Panoramas - is this my only option now?

[ajreed]

Have XX5 (and as far as I can see PGD6 is the same) and the panorama stitch feature is limited to 6 photos . Tried 7 and it tells me to upgrade to an enhanced panoramic feature, so I click "Tell me more" and get directed to the Magix web site and shown a program called "PanoramaStudio2.0" powered by TSHsoft.com - .

But here's the sting - it costs £28

My upgrade to PGD6 from XX5 will cost only £1 more

Is this now (since Magix took over) the only way to enhance the basic XX5 panorama features?

And am I also right in thinking PGD6 panorama stitching is the same as XX5, and that with PGD6 I will still only have the same enhance route using the Magix offerring?

[Big Frank]

Download ICE (Image Composite Editor) from Microsoft Research:

• it's available in 32 and 64 bit versions
• it's completely free
• you can insert as many photos as you like
• your images can be landscape or portrait in the same batch
• export to loads of different formats
• loads more features...

Get it from here

[RichH]

Panorama Studio 2 comes with Xara Designer Pro 6. Just work your way through the "Xara" item "Programs" sub-menu you see when you press XP's "Start" button (or what ever the Vista/Windows 7 equivalents are).

[steve.ledger]

ICE is cool Thanks for the link Frank.

[ajreed]

I think a thank you is in order - he says tentatively - because at the moment I am having probs.

D/L ICE quickly enough, but when run it tells be I need the .net framework whatever that is, and at the moment thats proving painful. Maybe its a bad time for MS but I'm getting a d/l speed of around 4kB which on my net connection of 2.5mB is pretty abyssmal, predicts a total time of over 2 hours, so will try later. Will let you know how I get on.

[ss-kalm]

Rich,

I don't think Alan is intending to upgrade to Pro

[ss-kalm]

ICE is cool Thanks for the link Frank.

Agreed .... Looks like a fantastic piece of software.

[pauland]

ICE looks good - I usually skip the licence terms, but took a look this time - non-commercial use only - which is fair enough, particularly for the holiday snaps!

[gnurf]

My personal favorite has always been autostitch (http://cvlab.epfl.ch/~brown/autostitch/autostitch.html)

Only drawback is that the free version only saves in JPG format

The best thing is that you just load your photos and Autostitch do the rest (no need to reorder or position the pics)

[steve.ledger]

The best thing is that you just load your photos and Autostitch do the rest (no need to reorder or position the pics)

ICE does the same. All you need to do is drop in a bunch of pics.
Does an amazing job.