Microsoft Image Composite Editor

Last night (I think because it was Friday and I didn't feel like doing anything else) I went on a mission to find a good panorama creator.  I've used PanaVue (from 2000) in the past but it's slow and clunky and a manual process to line up pixels.  So thought there must be a better way.  A quick LifeHacker search later led me to Microsoft Image Composite Editor.

And it just works!

You drag images you want to merge into it, and it automagically creates panoramas with no fuss and does a pretty decent job of it too (except with water - where it sort of draws a straight line down where it can't match.  This could maybe be done better by trying to smoosh the water a bit, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not too bad).

In a few hours I created 33 panoramas from pictures taken mostly this year, and 53 from our Europe trip.  

This morning I did 17 from our Japan trip.  The best ones of these are on the Japan blog. Check them out!

More will end up on conspiracy eventually, but here's one from our Melbourne trip.

Yarra River Panorama