If, like
me, you have ever watched those forensic scientist
on the TV, where they get a photograph and someone
spots something small in the background, so they
zoom in to a specific spot and it re-focusses, and
you sit there envying them and wish you had
software that did that. Well, I have that software
now, and you can have it as well. It's called
PhotoZoom Pro 2 (2.1.4 now). And best of all, it's
Shareware, so you can try it before splashing out
any money! Although I can't imagine anyone who has
tried this program, not wanting to buy it straight
away. PhotoZoom Pro 2 is developed by BenVista, and
it's available for the Mac and Windows, although
this review is of the Mac version, I do understand
the Windows version works exactly the same.
So I thought I'd put it to the test. I opened up a photo of a large wedding group and zoomed in on a figure at the back. I enlarged it several times, by the time it filled half the screen I could see exactly who it was. The zoomed section was very clean and clear. I've never been able to do that before. I then selected a photo, from my collection on the computer from a resent visit to the local zoo. It's of a Parrot on a perch. The original uncompressed size of the photo is 22.86 MB, (5.11 MB compressed as JPEG) with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. (34 x 25.5 inches). I selected one of the Parrots eye's and cropped it. The size of this eye was now 1,02 x 0.88 inches (102 x 88 pixels). I then enlarged this picture to a massive 10 x 8.5 inches (1002 x 864 pixels) and was amazed to see the picture being re-focused, and the pixel count being increased, at every stage. I then printed this picture and was very impressed. The end result was nearly as good as it would have been if I had taken the photo using a super powerful zoom lens, but I don't know of a lens quite that powerful.
I will certainly be putting PhotoZoom Pro 2 to a lot of use. This program does things that Apple's Aperture, and Adobe's Photoshop can't do. In fact, if you have Photoshop, PhotoZoom Pro 2 comes with a plug-in, so you can use it from within Photoshop, Wow!
So I thought I'd put it to the test. I opened up a photo of a large wedding group and zoomed in on a figure at the back. I enlarged it several times, by the time it filled half the screen I could see exactly who it was. The zoomed section was very clean and clear. I've never been able to do that before. I then selected a photo, from my collection on the computer from a resent visit to the local zoo. It's of a Parrot on a perch. The original uncompressed size of the photo is 22.86 MB, (5.11 MB compressed as JPEG) with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 pixels. (34 x 25.5 inches). I selected one of the Parrots eye's and cropped it. The size of this eye was now 1,02 x 0.88 inches (102 x 88 pixels). I then enlarged this picture to a massive 10 x 8.5 inches (1002 x 864 pixels) and was amazed to see the picture being re-focused, and the pixel count being increased, at every stage. I then printed this picture and was very impressed. The end result was nearly as good as it would have been if I had taken the photo using a super powerful zoom lens, but I don't know of a lens quite that powerful.
I will certainly be putting PhotoZoom Pro 2 to a lot of use. This program does things that Apple's Aperture, and Adobe's Photoshop can't do. In fact, if you have Photoshop, PhotoZoom Pro 2 comes with a plug-in, so you can use it from within Photoshop, Wow!
Benvista PhotoZoom Pro 2.0 Review