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 I'm writing here about Photovista Panorama 3.0 and not about the last updated version of the program because there's no trial period for the most modern business version and my request for an evaluation copy had no answer. According to the list of features found on the iSee Media site version 3.0 is little different in performance from the last update.
The first step in PhotoVista Panorama is the most common of all - you are importing images into the program. Images can be imported both from hard disk of your computer and directly from camera. In the same dialogue window you have to reorder the photos if needed(by the way, when importing images I found them reordered every time, though the order was correct on my hard drive, there's a "sort" button, though, that puts images in the order according to their number) and chose panorama type - 2d or 3d, horizontal or vertical, or 360 degrees.
Now, with the images loaded into workspace, the next thing to do is to check the stitching settings.
And set the lens or focal length. The default setting is 35 mm but you can choose from the list of camera types and focal length values that apply to you. If your camera is not in the list, there're custom settings with the possibility to specify the focal length or field of view. The values for spherical and color correction are also set there.
It should be said that the list of cameras is rather short. And the lowest focal length is 13 mm while I had images with 7mm and 12, 8 mm focal length (fairly well stitched by other applications).
I found the more or less suitable focal length out of acceptable range experimentally by previewing the most problematic part of the future panorama. It still was not good - the program, it seems, does not tilt images, and with the last image a bit tilted it was necessary.
Apart from lens settings Image menu lets us to choose blending and autoalighning to be run or not. Once those are set or left default you press Stitch and Photvista Panorama performs it. The Process bar informs the user of what is going on at every moment.
The semi automatic results had obvious problems:
In case the result is not perfect, the already stitched panorama can be realigned manually in the workspace window and restitched again. But here, again, you cannot rotate the images by small degree.
The stitched panorama is opened in a new window at 100% zoom. From here you can crop, save, and print it or publish to internet. There are only three image formats for saving but you can simultaneously save it for web.
Overall impression of the program is somewhat irritable. PhotoVista Panorama 3.0 has quite usable, understandable, and helpful interface, good blending, and acceptable export. But the program is rather specific about focal lengths and lenses list is short. Besides, it cannot detect the lens type or focal length automatically at all. Unlike a number of programs it allows manual aligning. You can move the images with your mouse to realign them, but cannot set control point or correct the tilt.
Photovista Panorama 3.5 is available for $99,95.
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