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Stitching multiple 40MP files - computer 'grunt' required

G

gimlor

Guest
Ed HUrst said:
Hey guys - thanks for all the suggestions and ideas.

I shall certainly use 8 bit files if I need to (with my current CS3 set up and its lack of access to RAM, that made no difference with 23 files, but maybe it could allow me to do it with CS5 and about 15gb of RAM, if it won't do it with 16 bit files). As for doing the stitching in sections, see my notes on this above - I have found that doing this messes up the perspective in a complicated way that is hard to fix later; it creates 'bowing' around the centre of each of the frames I create as an intermediate step which then means that the overall file at the end has a strange set of multiple distortions (if you know what I mean). I am hoping to be able to do the thing in one go and avoid this problem; I know there will still be distortion, but am hoping it will be a single sweep of distortion that can be more easily fixed. Do you know if doing it in one go achieves this (i.e. simpler distortion compared to the multiple distortions that occur with doing the files in stages)?

Thanks also for the idea about enabling 3D hardware (GPU) support. I do have a good card, so will try this (though I have read conflicting accounts of whether this actually helps or not)...

Once I get CS5 installed, and perhaps more RAM (if needed), I will report back!

Ed
Click to expand...
Np, i'm curious to hear back from you as i never did something like that myself :) Btw, most modern GPUs beat any normal CPU when it comes to math operations so that is what i'm hoping will speed things up. (assuming CS5 can work in full mode with the card you have)
 
P

Professional

Active member
I don't have a modern Mac, but if i am looking to buy a new Mac computer for photos processing and stitching, what specifications i should look at? Minimum or standard[can't go for maximum as it will cost too much, so will keep minimum or average and will upgrade things later if it is upgradable].
 
C

Christopher

Active member
It depends how much you want to spent. You could probably go as low as 1000EUR for a very fast pc, and go till 10000EURs. For a MAC I would say you have to ad around 10-30% of costs to get the same performance. From a PC stand point I would go for a fast quad-core, 16GB of RAM, a SSD as OS drive and the other stuff as you need. You can save a lot on the graphic card, or waste a lot of money. If by any chance Adobe or any other company would start to use the graphic card, you can still upgrade later.
 
C

Christopher

Active member
gimlor said:
Np, i'm curious to hear back from you as i never did something like that myself :) Btw, most modern GPUs beat any normal CPU when it comes to math operations so that is what i'm hoping will speed things up. (assuming CS5 can work in full mode with the card you have)
Click to expand...
CS5 uses the GPU only for minor things. There isn't a real speed difference whether you use a 100eur card or a 5000eur card. Sadly but true.
 
P

Professional

Active member
Christopher said:
It depends how much you want to spent. You could probably go as low as 1000EUR for a very fast pc, and go till 10000EURs. For a MAC I would say you have to ad around 10-30% of costs to get the same performance. From a PC stand point I would go for a fast quad-core, 16GB of RAM, a SSD as OS drive and the other stuff as you need. You can save a lot on the graphic card, or waste a lot of money. If by any chance Adobe or any other company would start to use the graphic card, you can still upgrade later.
Click to expand...
Christopher said:
CS5 uses the GPU only for minor things. There isn't a real speed difference whether you use a 100eur card or a 5000eur card. Sadly but true.
Click to expand...
I know it depends on budget, but i was thinking what is the minimum i should go with, i may buy a Mac computer and then find out that it is even not at minimum requirements, sure i will go with specifications more than my current Macs i have already, but as i said, i can't spend too much money as i am not lucky as most people here, and i said that i may upgrade later, so if i go with 8GB or 16GB i can upgrade to 32 in the future, this is what the salesman told me last time i checked Mac system, also now sure what Processor i should go with, 8-core, 6? 12? i5? i100? and Graphics card, what is the story behind it? I really can't understand why one GC can be better or worse than another even if they both in same memory buffer or size or whatever, i think the most important thing i need the computer for is if i will stitch large files from MF or even 35mm DSLRs.
 
C

Christopher

Active member
Ok here we go. I assume you are interested in Mac Pro. Here is the problem. You are really limited. There are only 2 main choices. A single CPU or dual CPU computer. The difference between both besides the CPU count is, that the single CPU can have up to 32GB if RAM and the other can have up to 64GB. Both use Intel Xeon models. You can't have a i5 or i7. I would say there isn't a big need fot 32GB of RAM.

