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DxO and A900 self-interest thread

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
With all the enthusiasm of the true convert :rolleyes:, after all of two days with the programme, I am becoming something of a DxO Optics Pro Elite enthusiast.

The noise reduction is the best I have seen of any converter, which I now understand to be becasue it applies NR before de-mosaicing based on the noise charactereistics of the camera sensor. See the embedded video here which explains what I am seeing in practice.

However, the purpose of this message is to encourage anyone with an A900 to get DxO llabs to add support to yet more A900 and lens combinations. In particular, I personally would like to see Sigma 12-24mm f/4.5-5.6 EX DG support added and would hope others (Jono?) to follow suit.

Here is the page on their website where requests for lenses can be added.

Link to Request Page for new DxO lens combos

My guess is the more requests they receive for any A900 +lens combination, the higher prioroty the A900 will generally receive.

Quentin
 

picman

Member
Hi Quentin,

I am using C1 and have tried DxO (they've just added the CZ 16-35 to their list of supported lenses which is a good thing). However I am still holding off from getting DxO for the following reasons.

1. I've "developped" some pictures simultaneously in C1 and in DxO starting from the same raw file and found the colors of DxO off (that is a personal thing of course). Do you have a similar experience of different colors or is it something I did wrong?

2. I find DxO very slow, especially creating tiff files from developped raw files is imho ridiculously slow. Have you tried that?

3. The fact that you always have to zoom to at least 75% to see various changes to me too is annoying.

I really wanted to like this software because it has a nice workflow and lots of goodies, especially the specific lenscorrections. Now if only C1 would incorporate that in their software.

I might still get DxO though. Like to hear your take on the points above.

Cheers, Bob.
 
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Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Hi Bob,

1. Colours seem to be OK to me, but then again I am happy to tweak them in Photoshop.

2. It is a tad slow, even on my new i7 Vista 64 bit machine. Its a little slower than SilkyPix used to be but not by much. I can live with it.

3. Agreed, but the lack of an image browser is more annoying to me.

I guess the positives outweigh the negatives for me. But they do seem to be improving it and it's already just so good when it works that I would prefer to live with the limitations and get the low noise and sharp corrected images it can generate.

Cheers

Quentin
 

Braeside

New member
Thanks for the heads-up Quentin.

Just tried DxO on my Mac, it has wonderful lens distortion correction - love the auto de-vignette and the CA and purple fringe removal is also ace. Tried a few high ISO shots from the A700 and it was pretty good on the auto setting. Have not taken anything at high ISO on the A900 yet to try out.

I am not sure how I would work this in to my workflow which is basically Aperture, if they had an import into Aperture plug-in then it would be useable.

It is very slow to process, I guess there will always be a trade-off between quality and speed, but it is frustratingly slow at present. If they improve the speed by a couple of orders of magnitude and integrate it into Aperture I would go for it.

A bit too expensive for the elite version if I was only going to use it on a few important images. I can't see me using it for every image due to the time overhead it entails.

I'm pleased that they give a fully working demo, it is essential to be able to evaluate these programs on your own hardware.
 

Braeside

New member
Hi David,

Yes, it is a bit pricey, and you need the Elite version to get A900 support.:mad:

But it is good.:clap:

Quentin
Yes I know Quentin, so do I.

I am still evaluating it and I must say the results are superb. I am going back through some wide angle shots taken with the Sony 11-18mm on my old A700.
Although I could correct some distortion with PTLens, this is another thing altogether - especially the Volume Anamorphosis tool, where you can turn spheres spherical at the edge of the frame where they had become stretched by the lens. I can see me getting this in the future.:thumbup:
 

woodyspedden

New member
I tried DxO years ago when it first came to the market and kept updating through any number of versions.

It does some things (like distortion corrections) really well.

My biggest gripe, (and I think it still continues) is waiting for them to add lenses to their repertoire. A raw converter that doesn't have appropriate lens support is virtually useless.

I am a fan of C1 and really a fan of Raw Developer (which of course is only available for us MAC folks) so I won't be buying a copy of DxO any time soon.

