[Bob K]

Hello, I'm going to give panoramic stitching a shot and other than reading a little about it on the web, I am starting from scratch. What's the best software to use? I'm looking at Panoramic Tools and PTAssembler, or possibly Panorama Factory. AutoPano, a program that can do the initial organization and assembly for stitching for you, also looks neat. What are some things to know as far as technique? Has anyone used any of the specialized tripod-heads? What's are the best focal-lengths/angle-of-views to use? Does anyone use the panoramic software to get high resolution pictures from their small digital cameras? (For example, ignoring the loss from overlapping pictures, if you put four 5-megapixel pictures together, you could get a 20-megapixel image.)

[Tom]

For my panos I use some old canon photostitch software. Stitches better than anything I have found online, but your mileage may vary.

[Backpacker Joe]

Here's what I use: http://www.acdsystems.com/English/index.htm Love that program. I actually like buying software when it works this good. TB

[Sore Feet]

I've heard good things about PTAssembler, but I haven't tried anything other than what comes with the Canon software. It doesn't always work accurately, but I've gotten good results when necessary.

[sooperfly]

I use Panorama Factory and Jasc Photo Album to do my stitching. I get inconsistent results with PF, but Jasc hits it every time! Very fast and easy to use. I took a ton of panos this weekend and PF is getting blurs with just about every series, no matter how I set it up. Jasc is nailing every one. http://www.jasc.com/products/photoalbum/ Check it out, try it, you might like it.

[Eric]

I use the canon software as well which is OK. I do find that I sometimes have to match up the shots manually. The only advice I would give is just try to be very careful about getting consistent exposures in mixed lighting situations. Unless you are a photoshop guru, I've found that if you have some shots of areas in panoramas that are lit and others that are dark cloudy or whatever then it can get messy when they are put near each other. I use focus set at infinity. I would presume that ideally you would want your tripod to rotate around the center of the lens which it usually doesn't. But for for large landscapes I doubt it makes much difference. If you've never checked out the vrseattle.com or seattlevr.com site or whatever the URL is then you should take a look. They have a ton of cool ones that are well done of W. WA area stuff although not really hiking type ones. Not just the cylinder panoramas but also the globe ones or cube ones where you can look all the way up or down. I bet those guys have all the ins and outs on techniques.