DxO Deal

I'm not supposed to be posting today (still prepping for the big week ahead), but I thought you might like to know (especially given the rumors recently that Adobe is toying with the idea of doubling the price of a Photoshop CC subscription from $10 to $20 a month) that DxO is having a summer promo deal of its PhotoLab 2 Elite Edition software. PhotoLab 2 Elite Edition (i.e., the full version) is a raw converter with specific lens+camera correction modules and some local editing features added to make it into a complete image editor. The normal one-time price is $199 and it's on sale for $89 until June 4th (Tuesday). The promo code is SUMMER-GIFT-BY-DXO. I can't give you a link I'm sure is reliable for everyone; go to DxO and navigate.

I've never used DxO, as it doesn't support Fuji X-Trans. But it might be another option to consider for those of you still looking for an alternative to Adobe.

DxO, a French company located in Boulogne-Billancourt in the Western suburbs of Paris, is famous for its DxOMark Sensor rankings which consider the capabilities of sensors. (There also, Fuji is omitted.) [CORRECTION: DxO (software) and DxOMark Image Labs are no longer the same company. They split in September of 2017. Thanks to O.G. for this, and sorry for the error. —Ed.] Note that at DxOMark only the sensor is considered, so when it ranks a camera highly for "Sports," for example, it means only the low-light capability of the sensor and is not considering any of the other camera capabilities that have to do with sports shooting. DxO was originally famous for its lens modules, which provided software corrections for lens deficiencies tailored to individual lens designs.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2019 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

Amazon.com • Amazon UK • Amazon Canada
Amazon Germany • B&H Photo • Adorama

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

No featured comments yet—please check back soon!

Comments

[Al C.]

Mike, you should try DxO Elite on your G9 files. DxO Prime noise reduction is excellent (albeit slow) -- the best imo in preserving details. Switching from LR to DxO is like getting a sensor upgrade. $89 is a bargain and a half.

[Moose]

DxO Photo Lab (and it's predecessors) are first rate Raw conversion and editing programs in many respects. They are not, however, free. Adobe charges by the month, DxO roughly by the year. Sure, you can use one version forever, but, as with the older Adobe model, that means missing updates for new cameras, lens profiles and feature improvements.

DxO does their own lens profiles, apparently including some deconvolution. These are generally better to much better than the ones used by many others. The LensFun profiles used by several other converters are second rate.

Adobe uses profiles from Panny and Oly for their µ4/3 lenses, and does not allow one to turn them off. Most of their (S)WA lenses have considerable barrel distortion, corrected either in camera, in their Raw converters and Adobe LR and PS The result is that a fair amount of the wide AoV you paid for is cropped away in distortion correction. Correction actually makes the images wider in pixels, but they are then cropped to fit the standard dimensions of their files.

DxO has the option to do that, or to simply save a slightly wider image file. It will do the same thing for other formats, but I don't know what difference that might make, depending on camera and lens. One may also turn all correction off, and see just how much correction is going on, and what effect it may be having on corner resolution and shape distortion.

DxO also has class leading NR for raw files. Prime RAW NR is almost always a cut above Adobe and Plug-ins I've tried. It is part of Raw conversion and varies its strength intelligently depending on content. Prime NR is an example of an important improvement that came only with a paid upgrade.

Raw conversion often leads to tiny, pixel level artifacts revealed after noise is removed. Until recently, DxO PL with Prime NR and Lens Sharpen was the best combination I could find for avoiding that, giving nice, clean pixel level detail.

I say until recently because of the advent of two more of Topaz' AI products, DeNoise AI and Sharpen AI. Sharpen is awfully good and DeNoise is close to magic, esp at minium and higher ISOs, although occasionally mixed magic. I simply don't know enough yet to rate them against DxO PL for NR and sharpening. I've used them, but not on enough files and a wide enough range of subjects, ISOs, etc.

[David Robinson]

So Adobe is toying with the idea of doubling their price, people will be upset so is this when Adobe says ok we'll only put it up 50%?
Everybody(?) will be relieved and Adobe will get what they probably schemed to get in the first place.
Or am I being harsh?

[Dave Levingston]

I’ve been using DxO as my RAW processor for quite a while now. I love it and feel that it has greatly improved my photos. The defaults are right about 80% of the time. Mostly I just tweak the highlights when I make any changes. I highly recommend DxO.

[Steve]

I would use Capture One. I have been using it exclusively for the last 3+ months. It is fantastic for Fuji. It's really no different than Lightroom. It has all the same controls ect. Their versions of the Fuji film simulations are far superior to Lightrooms versions.

[Keith]

I'll second the comment by Al C. In fact Thom Hogan recently had a post highlighting the currently available raw converters and stated that DXO is the one that m43 users should be using due to its noise reduction. I've been using DXO since version 5 for the lens corrections, and have really been pleased with the improvements in Prime since it was introduced. Comments regarding the speed of Prime really only apply to high volume shooters. While I haven't taken to DXO as a Lightroom replacement (I'm used to the LR interface and interaction with Photoshop), I consider it a critical first step in image processing.

[Joel Wolford]

Thank you for the heads-up, Mike....Photo Lab is a great product, and getting it for $89.00, is a heck of a bargain. I have DXO Film Pack 5, and had downloaded the trial version of PL2. Very pleased with the results. Hope your surgery was successful and that you are healing well.

Regards,
Joel