Many skins deal with Panoramics very well (I use Chameleon), and occasionally the actual panoramic software is discussed. I have been experimenting recently and though I'd feed back some thoughts etc.

I have always used the free, standard stitching software that came with my Canon digital cameras, PhotoStitch (v3.1 @ December 2006). This performs quite well, generally, is relatively quick and simple to use. It is totally automatic, so you have no control over the actual stitching points. Recent problems highlighted this fact, so I had to look for something better ….

I trawled the net and played with a number of offerings, free and not-so-free. If you are serious about creating Panoramics, I recommend looking at [url=http://www.panavue.com/specials/en/photo_montage_software/default.htm]PanaVue ImageAssembler[/url] (v3.5 @ August 2007). For hand-held panoramics, you must go for the Professional version, so it ain't cheap, for sure. However, you get an automatic mode that works great for most cases, and total control if required for problem panoramics (or if you really want to get a top-quality panoramic).

Of course, it all depends on the source images in the first place, but that's another story.

For a few examples of what I have been trying to do, please see Panoramics

Mark

Yes, I looked at it some time ago and did not get any better results than using Canon's PhotoStitch.


Then my advice is stick with it! It gives very good results considering its simplicity.

Mark

Yes, Microsoft ICE does a fantastic job of stitching images. You can use 2-10 shot in a horizontal circle with say 30% overlap, or do as I do to create 360 degree panoramas that are displayed on 360cities.net. (http://www.360cities.net/profile/nc-chap)

For regular display of part of the image, just export the assembled image as a jpg, and crop it as desired with photoshop/gimp etc.

Yes, ICE works only on windows, but it's a lot easier to use than e.g. Hugin or Panotools.