Over the past several years panorama stitching software has come a long way. I can remember back when I was amazed as the free stitching utility software that came with my Canon EOS back in the early 2000’s. Since then I have recently taken a second look at panoramic stitching software and I have to admit I was amazed how far it has come.

One package I had a good look at was the suite of tools provided by Autopano. You can find their website at www.autopano.net.

Autopano has two software packages designed for photographers that like to spend time with their cameras and not in front of a computer. The Autopano Pro 2 and Giga 2 software packages have a lot in common. I’ll start with the commonalities and then move on to the differences.

Both the Pro 2 and Gig 2 software packages were designed for those of us that are not techies. Simple screens, lots of automation and a solid user interface make for easy use of the tool. Both applications let you point to a directory and will automatically search for images that are likely a part of a panorama. From here you’ll have a chance to confirm identified panorama’s and then let your computer churn away and process the results.

Both packages also offer a batch capability. The batch rendering tool will allow you to identify panoramas and then put them into a rendering queue for processing. This means doing the final render of your panoramas won’t tie you up. You’ll still be able to work with the Autopro application while rendering is occurring in the background.

Both tools handle automatic color correction well. If for example you use Auto White Balance (AWB) and one image in your image series looks a little off color Autopano does a nice job of making a correction and ensuring your final image color looks consistent.

Both tools also incorporate the smartblend algorithm which is considered one of the best for merging images and removing ghosts.

So what are the differences in the two tools? Price. Pro 2 is 99 Euro while Giga is 199 Euro. The Giga version supports some additional features for motorized panorama heads as well. The other big difference is the inclusion of the Autopano Tour software package.

Autopano Tour included with the Giga version is a great way to make flash based virtual tours. The interface for Autopano Tour lets you drag and drop different spherical projection images and quickly link them by creating hotspots (Think url links). The end result is a flash based virtual tour. While the interface for building tours is easy to use be aware that if you are thinking you can immediately post the flash based tours on-line you’ll have to spend some additional money. The base Giga package will allow you to view your flash tours or your local computer or anyone else’s computer. If you want to post the tours on the web you’ll need an additional KRpano license. This license is 90 Euro’s for unlimited use on any domain or 30 Euro for a limited single domain license.

After a little digging I found that you could save yourself 100 Euros by buying the 99 Euro Autopano Pro 2 license and the 90 Euro KRpano license. This option means you can build virtual tours with the KRpano package using command line tools. You essentially loose the slick and easy to use Autopano Tour interface.

If you really want to save the money and build the flash tours with the KRpano software beware. To use the KRpano tool successfully I recommend that you have some web development background. Understanding a bit of HTML and Javascript is a big benefit. In short pay the extra money for Autopano Tour if you can afford it.

So how do these packages compare to others on the market? If we compare against the PTgui tool it is clear that the Autopano products were designed with the user experience in mind. The screens are more clearly laid out and logical. While PTgui gives you more technical control and allows you to better manipulate your control points the Autopano suite of tools are designed to streamline processes and making stitching easy for those that would rather stay away from the details.

For the price I think the Autopano Pro 2 product is a good buy. It is a good product if you are interested in stitching some images together to make wide angle panoramas. If you are more interested in building interactive virtual reality experiences with flash then you might really want to consider the Autopano Giga tool set. Just remember if you are posting to the web you’ll likely end up paying the 199 Euro base price plus the 79 Euro KRpano license bringing your total cost to about 280 Euros (exclusive of VAT for those of you in Europe.