For those who still wish to upgrade
PL7 Elite upgrade - 89$
PL7 Elite - 169$
I assumed it’s gonna be 69$… Wrong assumption!
Last Black Fridays:
PL4 Elite to PL5 Elite (2021): €49.5 (50% discount)
PL5 Elite to PL6 Elite (2022): €69
PL6 Elite to PL7 Elite (2023): €89 (18,4% discount)
- a bit of a sarcastic forecast for 2024
upgrade to PL8 / lifetime: €130
monthly PL8 subscription: only €10
7 Likes
The whole selling point of DxO PL for me was the perpetual license. However, the recent changes to the upgrade policy (limit to 2 version) and now the horrid Black Friday pricing on upgrades has me totally turned off. If I don’t see an actual better offer come out on the “Official” Black Friday like previous years, I am out. I will go with Adobe and keep my existing level of PL and Nik plugins. c’est la vie…
7 Likes
I don’t think anything will change in terms of prices. Offering less for more money is the new motto
3 Likes
Limiting upgrades to two versions? I couldn’t see any mention of that in the site, although I did find a FAQ note about how someone upgrading across multiple versions (for example upgrading PL4 to PL7) is required to pay the cumulative total of the discounted upgrades until that reaches the cost of a fresh license. I don’t see that as so bad.
(Re Black Friday, those discounts are extras. The discount percentages are smaller than in previous years, but they’re still discounts.)
See this link. https://support.dxo.com/hc/en-us/articles/4496876113937-Why-is-my-upgrade-price-the-same-as-the-new-license-pricing-
I personally do see that as bad policy. An upgrade should be an upgrade. Not prorated. Prorating is DxO’s way of trying to force you into annual upgrades which is effectively no better than a subscription in my opinion.
Each user is different and I understand that. For me, when the price of upgrades every year meets or exceeds the price of subscription based, then there is no longer a benefit. I have been a DxO PL, View Point, and Nik user from v1 and sadly, it ends here for me.
11 Likes
I’m comfortable with this pricing. I’m looking forward to using PhotoLab 7 with FilmPack 7and ViewPoint 4. I didn’t add those two things last year, and I regretted it all year. So with the discounts on those things this year, and the discounts on the PhotoLab 7 and Nik Collection 6 upgrades, everything together is worth it to me.
I passed on upgrading Topaz and ON1 this year after a year of using them side-by-side with DXO. So that more than covered the cost of adding FilmPack 7 and ViewPoint 4.
About the only thing I would want Adobe for at this point is the three lens profiles I can’t get in DXO.
1 Like
Is there a period after you buy it, when you can get a refund, say 30 days?
I’m interested in Photolab 7 but I don’t have time to try it now, as I’m replacing my computer, new one won’t be here until next week.
I tried PureRaw3 trial and was quite impressed but Photolab7 may suit me better.
Are Photolab 7 and Photolab 7 Elite the same?
How long do the Black Friday deals last?
There is no free trial or refund after purchasing PhotoLab. There is a 30-day free trial available prior to purchase but you will miss Black Friday pricing by the time you have had a chance to test it.
Mark
Thanks. That is my problem. If it was not for changing my computer I would have tried it by now.
I will have to think about it.
The PureRaw3 BF deal is tempting.
There are two flavors of PhotoLab, Essential and Elite. Essential is a less expensive subset of Elite features. I would avoid it and only purchase the Elite version.
Mark
2 Likes
You can try it on your current computer, or has that become dysfunctional? Then swap it over to continue. Black Friday offers seem generally to last about a week (check that!), so there isn’t long.
Per purchase, “You can activate your DxO PhotoLab ELITE software on 3 computers as long as it is never run on more than one computer at a time.”
Photolab’s a pretty full package as a RAW converter / processor. It’s effective, tightly-focussed and largely bug-free. Its library functions are quite a way behind those of Capture One or Lightroom, that’s all.
Note that many entries on these forums are about dissatisfactions rather than approvals, but in real life the overall thrust is very good.
An additional ‘pixel editor’ such as Photoshop (available in a reasonable package with Lightroom but on subscription only) or Affinity photo can in addition provide a greater range of tweaks and output options beyond the spectrum of RAW manipulation.
Sounds like you’re still exploring, rather, and I might mention that there’s no perfect life - but you sound positive … 
1 Like
My computer has gone back to the company and I have a refund coming soon.
I read the Black Friday ends on 27th November.
Not sure about Photolab, so I will get it on trial for 30 days.
Good to hear it is fairly bug free.
I also use Photoshop CS6 and Topaz.
So do you in fact need a RAW converter, which is the essence of what Photolab is? You haven’t said what your chosen camera output is, have you, or anything about your present or intended workflow?
I’m not sure what topaz is or does, but PS CS6 will have an associated copy of Adobe Camera Raw that might be too antique to work with more current cameras.
It’s hard to advise when much of the context is lacking. And I ought to say that a lot of the rest is personal, not just in terms of functions but also how one relates to a given user interface (but if you’re dedicated enough all that can be learnt, best to my mind by researching one problem at a time as they arise).
I have a Canon 5DSR at the moment but also lots of older images from Canon 40d, 5Dll and 6D.
I use CS6 at the moment, it does support my cameras and lenses. But DxO does have some different functions. Do I need DxO PureRaw3 or Photolab 7, that is a good question. I think PureRaw3 will improve my images, not sure how much Photolab 7, will for me.
Topaz has DeNoise, which is similar to DxO noise reduction. It also has Sharpen AI which is probably is the market leader. It does work on some problem images, out of focus, motion blur etc. There is also upscale, which is good for enlarging small images for printing.
Having licenses to both Topaz products, my opinion after a very significant number of comparisons between Topaz Denoise and DeepPRIME\DeepPRIME XD is that DxO’s algorithms are far superior. I will only use Topaz on non-raw images which DeepPRIME and XD do not support. With DeepPRIME and XD, I get much cleaner results while retaining significantly more fine detail than with Topaz.
Topaz Sharpen AI is a superior tool which is used to best advantage when fixing problem images. On images that are captured properly, PhotoLab 7’s Lens Softness correction feature, available when there is a lens module present, gives me cleaner and more accurate sharpening with far less fiddling than with Topaz.
Mark
1 Like
As I was prediciting in the other thread, a Lightroom subscription (79 Euro on Amazon) i this year cheaper than an upgrade of DXO (89 Euro) on black friday.
1 Like
It is only £55 on Amazon UK.
You can get Photoshop + Lightroom for £69 which seems like a good deal.
Thanks, I mostly agree. How long ago did you do the comparisons?
Topaz has changed fairly recently. DeNoise has been discontinued, they now have Photo AI, which I’m not so keen on.
On my images, I’m not finding large differences between Topaz and DxO on noise.
1 Like
I still have a licence for CS6 but don’t bother to install it. Personally, PhotoLab Elite would be a no brainier but it’s your money