DxO PhotoLab 2 - any fans? detractors?

[jeremyrh]

While wondering what to do with the money I may not spend on a C1 upgrade I came across the DxO website. I like the U-point interface, and the Nik plugins like Silver Efex and Viveza, but the general UI looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast.  Is it a viable replacement for Lightroom and CaptureOne, or will I buy it and then not have the energy(*) to master it?

(*) I recognise this is hard for you to judge :-)

[IanSeward]

While wondering what to do with the money I may not spend on a C1 upgrade I came across the DxO website. I like the U-point interface, and the Nik plugins like Silver Efex and Viveza, but the general UI looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast.  Is it a viable replacement for Lightroom and CaptureOne, or will I buy it and then not have the energy(*) to master it?

(*) I recognise this is hard for you to judge :-)

UI is user configurable so depends on you.

Best noise reduction in PRIME although it is slow, not really an issue, select the photos you want to export and go get a coffee :-)

Best lens corrections. DXO profile the lens in their optical labs. With lenses designed for computer correction they can often provide increased fov with wide angle lenses. Embedded raw file correction is same as quick & dirty jpg in camera correction and usually involve a crop to produce the lenses quoted focal length/fov.

Very easy to get a technically correct image with minimum user input as auto correction is one of DXO-PL's foundations.

Biggest drawback with DXO-PL used to be its lack of local adjustment. Now with UPoint technology they have a competent local adjustment capability. UPoint works very well and is a pleasure to use.

However, if you need a dam look elsewhere. :-)

Ian

[Zen8]

I have Photolab 1. I got it for prime and as a LR replacement if I drop the plan. I don't use it as much as I thought I would. As an LR plug-in it does not retain LR edits. There is no DAM but my biggest complaint is it does not even have a stack to show what adjustments you made. Prime is very good for the tougher NR jobs. Lens sharpness tends to over-sharpen. People rave about ClearView but you can do the same with LR's Dehaze.       

With version 2 they added the use of DCP files and claim Prime is better. They added a photo library which is not a DAM, just a rating system. As stated it is geared towards little user intervention. I didn't update.

[jeremyrh]

Thanks - I think my feeling is similar to yours - some nice features but not sure it's a comprehensive work horse.

[rdonson]

Forget DxO if you've got a Fuji with X-Trans sensor.  They are strictly a Bayer sensor shop.

[kirkt]

Forget DxO if you've got a Fuji with X-Trans sensor.  They are strictly a Bayer sensor shop.

They do not support the GFX platform either, which is a Bayer sensor.

Kirk

[t6b9p]

DXO limited to aRGB output. Not a problem unless you prefer ProPhotoRGB.

[D White]

I recently had a trial download.

I am very happy with the workflow and output of LR but for some jaggy edge artifacts that can show along straight high contrast edges.

The DxO did not display these edge artifacts but I was also no where near reproducing my "look" with it. I wanted to really work with it but I found the program very slow and would give a 30 sec spinning beach ball every time I changed windows back and forth. Very unworkable. I have an iMac Pro so processing power is not the issue.

Their support left me for dead no matter how many times I tried. Meanwhile the trial period ended. I would not recommend purchasing their products with this functionality and support.

[Stephen G]

I've been a user of DxO since Optics Pro version 3, I think. I tend to skip versions so it's unlikely that I'll be upgrading my current Photolab 1 to version 2. I use it as an alternative to LR. I can usually get what I want in LR, but sometimes I switch to DxO to give myself a different starting point.

There are somethings it does very well:
Lens corrections for vignetting and distortion are excellent
Capture sharpening is usually excellent. Has been for my lenses and camera bodies. Have seen some sample RAWs where the DxO sharpening was atrocious.
Highlight recovery, if not blown too far, is excellent. LR is better at extreme recovery
Noise reduction really great too. I tend not to use PRIME, as I don't like the look it generates, and I don't shoot much extreme ISO stuff anyway.
I like some of the film and grain simulations too.
I also like how it can retain variation and detail in highly saturated colours. It obviously has to desaturate to achieve this, but the control of the process is good.

