Stacker Software

I download Trial Zerene Stacker software to try out. The result is good; but it is so slow. To analyze and process 1 image took 5-10 min. What did I do wrong? it's not the computer. I have no problem with other programs such as Photomatix, PtGui, Topaz etc. Is there any other stacker software besides Zerene? I would like to try and compare the processing time.

eaglesnest wrote in post #13328641
I download Trial Zerene Stacker software to try out. The result is good; but it is so slow. To analyze and process 1 image took 5-10 min. What did I do wrong? it's not the computer. I have no problem with other programs such as Photomatix, PtGui, Topaz etc. Is there any other stacker software besides Zerene? I would like to try and compare the processing time.

Stacking software does take some time to go through the images depending on how many and how large they are.
Another one to try is helicon focus.
Brian V.

5 minutes is not very slow, as Brian pointed out, it can sometimes take some time. 10 minutes could be, if you are trying to stack only a few images, but it would not be slow if you are going for a deep stack of a high amount of frames.

I was under the impression that Zerene is on the "fast" side as far as stacking goes. I do not think changing program will make a difference.

Not sure if that would make a difference, but I think you can decide how much memory of your computer you let Zerene use. Maybe that might be a problem if the allocated memory is too small?

How many images were you trying to stack?

Martin

Martin G. wrote in post #13329754
5 minutes is not very slow, as Brian pointed out, it can sometimes take some time. 10 minutes could be, if you are trying to stack only a few images, but it would not be slow if you are going for a deep stack of a high amount of frames.

I was under the impression that Zerene is on the "fast" side as far as stacking goes. I do not think changing program will make a difference.

Not sure if that would make a difference, but I think you can decide how much memory of your computer you let Zerene use. Maybe that might be a problem if the allocated memory is too small?

How many images were you trying to stack?

Martin

Hi Martin,
How can I check what's the allocated memory given to Zerene?
I try to stack between 6-15 images.
What I mean by taking 5-8 minutes for analyzing and processing is for 1 image only, and not for the whole stack.

Thanks

go in "preferences" and than "memory usage", mine is set 4605 megabytes allocated for Zerene.

yes, it would appear long, I thought you meant for the whole stack.

not sure if it will make a difference, but try to modify this setting first and see what it does.

Martin

Martin G. wrote in post #13330016
go in "preferences" and than "memory usage", mine is set 4605 megabytes allocated for Zerene.

yes, it would appear long, I thought you meant for the whole stack.

not sure if it will make a difference, but try to modify this setting first and see what it does.

Martin

* Does it mean that you have 4 Gigs RAM on your computer? I only have 2 Gigs. That might be the reason.
I tried to stack using CS5, but the result is rather poor compare to Zerene.

I have 6 gig in total

Maybe e-mail Rik, the designer of the program, he would be the best person to answer your questions and if it would actually make a difference. He is very helpful and always take time to help.

Martin

Just to close out this problem and maybe help future readers...

The slowness was due to excessive paging caused by a memory management issue. Basically the user's computer had less physical memory free for use than is typical with 2 GB installed. The problem was straightforward to fix by adjusting the Zerene Stacker settings at Options > Preferences > Memory Usage.

Martin, thanks for the suggestion to contact me. That's always good advice when people see odd behavior with Zerene Stacker. I can't monitor all the forums where ZS is discussed, but I do respond promptly and thoroughly to any issues that I find out about. Email sent to upport@zerenesystems.c​om always comes to my personal attention.

Best regards,
Rik Littlefield
Zerene Systems

eaglesnest wrote in post #13328641
I download Trial Zerene Stacker software to try out. The result is good; but it is so slow. To analyze and process 1 image took 5-10 min. What did I do wrong? it's not the computer. I have no problem with other programs such as Photomatix, PtGui, Topaz etc. Is there any other stacker software besides Zerene? I would like to try and compare the processing time.

Suggest trying Helicon Focus.