ChimpStackr vs PlaneFuse

ChimpStackr is a free, open-source application for focus stacking, with graphical and headless command-line interfaces. It offers Laplacian Pyramid, Weighted Average, Depth Map, and Exposure Fusion methods. Automatic alignment supports translation, Euclidean rotation, similarity rotation and scale, and affine correction. Its 16-bit pipeline preserves bit depth from RAW input to output, and automatic cropping removes black edges caused by alignment shifts. Users can drag image files or folders into the app, compare input and output with a slider, and pause, resume, or cancel long-running stacks. Auto-tuning detects parameters from image resolution. Downloads are listed for Windows as a ZIP, macOS as a DMG, and Linux x86-64 as an AppImage; TIFF and PNG are listed output formats, and RAW files are supported. The project uses the GPL-3.0 license. Exposure Fusion is described for images with varying exposure or lighting, rather than focus stacking. Building from source requires Python 3.9–3.13, and builds can only be made for the current platform.

PlaneFuse is free focus-stacking software for macro, product, and landscape photography. It combines frames captured at different focus distances using PMax, DMap, weighted average, or Slab methods. Alignment options include translation, similarity, and perspective; it can reject poorly aligned frames and thin redundant brackets. For RAW stacks, it fuses frames from the same camera and sensor mode in scene-linear RGB and exports a re-editable Linear DNG. The process requires irreversible demosaicing. Its local browser workspace has deep zoom, source and result comparisons, a live histogram, and a reorderable job queue. Non-destructive retouching can work with source frames or results; exports include TIFF, PNG, JPEG, Linear DNG, and depth maps. NVIDIA CUDA and Apple MPS acceleration are supported, with CPU fallback and tiled processing if GPU memory runs out. PlaneFuse also offers command-line and local HTTP and WebSocket interfaces for scripting and batch work. Processing stays on the computer without uploading photos. The software is free for personal and commercial use; initial setup requires Node.js and uv.