That’s right John. They are choosing(IMO) the wrong path but I understand why.
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Thing is, if you look at the speed at which new AI models are being developed, in 6-8 months I would not be surprised to see XD2 levels of performance in an open source denoise offering. PureRaw 4 seems to be an attempt to catch the attention of the LightRoom user while there is still a vaguely noticeable gap in performance between PR4 and LR noise reduction,. Once Adobe update their AI noise reduction model and improve the workflow to avoid the need for an intermediate Linear DNG, DXO will be hung out to dry,
Integrating PR4 previewing functionality Into PL7 quickly could keep the PL show on the road for a bit longer, but perhaps DXO has concluded that, since there are more than twice the LR users than PL users, offering the former a plug-in for half the price of PL makes more sense than trying to attract more PL users at full price.
All DxO noise reduction technologies including DPXD2 are copyrighted and I can assure you that the only place that you will see DPXD2 is from DxO.
I think you are overlooking the fact that many simply are done with Adobe on principle and there is nothing Adobe can do to get them back. Subscription model, anti consumer behaviour for decades, abusing cloud data of the users and queer logo and splash screen being forced upon users, cannot be compensated by noise reduction algorithm. Some people just won’t go back. Period.
In the topic of noise reduction. I think Adobe noise reduction is very good compared to what is on the market, but lacks customization and tighter integration with other UI elements. DXO DeepPrime XD is as good as Adobe, plus offers two more sliders that can make a difference with tricky shots. And new XD2 seems to reduce some of the artifices with extreme noise reduction. It would seem we are reaching a point where we might see law of diminishing returns. Lot of effort for smaller improvement. Because the algorithms are quite good already. And short of completely reconstructing the image , the noise reduction algorithms , no matter what company will have to deal with law of diminishing returns. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Perhaps DXO can than start to add something like two times upscale AI capacity for output. That would be nice and new useful feature. Perhaps they can modify the existing DeepPrime to become new algorithm for up scaling. 2x should be enough.
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Sure, but the techniques are quite well understood and so not hard to replicate.
But if DXO is trying to attract Adobe refugees, why does it provide a plug in for Lightroom, but not put its latest and greatest in its own Photolabs?
And if those techniques resemble DxO’s patented techniques then they will be sued!
I have to disagree with the “not hard to replicate”.
Companies like Adobe may do as well (they are close) but it probably needed a lot of resources to do so, if we consider the time they needed to have something close.
Regarding open source software, do you have any example of any that comes close to what DxO manages to do on noise reduction algorithms?
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I think this is the dilemma: no abo model, but they want something new for promoting the next PL8
DxO has staggered its product releases such that they can keep rolling out new features without adding new features into existing major releases. PureRAW got released in March. Nik Collection seems to have an annual summer update. Then in the fall (Sep-Oct) we have PhotoLab, which adds in some things from both and some more things of its own. Plus ViewPoint and FilmPack might get a new feature or two at that time, enticing both plug-in users and DxO Suite users (PL+VP+FP) - but also frustrating them with having to either do without some new tools or spend a load on all of it. I imagine PR users might say, “I like this, but wish I had more control over it,” and give PhotoLab a look. PL users might say, “This is great, but not quite complete. What can I gain through addition now and when might DxO address the rest of my problems (assuming they ever will)?”
I’ve come to prefer the idea of keeping the new features coming and simply pay for a year of updates. But DxO might not have enough resources to be able to work on all of its products simultaneously. Actually, I doubt that they’re all developed in-house. DxO also seems to be waiting for some big new redesign rather than gradually putting more finishing touches and improvements on the user interface. If this is the reason the products all seem half-finished, and many problems (even serious ones) aren’t being fixed even after many years, DxO is taking too long, quite frankly. If this isn’t the reason, I can’t imagine what is.
I suppose you have to ask them how they are using their development team resources. We didn’t get Fuji support for PureRaw4 either, but its coming soon. Maybe they will add it to PhotoLab than as well. Could be they are tweaking something else and will bundle it all up later. I don’t know. Could also be marketing decision to try to boost sales of PireRaw 4 and recuperate some of the development cost for it as well. They have been known to try to get people to buy other products in their line, like FilmPack to get some of the features. That is also possible. In the end, I’m sure it will be available in PhotoLab as well.