Which product/s to purchase?

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Hi everyone,

I’m an amateur photographer looking to improve some of my images. I shoot with a Panasonic LUMIX FZ82D Digital Camera, which means I’m working with a fixed lens and body.

I want to get the best possible results from my RAW images and would like to explore DxO’s suite of products. Given that I have no plans to use Adobe software, which DxO tools would you recommend for RAW processing and general image enhancement?

OS is MacOS 15.3.1 (March 2025)

Thanks in advance for your advice!

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If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution, DxO PhotoLab 8 supports your camera’s RAW files and provides a whole suite of tools, especially if you add licenses for DxO’s FilmPack and ViewPoint to it. The bundle is usually available at a discount through DxO’s store (store.dxo.com). You’ll need to look over the features of FilmPack and ViewPoint to see if you want to activate these features in PhotoLab.

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Try PhotoLab 8 Elite, and if your budget allows, FilmPack 7. You can also consider adding Viewpoint to the mix.

PhotoLab has a 30-day free trial. Filmpack and Viewpoint licenses unlock embedded hidden features in PhotoLab and also give you standalone version of those titles. To get the most out of PhotoLab incredible noise reduction tools you need a computer capable of processing them.

Take advantage of the trial to make certain PhotoLab meets your requirements, any cameras and lenses are supported, and you can process the noise reduction features efficiently before you purchase.

Mark

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So, as already advised, take advantage of the fully functional free trial of PL8.

Even though you have stated very clearly you don’t want to use Adobe software that does not preclule you from using PureRAW as your RAW convertor. You can open the output from PR is something like Affinity Photo.

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I would strongly recommend FilmPack for its ‘fine contrast’ tool. You may find FP film processing interesting too, the main FP selling point (although “fine-contrast” sliders are far more important, at least to me). Looking at tone curves in some FP presets can teach you a lot. For some reason ‘Creative Vignetting’ and ‘Blur’ are also part of FP, rather than ViewPoint. Other FP tools are easy to forget.

ViewPoint is useful for Volume Deformation and ReShape tools, other VP tools being already built into PL. The Volume Deformation tool is a must for me, since I’m often forced to do group photos with a wide lens. Also the ReShape tool can help in some specific cases (e.g. expanding the sky to fix cropping problems with perspetive control). These are quite specific things, so perhaps VP features present in PL (e.g. Horizon, Perspective Control) would be enough for you. Check DxO PhotoLab Help pages.

Nik Collection is about RGB editing. You may try SilverEfex and ColorEfex – they have some presets you may like and some specific sliders not available in PL. That’s a longer and more subtle story…

To summarize from my perspective, PhotoLab plus FilmPack is a basic combination, while VP and Nik is up to your choice. You may also consider Affinity Photo (or PhotoShop) for graphics post-editing of PL TIFF exports, the learning curve being much sharper than for PL.

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