Just an example: to get 16Gb of RAM out of 4 slots it would cost around 100US, however if you wanted to use only 2 (so that later you can go to 32GB) it would already cost you around 400US. (Same quality of Memory)

The most important point if you want to save money, but have to get a MAC is, buy it nearly empty and upgrade it. You will save so much money.

Here are a few numbers. To go from 3 to 16Gb of RAM Apple charges 775US. If you find somebody to do it it shouldn't be more than 200US.

A 2TB HD costs 300 with apple, the drive alone is around 140-200US

So to summarize:
As I said I would go for a fast quad-core, 16GB of RAM, a SSD as OS drive.
 
P

Professional

Active member
Christopher said:
Ok here we go. I assume you are interested in Mac Pro. Here is the problem. You are really limited. There are only 2 main choices. A single CPU or dual CPU computer. The difference between both besides the CPU count is, that the single CPU can have up to 32GB if RAM and the other can have up to 64GB. Both use Intel Xeon models. You can't have a i5 or i7. I would say there isn't a big need fot 32GB of RAM.

Just an example: to get 16Gb of RAM out of 4 slots it would cost around 100US, however if you wanted to use only 2 (so that later you can go to 32GB) it would already cost you around 400US. (Same quality of Memory)

The most important point if you want to save money, but have to get a MAC is, buy it nearly empty and upgrade it. You will save so much money.

Here are a few numbers. To go from 3 to 16Gb of RAM Apple charges 775US. If you find somebody to do it it shouldn't be more than 200US.

A 2TB HD costs 300 with apple, the drive alone is around 140-200US

So to summarize:
As I said I would go for a fast quad-core, 16GB of RAM, a SSD as OS drive.
Click to expand...
Yes, i will buy a Mac Pro.

Well, i was thinking to have a budget mostly about $2000 for that Mac Pro, i can add few more bucks if needed, but not too much like $3000 and above.
 
Guy Mancuso

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Buy everything outside of Apple for sure. OWC pretty much has everything you need and I would get your ram there and I do use there SSD drives also. So always buy from Apple the most you can buy with regards to processors since you can't change or add later.
 
etrigan63

etrigan63

Active member
+1 to Guy's suggestion about OWC (http://www.macsales.com) and I will add that their RAM is guaranteed for life. I had a couple of sticks of 2GB RAM get a bit wonky after upgrading to OS X Lion and they swapped them out no problem. I bought this RAM in 2008. My suggestion is to order a Mac Pro with the CPU horsepower and video card you need. Then go to OWC to bump up the RAM. SATA hard drives are super simple to install on a Mac Pro and you can pick those up cheap at CompUSA/TigerDirect if you are in the USA.
 
C

Christopher

Active member
Sorry but you want to spend around 2000-3000 and get 8 or 12 cores ? The 8 core, which has 2 Quad core CPUs, will cost around 3500 without any extras and the 12 core starts at 5000US.
 
P

Professional

Active member
I was talking about 6-core, but if i will go with 8-core as final decision then i will put minimum $3000+, i found a Mac Pro 8-core with good specifications around $3200, i may get it around $3000, no rush.
 
M

mrenters

New member
I've stitched panoramas with 8 to 12 frames from a P65+ (60 megapixel, 16bit TIFFs) on a 2009 quad-core 2.66 MacPro with 16GB on CS5 without any performance issues. I just re-ran an 8 frame panorama and it took about 7 minutes in CS5.

The other program you should consider is PTgui. I ended up using it for the final stitched image because CS5 left an odd grid in an area of the image which PTgui didn't.

If you've only got one panorama to do, just leave it run overnight.

Martin
 
gogopix

gogopix

Subscriber
I woill also endorse PTGui. It is based on Pano Tools, a very sophisticated pano app developed in academia, and the interface has really improved. I've tried a half dozen and PTGui seems the best, esp for IQ

Victor
 
P

Professional

Active member
I bought PTGui so i will use it definitely, no point i buy it and not use it at all, and i tested it beside PS, PTGui won my vote, i have another software but i didn't test it yet [pano giga or something similar, gigapan maybe].
 
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