarium show. Basically I needed something easier and hence quicker to use.

Looking at a number of other reviews of panorama stitching software, including Panoguide , it appeared that Realviz Stitcher was still very highly rated so I downloaded the 30day trial version (registration required) and gave it a go.

1-2-3-4-5-Panorama

My experience of first using Realviz StitcherPro was very similar to my first few weeks with a Mac. Being used to Windows and it’s applications I expected to have to do things a certain way and Stitcher threw me for a loop as it is so simple and intuitive. The interface is shown in Image 2.

Those five icons are all you really need.

1. Load images - load jpegs or TIFFs (8 or 16bit).
2. Automatic stitch - stitches the image.
3. Automatic align - sets the horizon automatically.
4. Equalize all images - roughly sets the brightness for each image to be similar for a smoother blend.
5. Render - performs final stitching and blending to output jpeg, TIFF or QTVR.

And that’s it. Each icon does give you more options if you need them, for example, to manually stitch your panorama or render a different panorama projection, but for the most part it really is just 1-2-3-4-5 clicks for a normal panorama.

There are some interesting other options, for example the ability to output the panorama to a website and georeference the panorama to Google Earth, and for landscape or city photographers who often curse moving objects messing up their stitches there are stencils that allow you to isolate and remove moving objects in overlapping frames.

The software also feels quite fast on both PC and Mac, probably a little faster than Panotools, although I’ve not run any objective tests, but with either set of tools you have time to go away and make your dinner once you queue a large multi image render. The time to produce low res proofs is very fast for most panoramas allowing you to quickly check the final output or produce client proofs.

StitcherPro 5.5 is not yet a Universal Binary, but I haven’t noticed a significant speed difference between the the PC version and the non-universal binary Mac version. I hope that a universal binary version will be released soon for the Pro version, but if you are desperate for the extra speed then the StitcherPro 5.6 Unlimited which adds HDR functionaility is available now, at a higher cost. 

Stitch, blend and general image quality were all first rate with only minor Photoshop work required to tidy up the finished image. I have no issues at all in using the rendered images for commissions or gallery prints.

Other things

There are a few little things which tripped me up, so I thought I should mention them here in case they are catching you out too.

• The render dialogue box only shows a pixel size upto 10 000, but if you want a larger image, you can enter a larger number.
• The first few renders I produced didn’t show the full image height, but this is easy to fix, as what is shown in the main screen is what is rendered, so if you want to render the full height then you need to zoom out so that you can see the full height of the image on the main screen.
• It is also worth turning the preview on as this allows you to see what the rendered panorama will look like.
• Initially I was running the Windows version, but my increasing dissatisfaction with this platform saw me looking around, first at Ubuntu Linux then at Mac OS X which is now my computing platform of choice. Luckily Realviz are switched on enough to realise that people like to switch platforms so any license bought can be easily transferred cross platform for free. Well done Realviz.
• Finally, one of the few bugs I found was that the default rendering method, which is Nearest, does not produce straight horizons for 360° pans. Changing the interpolation method to another method to another type is fine, I use Lanczos5 as it produces the highest quality results but does take a little longer. The interpolation method can be changed in the Render dialogue or in Preferences.

Conclusion

Realviz StitcherPro 5.5 provides an ease of use that is quite outstanding. I think the shortness of this review reflects the ease of use of the package, to pinch the Mac slogan, It just works. Whether you are producing large TIFF files for printing or QTVR files for web use, this is a great piece of software. Not cheap at £205 for a full version, or £140 for an upgrade, but if you make your living from producing panoramas then the time saved will quickly pay for the software. And if you make pans for fun, then you can concentrate on being creative and let Realviz Stitcher produce results that match your vision. Idealised conclusion? You bet, but I love this piece of software.

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