Online magazine Digital Outback Photo began a review of Autopano Pro. The magazine intends to follow closely the evolution of Autopano Pro and will continue its review in diary form.

Last time that Uwe Steinmueller, editor of Digital Outback Photo, used image stitching software was more than 3 years ago. After having received recommandations for Autopano Pro, he decided to put the program to the test.

What he expected from an automatic image stitching program is:
* Automatic and excellent alignment
* Color blending to produce smooth color transitions
* Automatic lens corrections
* Good projections

You can read the entire review on its dedicated web page.

The editor concludes by explaining his interest of using Autopano Pro for his future projects, and qualifies Autopano Pro as “a real ‘auto’pano tool”, “easy and fun to use”.

Read the entire review
Visit Digital Ouback Photo

Arnaud Frich and Kolor were awarded last week the 2008 Photo Innovation prize by French telecommunications company SFR (Vivendi), during the international photo meeting of Arles (France).

This prize rewards the project ‘Paris 20 Gigapixels’ that photographer Arnaud Frich and Kolor are planning to undertake this summer. Paris 20 Gigapixels will be world’s biggest image, with more than 2000 individual photos stitched together.

Here is a presentation video from SFR (in French):

A world record!

Photographer Arnaud FRICH and image stitching experts KOLOR, editor of panorama creation program Autopano Pro, announce their project to shoot Paris in a very high definition. The final image will be a stitching of more than 2000 individual photos and will have a resolution of 20 Gigapixels, that is 20 billion pixels: the biggest image of the world!

This resolution enables very exciting uses: printing on large supports (the image can be printed on a 6500 sq.ft support whilst keeping an excellent quality!) or online viewing with absolutely amazing deep zooming capabilities.

Gigapixel panoramas ? A habit for Kolor

This is not the first world record achived by Kolor and partner photographers. In August 2006, American photographer Gerard MAYNARD collaborated with Kolor to produce the world record at that time: Harlem 13 Gigapixels. You can have a look at the image and zoom in to see the smallest details of Harlem: http://www.harlem-13-gigapixels.com

Stay tuned!

The project is to be acheived during this summer. You will be able to see the image on the website www.paris-20-gigapixels.com. Visit regularly that website to learn more about the project and be among the firsts to see this beautiful image.

Kolor announces its presence at two majors international fairs:

SIGGRAPH - 12 to 14 August 2008 - Los Angeles

Siggraph is the major fair dedicated to computer imagery that targets business customers. Kolor will present its technological breakthrough and its industry-oriented services, where image stitching is a solution adapted to the needs of many fields: architects, cinema studios, cartographers, researchers, etc. It is also a good occasion to meet new partners. Should you want to meet us at Siggraph, do not hesitate to visit our booth or contact us beforehand so we can arrange a meeting.

Kolor at the Siggraph: Booth #230
Website of Siggraph

PHOTOKINA - 23 to 28 September 2008 - Cologne

Photokina is the world image fair, dedicated to both business and individual consumers. The offer presented at Photokina gathers all image industry branches. Kolor will present and demonstrate its stitching solutions dedicated to the mass market.

Kolor at Photokina : Hall 4.1 - Booth #E030
Website of Photokina

During the second meeting of Autopano Pro users, Kolor announced the new features and enhancements that will be implemented in Autopano 2.0. This major update will be released in December 2008.

Note about our update policy: if you buy Autopano Pro now or if you bought it at most one year before the release of Autopano Pro 2.0, you will be able to download the new version free of charge when it will be released in December. If you bought it more than one year before Autopano Pro 2.0 release, you will be able to acquire the new version at a special price.

