DXO Optics Pro now supports A350 A700 and more!
DxO Labs has released an updated version DxO Optics Pro (5.2), that among other things now supports the A350 and A700 with six lenses! Many of us here discussed(DxO: Still no change, no new Sony Cameras) the fact that DxO was slow to support the Alpha Mount, hopefully this is a sign of more aggressive future support.
Currently they're offering a free copy(electronic license) of DxO Film Pack, which Andrew recently reviewed, to purchasers of DxO Optics pro. You can also download a trial version of 5.2 as well.
Among other new features they state they've reached a new 'milestone' with their updated RAW converter's ability to denoise and preserve detail in ultra high ISO RAW images. it will be interesting to see how that performs compared to the existing software and methods.
Full details here:
http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/dxo_optics_pro/news/DxO-Optics-Pro-v5.2-No...
I guess I will try
I guess I will try downloading the demo again. The last time I attempted to try their product it wouldn't even install on my computer.
Be interesting to see if it works this time
Maybe ill give it a go too :)
Carl
This time around it actually
This time around it actually installed without failing. That's a definite improvement.
Edit: No cRAW support for Sony. :(
This is good news...
... I'm downloading as I speak. More news that shows DxO's improvement is that their internal development/testing milestone to have the A700 ready was at the end of June. The schedule only slipped by 7 days. (Sorry I didn't say anything earlier, but the last time I mentioned a deadline from an individual discussion with DxO management, I got burned as they didn't keep their earlier schedule.) Bottom-line - It seems that they've handled their other issues that affected them earlier this year, when they missed that first deadline to support the A700.
I would recommend a couple of things -
- send kudos to them, to keep them encouraged to continue their A-mount development. Every little bit helps. I left a "thank you" on their forum - http://forum.dxo.com/index.php
- lobby them to support your favorite lenses - http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/support/modules/availability/pb_availabili...
And by the way, Andrew Woodhouse, thanx for the DxO Film Pack review. That was well done.
Well...
I downloaded and tried it last night and messed with some photos done with both the A100 and the A700 and the CZ 16-80 in raw with both cameras.
I found I can get just as good of results using Lightroom especially the Beta 2 version which I'm parrallelling with 1.4 until the final 2 is released.
If I didn't have LR, maybe, but I've learned to use LR and I admit I'm hooked!
Tonight I'll erase it from my harddrive and hope Adobe releases 2 soon so I only have to deal with one version of LR.
No A300 support ???
It's strange to see DXo supporting the A700/350 but not the A300. I've tried to connect to DXo's website to read more about this new version but their website looks down ... impossible to connect at the moment :-/
It doesn't seem like a bad
It doesn't seem like a bad program, but I will stick with photoshop for now. $299 seems like too much for what it does and doesn't do. 99% of my A700 files are in cRAW and the DXO software says it doesn't support them. The software also doesn't support a single lens I own. I do like the ability to apply film profiles to images, but it appears I can get that same ability from them for $99 and use it in pshop as a plug-in. That cRAW issue is really the clincher, though.
Old Pirate, I'm enjoying LR Beta 2, too ...
Old Pirate,
Like you, I'm enjoying LR Beta 2, also. Originally I had DxO when I just had my A100. Then after I got my A700 I waited a bit to see if DxO would support it; I even investigated the cost of their DxO analyzer suite to build my own profiles. But it turned out to be a bit pricey ~ tens of thousands EUR. Ultimately, like you, I bought LR and am enjoying it, too.
Though, I have to admit, I appreciate DxO especially when I use lens that they have a profiled. In those cases, even LR can't do certain things that DxO does - for example, deconvolution of lens blur, automated lens distortion correction, and a cool perspective "correction" interface. (Of course, I'm sure there are other tools that could complement LR to handle those items in a batch environment.)
Now I think about, I really enjoy DxO's lighting control - it has a good deal of flexibility beyond gamma control and could adjust settings automatically based on the scene. I also appreciate their very flexible control of white balance and of color in the RAW state, and their early optional and flexible noise removal in the workflow.
I appreciate that, if I'm picky, I can work each image or I can batch everything to my settings, or I can have DxO select the settings it 'thinks' are appropriate and batch it. I found that once I give it a few parameters, DxO picks good settings for each image about 85-90% of the time.
Interestingly, my cursory experience with the updated DxO package leads me to believe their RAW conversion seems to be slightly better than the software that Sony provides. (More homework is required, though)
***Ultimately, unless you're picky like I can get, all of those cool things I just mentioned about DxO may not be of value. Plus many folk would not miss those particular DxO capabilities if they didn't know about 'em and haven't learned to use the tools.
So, for most folk, if they already have LR, I would recommend that they stick with LR. If someone were starting out, I would recommend an in-depth trial of both DxO and of LR, then decide - especially since they cost about the same if you are starting from scratch.
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b shaw
http://bshaws.blogspot.com/