Is there a Windows panorama stitching package that can stitch RAW files?

Question

Is there any tool for stitching Panoramas from multiple CR2 files from my Canon EOS 1200D? I'd prefer any free or open source tools, but paid software should be fine too. I have tried multiple software, but none of them recognize CR2 or DNG files. I've tried Canon's Photostitch, Hugin, Panorama perfect lite, Microsoft ICE, Autostitch, and a whole bunch of other software, but none of them seem to work. Photoshop CC can stitch DNGs I think, but it takes too much of memory, crashes often (my computer has only 8 gigs of RAM), and doesn't blend the exposures of the images. Are there any good tools that I can use to merge CR2 files into a panorama?

Answer 1

Stitching RAW files is problematic. In order to get a good stitch you ideally want to correct vignetting and distortion first, something that you would do in your RAW converter, then just output TIFFs of a smaller size (no need for full size when combining multiple files usually) and things will be both quicker and more accurate.

Answer 2

PTGui can stitch RAW and DNG images as input. However, remember RAW files do not contain any editing adjustments (such as CA correction, noise reduction, or vignetting correction), so there's not a lot of advantage to be had by going this route, rather than converting your RAWs to TIFFs, and then stitching the TIFFs.

See also: Are there any open source programs that can use RAW for stitching photos?

Answer 3

I'd like to add that after I had asked this question, Adobe Lightroom CC 2015 added a panorama merge feature that can directly take raw files (I tested Canon's CR2 format), stitch them into a panorama that's then output as a DNG file. This was exactly what I was looking for, and I've been using this extensively since it was released.

Answer 4

Panorama maker from Arcsoft - This recognises Canon RAW (.CR2) and also .TIFF.

Please note, it only exports to the following formats.

WINDOWS - JPEG, TIF, BMP, TGA, MOV, SWF, PTViewer

MAC - TIFF, JPEG, JPEG-2000, HTML

On the Windows version it will recognise JPG, JPEG, TIFF, TIF, RAW (Adobe DNG (.DNG), Canon Camera RAW File (.CRW;.CR2), Epson RAW Format (.ERF), Fuji RAW File (.RAF), Kodak Digital Camera RAW File (.DCR;.KDC), Konica Minolta RAW File (.MRW), Mamiya Electronic Format (.MEF), Nikon Camera RAW File (.NEF), Olympus RAW File (.ORF), Panasonic Camera RAW File (.RAW,.RW2), Pentax RAW File (.PEF), Sigma RAW Format (.X3F), Sony RAW Format (.ARW;.SR2;.SRF)

On the Mac Version it will recognise JPG, JPEG, TIFF, TIF, RAW (Adobe DNG (.DNG), Canon Camera RAW File (.CRW;.CR2), Epson RAW Format (.ERF), Fuji RAW File (.RAF), Kodak RAW File (.DCR), Konica Minolta RAW File (.MRW), Leafamerica RAW File (.MOS), Nikon Camera RAW File (.NEF), Olympus RAW File (.ORF), Panasonic Camera RAW File (.RAW), Pentax RAW File (.PEF), Sony RAW Format (.ARW;.SRF),Leica RAW Format (.RAW),Hasselblad RAW Format (.3FR)

Check out http://www.arcsoft.com/panorama-maker/

Answer 5

You could use dcraw to convert raw files to "raw" tiff files that only contain the raw data using the command "dcraw -D filename". The stitching then needs to be done by taking into account the Bayer pattern. This means that you must extract from each tiff file the pixels that belong to each of 3 color channels. You can use programs such as ImageJ, you do need to write a small macro that will do the job. The next step is then to use Hugin to stitch the raw tiffs for each color channel together. You then take the 3 tiffs and then compile the stiched "raw" tiff file by arranging the pixels from the 3 tiffs into a Bayer pattern. Although, it may be more convenient to just keep the 3 tiffs for each color channel and do the demosaicing using these 3 separate files.

Answer 6

Affinity Photo allows you to create panoramic images (photo stitching) using raw files without having to convert them to any other format first.