Short Summary: The Notes of Cliff

• Autopano Giga Kolor
• Kolor Autopano Pro
• Autopano Pro Crack Windows
• Autopano Pro Mac

Autopano Video Pro is a video-stitching tool for Windows OS. This app allows you to create high end 360 videos that will impress all the viewers no matter where the video is played: Kolor Eyes, classic video player or virtual reality headset. Autopano Video also allows you to create videos that are compatible with Youtube 360. Autopano Pro is an image editing and enhancing tool noted for its ability to unite photos taken from the same location, allowing the user to take panoramic photos without the need for a specialized camera. Its operation is simple.

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To make it clear, I wrote this after testing out the trial version of Kolor Autopano Pro, haven't purchased it yet, but there's a reasonably good chance I will. Anyway, went shopping for panorama stitching software and after an hour or more of googling, I narrowed it down to two options: Kolor Autopano Pro and another one I won't name. Both programs had trial versions available and I gave them a shot on my laptop. Autopano worked out really well and the other didn't.
How I used to Stitch Images Together
Stitching panoramas together isn't something I'm unfamiliar with. A few jobs ago, I spent hours stitching maps and other images together manually with stuff like Microsoft PowerPoint and Paint. It took a lot of time, but it worked and more importantly, I got paid for it -- thank you, tool that makes a color transparent when working with overlapping images. Having done that before, the idea of doing it manually again in large quantities as part of a regular workflow just didn't seem appealing. And I had heard about Adobe Photoshop having a built-in panorama feature, so it seemed like a good idea to look into it. A couple minutes into looking at Photoshop, it made no sense to pay for all the advanced features that I would never use. That made Photoshop a relatively quick 'no.'

Kolor Autopano Pro

An unnamed panorama program: January 2018-ish version
Removing Photshop as an option narrowed it down to two choices for me: Kolor Autopano Pro and something else. The other program was cheaper, so I tried it out first. What followed was a not so great experience that was even worse in retrospect. Downloading the trial, installing, and opening up this other program was simple enough. It was intuitive enough that I figured out what to do without a manual and produced my first panorama -- I didn't want to waste time learning something in depth that I had a good chance of never using again.
This first panorama consisted of eight images with a lot of areas that were just one color, so this may have been a reason why my experience wasn't great. The GUI looked clean and simple to me, and I managed to import my images without issue. Trying to stitch them together was where I first ran into trouble. The crop factor or sensor size of my camera was, apparently, an important input and I had no clue what it was -- not a standard DSLR-type camera like APS-C or full frame. It probably took me over an hour to look up the camera's manual, google for it, and finally give up by learning to calculate it. Today I learned that there's a relationship between the Field of View (FOV) and sensor size using a relatively simple equation involving ATAN in radians. But before I did this calculation, I tried to guestimate the sensor size -- spoiler alert, the panorama didn't turn out.
After guestimating the sensor size, the program tried to stitch everything together with no success: it couldn't find enough control points. To be more specific, it only found control points between two images, none for the rest. That meant having to draw in a couple control points per image with my touchpad since I was on my laptop with no mouse. The control point adding system was very intuitive and even fun -- probably wouldn't be after the first few projects. That took less than half an hour and I got to the point that I could try creating a panorama again. The first attempt produced gibberish and made a 'star' -- how a young child draws a star starting with two crossed lines.
I slept on that and tried again with what should have been the correct crop factor or sensor size. It couldn't detect enough control points again, I drew them all in again, and the program produced a very nice panorama. Exactly what I wanted, just took a lot longer. My second attempt with a different set of images resulted in the same problem of not finding enough control points. I didn't bother going any further this time because I had tried Kolor Autopano by then.

Autopano Pro Crack Windows

Kolor Autopano Pro: January 2018-ish version
This was after my experience with the other panorama program so maybe my experience was affected by that. Anyway, I launched Kolor Autopano Pro, took a minute to look through the menus and find the image selection button. The images I wanted to stitch together, the exact same first batch I did with the other program, were imported, then I clicked a button that looked like it would 'panorama' it for me. A couple seconds later and I had an exceptional preview image of the panorama. It auto-detected everything -- no need to enter a sensor size or crop factor, no drawing my own control points. I then tried a second batch of photos, the same second batch in the other program that failed, and again, success with virtually no input from me. This was exactly how I thought these programs would work. It found all the control points it needed on its own, and I didn't have to manually enter a sensor size or crop factor. If I end up buying Autopano, it'll take some time to learn the menu system inside-out though.
Wrapping it up

Autopano Pro Mac

In total, I probably spent an hour or two trying to use the other program and less than an hour with Kolor Autopano Pro -- obviously very very little time. Hopefully, I'll get to learn Autopano in more detail in the next while. There was a pretty big difference in performance in my experience, however. One required me to do a lot of manual work, the other was near instant. Maybe it was because of the images I was using, but I tried the same two batches of images on both programs. Autopano worked both times, the other program did not both times. The price difference was only about 25% between the two.