CombineZ5

Note: You are strongly recommended to use CombineZM if you are running Windows XP or Me or larter as I have stopped maintaining CombineZ5.

Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/combinez may be useful if you get stuck or want more info.

Several people have allowed me to test the program on their 'difficult' stacks, these have prompted me to add several new functions, and improve existing ones. To ensure that all of the examples below work properly, and for the latest bug fixes make sure you have the latest version of the .exe file listed below.

Introduction and Examples

Here is a simple three Frame Stack presented as an Animated Gif. It is of a Weevil, and is one of my very first stacks, taken when CombineZ was just an idea.

You'll notice that it consists of three pictures each focusing on a different part of the scene. Sorry my pictures aren't as eyecatching as some of those produced by others they were just taken with a Web cam, or in this case a Board Camera and Frame Grabber.

Now this is the important part with the correct processing these three Frames can be combined into a single picture with increased depth of focus.

Getting Started

Problems Will Occur (November 12th, 2005)
Another example added.

Current Status

I am not going to develop this version any further, just fix bugs as people find them. I am starting work on the next version CombineZM, please take a look and let me know what you think.

If you find any bugs in the program please let me know, Check the date in the About Box against that below to see if you have the latest bug-fixed version.

Here is the .exe file: CombineZ5.exe (February 17th, 2006)
I have fixed a bug that produced odd artifacts when there was a large area with little detail. And a behavioral oddity when using the 'Go to Frame dialog (f3 key).

Remember if you do not have fftw3.dll you will need it:
This is a different version (June 25th, 2005) as the other behaved badly with some picture sizes.
Fftw3.zip More information about this can be found here.

And if you are running an older version of windows you will need:
Gdiplus.zip

(For those without WinZip or similar here are the original .dll files from above, they are of course larger. gdiplus.dll and fftw3.dll)

This software is released under a GNU public license. You may use and modify the code under the terms of this license, but please let me know if there are any changes you would like to appear in the 'Official' version.

The formal part of the manual is almost complete. I will add examples and pictures as time permits.

Introduction and Acknowledgements

CombineZ5 Installation and Files

The Standard Macros

Comparison with CombineZ4

Navigating the Stack

Navigating a Frame

Saving Files and an introduction to Rectangles

Preparation of the Frames for Stacking

Introduction to Stacking

Frames

Rectangles