PhotoLab 9 Still Can’t Handle Basic DNGs? That’s a Problem

[Lindon_Slaght]

It’s funny, DxO CLAIMS that they can’t support phone raw files, because they’re not true raw files. Yet they have no problem supporting all the way back to the iPhone 8, with proper DNGs. So I decided to do some digging and what I found may shock and upset you. I own an Xperia 1 VII. I have always been frustrated that I cannot edit the raw files it produces in Photolab, as I feel their AI denoising engine would be very productive at increasing the quality of the files, and Photolab is what I’m familiar with, and where all my presets are. So, I decided, since I recently bought a Claude Code subscription, to get Claude to try to shuffle around some metadata. I wanted to see if DxO truly couldn’t process it, or they just didn’t want to, and has been being stubborn this whole time, all for the sake of some imaginary perception of quality through rejecting phone files. So may I present to you, 3 files shot on my Xperia 1 VII, 2 from the telephoto camera (A bayer sensor), and 1 from the main camera (A quad bayer sensor, though the raws are always taken in normal bayer mode), all 3 of which can be opened by DxO Photolab without issue! Huh, it’s almost like they could’ve supported that this whole time! (note: the metadata is from an iPhone 8 raw file, so it doesn’t represent the actual image)

Another interesting little tidbit for your enjoyment… it even works just fine with DeepPrime 3 denoising!! But.. But-But- I thought it was unsupported!! Proof, 2 jpegs created by DxO and their DOP files

xperia_spoofed_iphone8_4.dng.dop (10.2 KB)

xperia_spoofed_iphone8_3.dng.dop (10.0 KB)

!

xperia_spoofed_iphone8_4.dng (22.9 MB)

xperia_spoofed_iphone8_3.dng (22.9 MB)

xperia_spoofed_iphone8_2.dng (22.9 MB)

[Egregius ([Greg] (Micro 4/3 + Win11))]

Well, one has to understand that “unsupported” in this industry means that it might work but the company won’t back that up in any way (or provide assistance) and might even put up road blocks to prevent trying it (e.g., refusing to install the software on an “unsupported” OS, not loading “unsupported” image data into the program…) I can understand not wanting to provide assistance if something doesn’t work. But I can’t understand the road blocks. DxO has gone all-in with road blocks.

[Lindon_Slaght]

Update: I had AI create a python script to modify all the files this way, and now photolab will read all my DNGs. Tested with files from my LG G8X, LG V60, and Sony Xperia 1 VII. It works great! Photolab has no problem processing the images. The iPhone 8 colour profile seems to work just fine for the LG files, but the Sony files never seem to look quite perfect.

Note: this photo is from the main sensor of the LG v60, processed by photolab, with DeepPrime 3 noise reduction.

Edit: Figured it out. The Sony files need black point correction on the RGB curve, while the LG files turn out better with it on the luma curve. So my first attempt had the LG files turning out perfect, and the Sony files looking pretty awful. Fixed, they both look great.

[LoveLowLight]

Unfortunately, PhotoLab cannot recognize older RAW formats. Take, for example, my old Olympus E1 photos, which I shot entirely in RAW format. DNG isn’t ideal, but as a workaround, it’s better than not being able to process them at all in PhotoLab.

I also consider the lack of support for DNG files to be a major weakness of the program.