Autopano Pro 2.0 Giga. Thoughts on Pano vs. Giga versions

[dgberg]

I was planning on purchasing the Autopano Pro 2.0 version until I read the specs. on Giga. Seems like it will do alot more but is also priced at $269.00 US. Anyone using either of the new versions and if so your comments please?
Thanks
Dan Berg
Bergs Canvas Gallery

[feppe]

I was planning on purchasing the Autopano Pro 2.0 version until I read the specs. on Giga. Seems like it will do alot more but is also priced at $269.00 US. Anyone using either of the new versions and if so your comments please?
Thanks
Dan Berg
Bergs Canvas Gallery

Ah it's finally out, thanks! There are apparently two versions of the Giga, you quoted the more expensive.

The only thing that appeals to me in the Giga might be the HDR features - but it is unclear what that means. Even the earlier APP supported multi-layer pano creation from bracketed panos, so I doubt I'd need Giga - unless they moved those features to Giga-only.

[dgberg]

Autopano Pro is the standard version for panos. The Autopano Giga version is the top tier software with HDR and 360 vr options.
I read the specs comparing the 2 and understand the differences but am not clear on the value of the Giga version. At 2 1/2 times the cost.
Dan Berg
Bergs Canvas Gallery

[JeffKohn]

IMHO Autopano Pro hasn't really kept up all that well, at least not with the features I want. The few times I tried the HDR stuff it was pretty awful. I either generate separate layers for each exposure, or use the Enfuse blending in PTGui. PTGui also has more projection modes now, including Vedutismo, which I'm finding I really like for a lot of my wide to medium-wide landscape panos. AutoPano Pro still tends to do a better job of automatically leveling the pano and finding the center point, and is more convenient to use; but the enfuse blending and new projections in PTGui make Autopano Pro less attractive to me now.

[BernardLanguillier]

IMHO Autopano Pro hasn't really kept up all that well, at least not with the features I want. The few times I tried the HDR stuff it was pretty awful. I either generate separate layers for each exposure, or use the Enfuse blending in PTGui. PTGui also has more projection modes now, including Vedutismo, which I'm finding I really like for a lot of my wide to medium-wide landscape panos. AutoPano Pro still tends to do a better job of automatically leveling the pano and finding the center point, and is more convenient to use; but the enfuse blending and new projections in PTGui make Autopano Pro less attractive to me now.

The giga version also offers the automated stitching for high end motorized heads (Rodeon), which can make all the difference in the world for very high resolution panoramas, but it is a bit of a niche application for sure.

Other than that 2.0 compared to 1.4:

- much much faster except for the smartblend part (plan is summer for that) and 64 bits support
- support for GPU for real time pano editor, this doesn't seem to work on my Mac

Ptgui is also very good, but app/apg 2.0 is shaping up to be the most advanced platform for high end panos.

Regards,
Bernard

[ErikKaffehr]

Bernard,

Thanks for good info. I'm still on Tiger on my primary computer (an iMac) but on Leopard on my portable (MacBook). Will probably update iMac to Leopard because new programs seem to be Leopard only.
I consider to upgrade to Autopano Pro 2.0 but I guess that I wait until late summer as 1.4x still works fine.

Best regards
Erik

The giga version also offers the automated stitching for high end motorized heads (Rodeon), which can make all the difference in the world for very high resolution panoramas, but it is a bit of a niche application for sure.

Other than that 2.0 compared to 1.4:

- much much faster except for the smartblend part (plan is summer for that) and 64 bits support
- support for GPU for real time pano editor, this doesn't seem to work on my Mac

Ptgui is also very good, but app/apg 2.0 is shaping up to be the most advanced platform for high end panos.

Regards,
Bernard

[Jeremy Roussak]

The giga version also offers the automated stitching for high end motorized heads (Rodeon), which can make all the difference in the world for very high resolution panoramas, but it is a bit of a niche application for sure.

Other than that 2.0 compared to 1.4:

- much much faster except for the smartblend part (plan is summer for that) and 64 bits support
- support for GPU for real time pano editor, this doesn't seem to work on my Mac

Ptgui is also very good, but app/apg 2.0 is shaping up to be the most advanced platform for high end panos.

Regards,
Bernard

The 64-bit Mac version (non-giga) is rather unstable and the menus in the dialogs can't (most of the time) be operated with the mouse: you have to click on them and then use arrow keys. I have reported these problems and was advised to change to the 32-bit version. There's also the colour profile problem I mentioned a few weeks ago.

When it works, it's jolly good. Certainly far better than Photomerge on CS3; I've not tried CS4.

Jeremy

[happyman]

I upgraded to Giga mostly for the new tour feature. Amazing. On my Intel Mac the 64bit version doesnt work, so i switched to 32bit.
For the stitching i prefer ptgui, much faster and better control if you know what you are doing, but this is a personal thing.
I do a lot of fisheye spheres with 8mm and 16mm lenses and this is where ptgui beats Autopano most of the time.

What is funny about the final release of Autopano Giga is that in the last Beta/RC version things worked fine that don´t work in the final.
Seems that they got under pressure with the published release date...

But it is allways a good idea to have more than one tool that can do the job - like with raw converters, too.

cheers