You guys made me curious so I downloaded a trial version of the Topaz Sharpen AI (I do have an older version of their filters although I rarely use them, I still prefer Nik if I'm going to use filters).
On that linked article Ctein said the stabilize method is best; from my brief attempts I disagree. I tried it on 5 photos, was better only on the first (by far though).
On the rest it gives too much artifacts and the processing takes roughly 4 times longer than just sharpen.
Times processing:
- depends on the size and on the levels of detail
- in the first linked photo, a Nikon D90 @ 12MP (and others similar) it took up to 50 sec, sometimes less. Previews would take ~ 20 sec. This is the only one with the stabilize method.
- in the second, a Z7 @ 46MP, it took roughly 20 sec for preview and 50 for processing
- in the third, a Z7, took roughly 1min 30 sec processing for sharpen method, but over 6min for stabilize method. Previews for sharpen were in the 20-30sec range.
- in the fourth, also a Z7, took about 1min 20sec for processing with sharpen method but about 6min for stabilize method.
I also tried a couple of other shots.
None of Z7 photos in the compare have extra sharpening, but when I tried with one it didn't look much better. These are 100% previews.
In conclusion, it is slow but not as slow as you guys got so there must be a problem on your side. Are your files already processed and very large when you feed them? Larger than a Z7? Is it mostly on the Mac side?
My computer is older and lesser than what you have, shouldn't be faster.
Overall it seems to produce pretty good results, first was quite much better. I will try to compare it with another program, such as Nik Dfine if I have the time.