Just my humble opinion

Woody
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
In the video (see link in first post) DxO said they had added a new lab to speed up the adding of new modules. They seem to have added quite a few to the A900 already.

I haven't tried the Anamorphosis tool yet, but it looks cool, David:). I can see it would be brilliant with the Sigma 12-24mm (please go vote for it!).

Not everyone "gets" the point of DxO Optics Pro, but now I have it, I can't imagine using any other converter.

Quentin
 

Braeside

New member
I suspect that there is little hope for them supporting the multitude of third party lenses, my Tamron 17-35 being one, but hopefully the Sigma 12-24 would be popular enough.
I did have a Sigma 12-24 a few years ago, but felt the copy I had was poor and I sold it, perhaps a mistake.

I can see I will need to upgrade to the CZ 16-35 sometime if I want DxO support - where does this end?
 

edwardkaraa

New member
When Sony releases its Free new Super Raw Converter with lens corrections, exceptional demosaicing algorithms, Super noise reduction, automatic horizon correction, dust removal and all, you'll all regret having shed 250 euros for a virtual thing :ROTFL:
 

Braeside

New member
When Sony releases its Free new Super Raw Converter with lens corrections, exceptional demosaicing algorithms, Super noise reduction, automatic horizon correction, dust removal and all, you'll all regret having shed 250 euros for a virtual thing :ROTFL:
That is the danger Edward :bugeyes:
 

picman

Member
Hi Quentin,

I got DxO as a possible alternative to use versus C1, which I still prefer, but now I am giving DxO a serious run and I found some problems with the crop tool which maybe you could resolve.
1. Manual says a black dotted rectangle is created: not true, it is a white full line with handles. Is this it?
2. Manual says clicking outside the rectangle will make it disappear: not true, I can click all I like it will not go away.
3. How do you enlarge the crop to the full size of the viewer once you are committed?

Thanks, and cheers, Bob.
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Edward what raw converter do you use? Are you on a Mac or PC.
Thanks
Steven
I'm on a PC and for the time being still using IDC3. I am actually convinced since I started digital that the manufacturers know their cameras best and even though their software might not be the most practical, but at least you get perfect colors at the standard settings. I have been spoiled by Canon's DPP that developed into an amazing program, and while Sony's IDC is still far from there, I have no doubt that they will eventually get it right especially that they are serious in competing on the Dslr market.
 

kuau

Workshop Member
I'm on a PC and for the time being still using IDC3. I am actually convinced since I started digital that the manufacturers know their cameras best and even though their software might not be the most practical, but at least you get perfect colors at the standard settings. I have been spoiled by Canon's DPP that developed into an amazing program, and while Sony's IDC is still far from there, I have no doubt that they will eventually get it right especially that they are serious in competing on the Dslr market.
Thanks Ed,
What setting do you use on your A900 because the way I understand it is IDC3 reads those in with the raw file true?

Steven
 

Quentin_Bargate

Well-known member
Hi Quentin,

I got DxO as a possible alternative to use versus C1, which I still prefer, but now I am giving DxO a serious run and I found some problems with the crop tool which maybe you could resolve.
1. Manual says a black dotted rectangle is created: not true, it is a white full line with handles. Is this it?
2. Manual says clicking outside the rectangle will make it disappear: not true, I can click all I like it will not go away.
3. How do you enlarge the crop to the full size of the viewer once you are committed?

Thanks, and cheers, Bob.
Hi Bob,

1. I am getting a black dotted rectangle on mine

2. clicking outside (with the crop too still selected) works fine for me

3. Agree on this: I can't sem to get rid of the edges that I have cropped. With Silkypix, it was easy to discard the cropped area

Cheers

Quentin
 

edwardkaraa

New member
Thanks Ed,
What setting do you use on your A900 because the way I understand it is IDC3 reads those in with the raw file true?

Steven
Yes, exactly. I personally use the creative styles extensively as I have found files need no to very little tweaking after I select the right style. My favourites are standard, landscape and vivid. Whatever you do, make sure you turn off noise reduction for each file individually. The default setting is auto, which is equivalent to NR off in the camera (which still does some NR even on this setting).
 
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