CombineZP vs Shine Stacker

CombineZP is a Windows focus-stacking program that combines focused regions from multiple photographs into an image with greater depth of field. Its documented methods include Do Stack and Pyramid Maximum Contrast. It provides quick and thorough image alignment, with rotation correction in thorough alignment. Batch processing can stack images, and users can adjust memory use for image sets that demand more from the computer. Macro parameters are editable for additional control over close-up stacking. JPEG is the documented output format. The program is free and the repository identifies its license as GPL-3.0. The repository preserves code originally created by Alan Hadley and shared under the GPL; it contains CombineZ5 and combineZP directories, a README, a license file, and an installer. The README refers to a compiled Windows x86 version 1.0, updated January 27, 2012, in a file named combinezp.msi. The repository says it is kept for posterity, lists no published releases, and a microscopy tools page describes the software as not maintained. Windows is the listed platform; a third-party microscopy tools page also says it works with Wine on Linux.

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.