Having read Alain's excellent article I checked out Dx0 (again).

Why do I have to pay $299, rather than $169, just because I have a top Nikon or Canon camera body? All other features are the same in the two versions of the software.

Marketing I guess? but to make myself feel better, I rationalized it as improving 8 lenses and 3 bodies for $300, less than $30 each. Since then I have spent more on plugins for PS.
Marc

It's the same marketing/pricing scheme that ImagePrint uses for their RIP: The more expensive your printer, the more expensive the RIP is, for essentially the same software.

I suppose the justification in each case is that it costs them more to research the more expensive printers/camera bodies/lenses, and folks like us who spend more money on our equipment are likely to be willing to spend more on their software too. I certainly hesitated before I bought DxO Elite 4, but I have found it well worth the big bucks.

And Alain's excellent guided tour of version 5 redeems that one in my estimation.

I still use V4 because V5 is slow to load, slow to load thumbnails and it doesn't remember that I only want to load RAWs (the selection used to be sticky). So I bought V5 but don't really use it much yet. I see little difference in the demosaicing either. I'm waiting for the slow loading thumbnail bug to be fixed before I use it on a daily basis.
Marc

On that basis do you think it's worth the cash?

I guess I'd better do some side by side tests to see if there is a visible difference.

If you can get a copy of V4 yes but if you can only get V5 wait a few more months. DXO has a habit of releasing buggy software but my 5D images are noticeably better with it so it is kind of a love hate relationship. I now love V4 and hate V5.
Marc

I use version 4.5 on my Mac with a Canon 5D. Well worth the price, IMHO.