Digital Home Thoughts: DxO Optics Pro 6 Released

"While camera manufacturers keep competing for high ISO performance, DxO Labs now offers the image processing technologies which are critical to delivering top-notch image quality from such extreme ISO shots. In low-light conditions, photographers must choose between using low ISO and risking unnatural flash lighting or camera shake, or using high ISO settings with its typical image noise and loss of colors and details. But now, thanks to a new technological approach, DxO Optics Pro 6 sets a new bar for RAW conversion: photographers can push their cameras to the ISO limits and even beyond - as much as one to two stops above their usual ISO settings! - and still get great photos without any noticeable loss in image quality."

When I first started shooting raw a few years ago with my DSLR, I looked at a bunch of different raw processing software packages. With my experiments using Photoshop Elements and the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in, it quickly became obvious that processing images one by one, completely in isolation of each other, was a rather poor approach. I looked at several packages on the market, but spent the most time with Lightroom 1.0 and DxO Optics Pro 4.5. While there were several things I really liked about the DxO software, specifically the lens-based optics correction (I'm ticked Lightroom still lacks that) and the killer multi-threading, I found the user interface cumbersome to use. So have things gotten any better with version 5.0? I spent a few minutes looking at the press information, which is rife with competitive info, to find out.

That image speaks for itself, doesn't it? Granted, you can expect DxO to make their product look as good as possible, but in looking at the many images they provided - including this multi-layered PSD - DxO Optics Pro certainly does a great job of minimizing loss of detail at high ISOs. So what about that user interface?

That's right - it's still ugly as ever. They've refined it somewhat since v4.5, but it's still light years behind the intuitive UI of Lightroom. I always think it's a shame when a company has great underlying technology but is hobbled by an awful user interface. Time to fire the whole UI team and start from scratch DxO!

If the trapped-in-2002 UI doesn't bother you, you can snag DxO v6 for cheap right now - until December 31st of this year, the Standard edition is $109 USD, and the Elite edition is $199.