So, here will be the main features of our Autopano 2.0 software range:

- Plugins architecture engine (input, output, import,…) that will enable to update some functions without having to install again the whole program
- Full multi-core detection, to make Autopano even faster
- GPU processing at every level, that will enable real-time visualization in the panorama editor, at full resolution
- Better planar mode and integration of new projections (mercator projection for example)
- New HDR engine, to perform HDR stitching efficiently
- New layout for the settings, to separate the software settings and the panorama settings
- Stacks: to group together bracketed images to handle them cleverly for detection
- Ability to create templates for the detection
- Improved bracketing detection and stitching
- Direct support of motorized panoramic heads (like Gigapan, Rodeon, Pixorb, Merlin)
- Flash export with edition of hotspots and lens flare, in collaboration with KRPano, and collaboration to enhance KRPano Flash panorama viewer. You will now be able to export VR panoramas, small size landscapes as well as gigapixel panoramas directly in Autopano in a Flash format.

Autopano software range will include 2 versions:
- Autopano Pro, our existing program, for casual users, amateur photographers, landscape photographers, etc. Unchanged price: 99 euros.
- Autopano Giga, for professional needs and big work flows. Price: 199 euros.

The exact feature list of each version will be provided on July 10th, 2008.

Our development plan:
- Alpha series (alpha means that all features are not implemented yet): July 10th, September, October.
- Beta series: October, November.

Release date of Autopano 2.0 is planned for December 2008.

The video introducing Autopano 2.0 will be available on this page very soon.

Pat St. Clair, professional photographer and editor for online magazine VRMag, specialized in panorama and virtual reality, carried out a review of Autopano Pro. In a detailled article, he describes how he worked with Autopano Pro and gives examples of panoramas stitched with the program.

Looking over many features of Autopano Pro, Pat St. Clair shows how to create a panorama with the program. He highlights some interesting aspects of the software: ability to drag and drop photos on the program window and order the images automatically, working with RAW images, the vertical lines correction, the Smartblend ghost remover, the ability to shoot hand held with confidence, etc.

He also used Cubic Converter to create virtual tours with spherical panoramas stitched with Autopano Pro.

Read the entire review

Good news! Autopano Pro users organize for the second time an informal meeting about panoramic photography.
It is the occasion to meet each others and take part in thematic workshops and conferences.
The meeting is to be held during a week-end, but participants wishing to come only one day can do so.

This meeting will take place on June 14th and 15th in Gracay, near Bourges (France). The place has been chosen regarding the beautiful stuff to be shot in Gracay surroundings, and because it is close to train and road infrastructures.

On Saturday, a photo outing is planned to discover Gracay, its photography museum, Bourges and interesting things between Graçay and Bourges.

On Sunday, workshops and conferences about panoramic photography.

This event is organized by French Autopano Pro users but it is of course open to any user, no matter what country he/she comes from! If you are interested in taking part in this event, please contact us before May, 15th and we will transmit your participation to the event organizer. If you are happy with French language, you can also read this page.

As we announced it a few weeks ago, we dedicate today an article to the new book of French photographer Bertrand Bodin: “Vauban, les sites majeurs”. This book comes after a first one released last year: “Briançon, Vauban et son empreinte”.

Vauban (1633-1707) was the most important military engineer of his age. He designed new types of fortifications and advised Louis XIV on how to make France’s borders safer and more defensible. Find out more about Vauban on Wikipedia.

This book has been ordered by the Vauban association, to support the candidature of the 14 major Vauban works to be listed as Unesco World Heritage sites. Bertrand Bodin had to work quickly: “It was an urgent order, since I only had 6 month to seal the project, including the publishing. If you consider that the 14 sites to be shot are located everywhere on the French territory, you can better estimate the challenge this project represented!” told Bertrand Bodin to journalist Nicolas Mériau (Image & Nature magazine n°13).

From a technical point of view, Bertrand Bodin used a Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II with a 16 million pixels sensor and a wide-angle lenses, like the EF 15mm f/2.8 fisheye. Many photos of the book are stitched images. The photographer used the program Autopano Pro to stitch the images: “This program is by far better than the others. I have been working for a long time with Stitcher and PTGui and I could make the difference. One of Autopano Pro’s strengths is to be able to create panoramic images from photos shot with different focal distances: a 15mm with a 24mm, a 20mm with a 35mm, etc. What’s more, it corrects very well fisheye distortions. And, despite its advanced functionalities, it remains very easy to use”.

To find out more about Bertrand Bodin, you can visit his website.