DxO Optics Pro is a true digital photo lab for automatically improving the quality of RAW or JPEG images: optical and geometric corrections, optimized exposure, color control, RAW conversion, noise removal, detail enhancement, etc.Whether you want to let the software automatically improve hundreds of images, or prefer to manually define the settings for each of them, DxO Optics Pro has the flexibility to provide you with unmatched image quality and productivity.
Not just a 'good test', it's more than good enough for professional use. The only real tangible improvement I've seen in the current version is better handling of really high ISO shots but I have Noise Ninja for that and avoid using anything beyond 1600 ISO anyway.
It's a lot like if they gave away Photoshop CS5 for free and people go their knickers in a twist about it being 2 versions "old". It's not like having a PS2 vs a PS4. It still does what 99.9% of people are likely to use it for. The fixation with needing to have the 'newest' of everything is mostly driven by ignorant consumerism, not by actual need.
So yeah if you're part of the 0.01% who really does need a particular feature in DXO Optics 9 that isn't in 7, by all means upgrade. For everyone else this is a great deal with no catches and no need to upgrade.
Do you know how this compares to the comparable functions in Lightroom 5? I'll give it a go but if it doesn't add anything significantly better than what I can do with LR5 then I don't see any added value. Still good value for free though for those that need it.
It isn't just added features that are missing in DXO 7, but, pretty much any of the newer mirrorless camera RAW formats aren't supported.. so you'd have to have a camera that's at least a couple of years old to use this software (for RAW usage anyway).
automatically improving the quality of RAW
how does it do that ?
I take it you've got nothing else better to do.. If you had any idea of what you're talking about you'd know that RAW is a good basis to start from… hence why all these image processing apps exist.
I think he's implying that you still have to do something other than just having it installed.
If you had any idea of what you're talking about, you'd know that raw isn't an acronym.
And his point was a good one. It doesn't 'improve the quality of raw', because that sentence makes no sense.
If you had any idea of what you're talking about
Always embarrassing to read this from someone who has no idea themselves.
… By cooking it.
Reading wouldn't hurt you every once in a while.
eg: http://www.dxo.com/intl/photography/tutorials/mastering-high…
When I input my details and the captcha the page refreshes but I don't receive a confirmation or email, even in different browsers. If this is the case for everyone I presume we won't hear back until the end of July.
I got my confirmation email immidiately. Not that this helped. I cannot get this software to start up. I've downloaded it twice, Installed, re-installed, rebooted numerous times,… Not a sausage. Just keep getting microsoft's "program has stopped working" (Problem Event Name: CLR20r3) message.
Some reading on the dxo support pages suggest this may be due to the old (superceded) dlls that are in the dxo software - but even removing these and installing the older dxo versions did not help.
if anyone's wondering, current version is 9. Still would be good to test if it can improve photos.