Nikon Z8 user here. I have just started testing DxO PhotoLab (9.4.0 build 587) to see if it can replace Nikon’s NX Studio (which is slow and doesn’t run well on Wine). While comparing conversion results, I found that in certain situations - pixel-sized detail -, DxO’s algorithm appears to produce false colours (having read Demosaicing-Technlogies - DxO , this is surprising).
This is an example - DxO at the top, NX Studio at the bottom:
Have a look at the default profile that is applied to each image. PL applies a number of settings for you as a starting point. You can change the default profile and set any adjustment as your starting point.
The main settings to look for is the camera colour profiles applied and choose one that best suits you. You can also choose not to apply any settings.
You may find that Nikon’s software applies some sort of colour adjustments based on their understanding of the colour characteristics of their own sensors.
I doubt that the false colors on the thin branches are a result of color profile choice, but it would still be advisable to test them out, starting with Neutral Colors, which I find the most pleasing for my Nikon.
DXO (uniquely) preforms demosaicing and denoising in one processing step. I suggest that you try out the various denoising algorithms. DeepPrime 2XD yields the most detail but could potentially generate false details as well. DeepPrime 3 is more conservative and has the advantage of mitigating color aberrations as well. Try both and see if anything works for you.
May I ask what compression you are using in camera?
I’m a software engineer and it’s known (within our circles) that anything other than standard lossless on the Z6II, Z8, Z9 is a complete pain to either get to work correctly or work with significant clarity on some images. It’s even worse with Fuji compression.
Nikon will obviously have the keys to the kingdom here. Believe or not, camera brands aren’t really that helpful towards us coders.
Nikons camera and lens profiles and algorithms have been above everything when it comes to CA corrections and white balance using their (NIKs and Silkypix) software suites.
But then - they do sit on all data which enable them to perform very well when their hardware is used.
Thank you for your responses. I have now figured it out: In Denoising & Demosaicing, “Standard” simply isn’t very good (as the name implies). With “DeepPRIME 3”, the false colours disappear, and “DeepPRIME XD/XD2s” appears superior to NX Studio in terms of extracting fine details.
Apologies for the forum noise, I should have experimented a bit more before posting.
TL;DR: Don’t use “Standard” when exporting raw images.
But do bear in mind that DxO’s NR is adaptive and there is no harm in using the best possible all the time. It’s just that some folks want faster export times and are willing to pay the price of more noise.
The Standard reduction is really only there for non-RAW images.
Also, when shooting in low light, don’t be afraid of boosting the ISO, even on Canon cameras, which tend to be more sensitive to ISO noise. Here’s a crop from a shot from my Nikon D850, taken at 25,000 ISO in a dark cider cellar…
Even if I had used a lower ISO, such dark images often attract noise in the shadows, which can need cleaning up, even if the rest of the image is bright.
This is why I usually leave the NR on DeepPRIME XD/XD2s all the time. A few seconds more on export time is not my prime concern.
@pxlppr Are you actually running Photolab successfully under Wine? How stable and performant is it?
I would also like to get rid of Windows (and not switch to MacOS either). But I find it hard to imagine that my software (Photolab, NIK, and CaptureOne) will run smoothly and stably under Wine.
