Photovista is a powerful piece of software that can produce stunning 360 degree panoramas for internet use with the minimum of time and effort.

The program uses algorithms to stitch together a series of photographs into a seamless panorama which can then export onto any website. Photographs can be scanned in or imported directly from a digital camera using a TWAIN interface.

To make this possible Photovista needs to know what kind of lens is on the digital camera, which can be determined by selecting the name of the digital camera from a dropdown list of the most popular digital cameras and lens sizes. This list can be updated from the company's website, or customise the settings. Photovista is smart enough to be able to determine how many pictures will be needed to make a full panorama with any particular camera.

Once the images are loaded they can be blended together. Photovista will intelligently attempt to find a line which it can blend along to cause the least disruption to the picture. The choice of a quick preview or the Full Stitch is available, although I prefer to see the quick preview because I like to "tweak" the photo alignment a little bit myself. In almost all cases, Photovista will produce a beautifully rendered and smooth panorama. Images can be viewed as a long JPEG strip or as an immersive 360 degree panorama. Panoramas can be saved off in MGI's proprietary format, which claims file sizes three to four times smaller than QuickTime VR files, but these require you to download a 1.6Mb plug-in. There is also a Java version available, which doesn't require a plug-in.

Photovista also supports the FlashPix format, which allows adjustment to the resolution of an image so it loads quickly. It can also be integrated with MGI's Reality Studio suite so an entire interactive virtual reality site can be created.

Overall I give this product a thumbs up. You don't need to purchase any specific hardware and I was able to create a small virtual tour using my digital video camera for still shots. MGI's Photovista is also very good value for the price.