ChimpStackr vs Shine Stacker

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.

Shine Stacker combines images captured at different focus distances to produce images with extended depth of field. It is intended for microscopy, macro photography, and computational imaging. The software offers Laplacian pyramid and depth map stacking methods, with automatic alignment, color or luminosity balancing, noisy pixel masking, vignetting correction, and final filters. For retouching, users can select details from individual frames to address dust, ghosts, and artifacts. Batch workflows can divide many frames into smaller groups before merging them into one focused image. Python batch processing and Jupyter notebook scripting are supported. Shine Stacker supports RAW files and lists TIFF, JPEG, and multilayer TIFF as output formats. It is open source under the LGPL-3.0 license and free to download. The listed platforms are Windows, macOS, Linux, and API. The maker offers a GitHub download and Python installation through PyPI with pip.