I have seen several reviews on YouTube and I have to agree with you;
"To me, this looks like we’re approaching the area of diminishing returns from an image quality point of view, but the improved speed is quite amazing.
LRC’s new algo for noise reduction looks so similar, what we are now dealing with now are just small nuance not significant improvements. Yes the speed increase is wonderful, but I am not pro photographer just a hobbyist so my workflow is not so tedious that I need to shave time off with raw processing.
Well, nothing lasts forever. There was a time when people moved from LR to DxO because of the subscription model, then PhotoLab introduced DeepPrimeXD, which is very useful in fighting noise, but the way users of the “flagship” product, which I guess (?) is PhotoLab, are treated will eventually lead to the point where it makes sense to go back to LR. Especially since LR has caught up in the denoising. In addition - buying LR we do not have a “truncated” version of the program. I still really like the results I get in PL, but everything has its limits…
You can flip the imaged in PL7. The weird thing is that the capability is not in the place where you work on photos (Customize). It’s where you sort thing out (Photo Library).
I have PL6 and View Point 4, and I find Deep Prime XD very useful. Now I see from the above that Pure Raw has Deep Prime XD2 and I am receiving emails from DXO encouraging me to try Pure Raw.
It was my impression that PhotoLab (Elite)/View Point was the flagship DXO software (I am not at all interested in Film Pack); but now they are putting what seems to be improved noise reduction into Pure Raw, I am confused about my future with DXO…
DeepPRIME XD2 will eventually make its way into PhotoLab. It’s just a question of time. If you didn’t have a use for PureRaw 3 as a plugin for a third party application like those from Adobe, you won’t have any need for PureRaw 4.
Of course, there is no reason to panic, the fact is that PhotoLab 7.x is great. And there is no reason to give up on it right away. Although the pricing policy, the possible need to buy additional licenses to get new features in PhotoLab that appear in DxO’s “side” products, is not optimistic… It seems to me that PhotoLab is the “flagship” product (maybe I’m wrong?), the main product and it is from PhotoLab that new features should go to “smaller”, related applications. It seems to me that it would be really good if someone at DxO thought about how customers who buy a PhotoLab license, especially in the “Elite” version, feel in a situation like the one described in this thread. I know that no one will care. This is just my reflection.
Funny, I prefer by far the renaming tool in PL… the current renaming capabilities on PR4 are currently a blocker for me (no way to have filename_suffix.dng → it’s filename-extension_suffix.dng at best).
See “I use DxO PhotoLab 7. Do I need DxO PureRAW 4?” in the FAQ section of Learn DxO PureRAW
The key point:
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Users of PhotoLab 7 should note that DeepPRIME XD2 and the new lens softness correction algorithm are currently only available in PureRAW 4. However the development team at DxO are planning to add them to the next major release of PhotoLab.
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Thanks! This good news, what I hoped to hear, and what any decent company would do. I shall expect to upgrade to PL8 on Black Friday…
In defence of DXO’S business practice, which has been criticised on this forum, it is notable that one is not required to pay extra for new lens definitions: they apply to whatever version you have.
That’s right. This is a major asset. Another thing is how often does a user properly equipped with cameras and lenses need such new profiles? In my case it matters little, because I use cameras and lenses for which the profiles are already there and work great. I don’t need new ones. I don’t plan to change equipment quickly. However, I also see the advantages of the subscription model, which DxO does not use. Then we get every new feature as soon as it appears. In this particular case, it may be that we will be waiting for the new version of DeepPrimeXD2 until PhotoLab 8, for which we will have to pay, of course.
In the case of Adobe, for example, it is the case that ACR running from Photoshop and Lightroom as an as standalone application share exactly the same engine and the same capabilities. In the case of DxO, there is something of a “split” now, as PhotoLab for DeepPrime is a generation behind another DxO product. Of course, I understand that in the case of PhotoLab and PureRaw 4 there is no exact analogy to ACR and Lightroom.
Another positive feature of DXO updates is that you are given notice of them, and can apply them when you want to – unlike some software which will not let you use it until you have updated it, whether the update is of use to you or not! I find that very frustrating.
Here is the support answer : "Thank you for your message about our software.
We understand your disappointment, however, we currently have no plans to make PureRAW 4 compatible with PhotoLab 7. These are 2 distinct programs that meet different customer needs.
Nor are there any plans to stop development of PhotoLab 7.
To get a better idea of the software we offer, we advise you to download the demo version available free of charge from our website here.
I don’t understand the disappointment. It’s not like they announced that PL7 would include an update for a better noise reduction. It will surely be included in PL8. Disappointment is justified mostly for bugs or unfavorable user interfaces which are existing and not being resolved.
It does seem a very odd situation where your flagship software product lags behind a low-cost plugin for image quality, particularly since this is almost certainly artificial , resulting from the non-synchronised release schedules.
FWIW, I only use DeepPrime with PL7. DeepPrimeXD has always seemed to give worse results for me (in the sense of small image artefacts, with not much benefit to the noise level).
I would be interested too see what XD2 does, but I am not holding my breath and would not likely upgrade for it.
I would much rather that PL8 engineering resource was directed at fixing the broken undo system (which should be trivial) or the failure to replicate geometry changes in pre-existing local edits (which is non-trivial, but also something which both LR and COP seem to manage to do).
Same feedback on XD.
XD2 seems to be the best of both worlds between DP & XD, based on a few tests I’ve made with PureRaw4.
However, there are still some limitations in PureRaw that I don’t like (no slider for optical corrections, very limitating renaming schemes, no preset system) so I’m going to wait for PL8 even if I only use Photolab as a Lightroom plugin.
PureRaw is closing the gap to be a real alternative, but it’s not there yet.
Not far, but I’m not going to spend 120 euro on it, I prefer buying a 70-100 euro upgrade for PL, even if it makes me wait a few months to get it.
For what it’s worth, PhotoLab 8 will probably be released 6-8 months from now. That’s plenty of time for more advances to be made and even more new technology to appear. Hopefully DxO is able to deliver a very worthwhile upgrade (with new features that are in finished condition) and will also update PureRAW 4 well before then.
Not all of DxO’s actions may be the “nicest” for us customers, they ultimately just want to make as much money as possible just by selling us licenses , but it’s a fact that (at least from my point of view) PhotoLab is still second to none, as a whole.
Hi nemo, I mostly agree with you and certainly the total package of Photolab is second to none but DxO needs to make enough money to be able to stay viable in an ever-changing market.