Photolab 2's support for dcp profiles is something I'm keen to test, but haven't gotten around to just yet. Might make it easier to get one's familiar 'look' in DxO.

Can't comment about performance on Mac. I'm on Windows and DxO has always behaved itself. Output processing has always been slow, but steadily improved over the years.

DxO can certainly output a ProPhotoRGB file, but this will be limited initially by its internal working space. I've heard that the internal working space is AdobeRGB / something similar to AdobeRGB, but I've never seen it clearly stated anywhere. Anyone got a reference for this? 

[t6b9p]

It will output ProPhotoRGB but it has already been restricted by processing in aRGB. Kind of like processing in sRGB the outputting an aRGB file for printing...not much point. Will see if I can find the reference.

Here's one Northlight Images

and newer Ver 12

Not direct from DXO but at least a pretty respected source.

[Zen8]

Thanks for the link. I thought ClearView was pretty good until I learned that I can do the same with LR's DaHaze. 

[IanSeward]

Thanks for the link. I thought ClearView was pretty good until I learned that I can do the same with LR's DaHaze.

Interestingly DXO came out with Clearview first and everyone went "meh" then LR added dehaze and it was the tool to have :-)

Ian

[IanSeward]

While wondering what to do with the money I may not spend on a C1 upgrade I came across the DxO website. I like the U-point interface, and the Nik plugins like Silver Efex and Viveza, but the general UI looks like a bit of a dog's breakfast.  Is it a viable replacement for Lightroom and CaptureOne, or will I buy it and then not have the energy(*) to master it?

(*) I recognise this is hard for you to judge :-)

In case you are interested DXO-PL2 is on sale at 50% off this weekend:

https://www.rlvision.com/flashren/about.php

A bargain for the PRIME noise reduction and best lens corrections.

Ian

[Box Brownie]

In case you are interested DXO-PL2 is on sale at 50% off this weekend:

https://www.rlvision.com/flashren/about.php

A bargain for the PRIME noise reduction and best lens corrections.

Ian

DxO have the 50% Black Friday on their own website until 26th November  

PS Not sure about Ian's linked site as I cannot see mention of DxO or any referer linky there so....

[rdonson]

https://nikcollection.dxo.com

[IanSeward]

DxO have the 50% Black Friday on their own website until 26th November  

PS Not sure about Ian's linked site as I cannot see mention of DxO or any referer linky there so....

Doh!!  Copy and paste fail!

https://www.dxo.com/dxo-photolab/

Ian

[BernardLanguillier]

2.1 is supposed to support the Z7, but it can't seem to be able to open my lossless compressed 14 bits files...

Globally my view is that, with U-Point DxO, is now the most powerful raw converter on the market.
- best optical correction and initial "automatic" processing of images
- best noise reduction
- best local retouching capability

The only issue I still have with it is that I tend to like the colors produced by C1 pro a bit more, especially for my Nikon files.

Cheers,
Bernard

[jeremyrh]

2.1 is supposed to support the Z7, but it can't seem to be able to open my lossless compressed 14 bits files...

Strange - it opened mine. Now that C1 has woken up I decided to stick with it despite some attractions   Another UI to learn is too much!!(not to mention the price ...)

[BernardLanguillier]

Strange - it opened mine. Now that C1 has woken up I decided to stick with it despite some attractions   Another UI to learn is too much!!(not to mention the price ...)

Ah really? Very strange indeed. I'll have to look into this.

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,
Bernard

[jeremyrh]

Ah really? Very strange indeed. I'll have to look into this.

Thanks for the feedback.

Cheers,
Bernard

Sorry! sorry! sorry!!  Don't know what I was smoking when I typed my reply. It didn't open my files at all. Z7 support was announced for December but I didn't check if it arrived!!