I've finally got round to having a good look at the latest (5.3) version of DxO and have written up a description and some thoughts at a DxO Optics Pro V5.3 review

Having looked at the software since it first came out (Jpeg only!!) it's interesting to see the improved RAW conversion facilities, although I find the whole program just getting 'bigger' in many ways I'm just not inclined to use - still I recognise the market they're aiming at and as long as the whistles and bells don't come at the expense of image quality I don't mind.

I'm just hoping they bring out support for the EF14mm 2.8L II and EF15mm on my 1Ds3 before too long :-)

I have changed from using Capture One 4 to using DXO as my main converter because I liked the result better for my Pentax files.
One thing that I do not like and that DXO's technical support has acknowledged as a potential future improvement to the software is the way DXO handle shadow/highlight clipping and histogram.
In Capture One this information is based on the output color space that you have chosen i.e. histogram and clipping warning (when applicable) will change if you change your output space from ProPhoto to sRGB without changing any parameters.
In DXO that is not the case because both histogram and clipping information is based on a very large internal space only - not on the output space. DXO relies in its ability to make the conversion from large working space to output space but there is no information regarding any clipping or color changes that might occur as a result of getting everything in gamut in a smaller/different shape color space. Note that if you output to a very large color space like ProPhoto or J.Holmes Dcam 5 or 4 it probably does not matter at all.

I am sure that it is just fine for most images but it would be nice to see an histogram related to the output space.

Cheers,

Same applies to ACR / LR I believe.

CO4 is also better than ACR and LR. Too bad.

What I love about using DXO (5.3 for my Mac Pro in this case) is the fact that you can batch process dozens or hundreds of RAW photos with great results and very minimal advance preparation with the DXO settings if you want.

I'm not looking to make giant enlargements with my photos. I print to a maximum of 8 1/2 by 11" and view most of my photos on my 23 " LCD display, or occasionally a 30" display if I trudge up to the Apple store. Results look great on the 30" monitor. Lots better than the stuff that Apple puts into iPhoto for demonstration purposes.

A lot of my photos are made with a Canon 20D and my favorite lens (a Canon 17-40L zoom). Before DXO and raw processing I shot JPEGs on the Canon with this lens and I was always a little unhappy with the results- I always had to apply extra sharpening to the jpegs to make the results acceptable. With DXO the processed RAW files invariably look great and since I usually shoot at aperture priority of f8 the resulting pictures are invariably sharp from edge to edge.

Using DXO can be very simple if you just want to get uniformly good results and are not striving for absolute perfection on each photo (That can be done on an image for image basis if you ARE a perfectionist).

For outdoor or indoor shooting I tend to set just 2 or 3 parameters with DXO:

Under the lighting exposure compensation I set Highlight Preservation to Strong
Under DxO Lighting I set Auto Mode to Medium
Unless there were close-up photos in the batch I leave the distance setting at the default

for outdoor scenes I just hit the Process button and wait for the results which are usually great.

In the case of indoor shooting with incandescent lighting (Church lighting and overhead floods) I make one additional setting (I scroll down to RAW White Balance- I click on "Pick Color" and find one object in the picture that should have been white. I click on the white object and DXO takes over and adjusts the color balance of that photo and every other photo in the shoot (I try to batch process everything in one take- any exceptions or mistakes can be redone when it's over).

The author of one popular website is always bragging about shooting everything in JPEG format direct from the camera. However, with a camera capable of RAW output and a tool like DXO available, shooting in RAW can be as easy as shooting in JPEG with your camera and will yield considerably better results.

DxO 5.3.3 does now support the D3x and A900 with a first limited set of lenses.

Cheers,
Bernard

I'm just looking at DxO for the first time and it seems the DxO (5.3.3) histogram now reflects the output colour space - at least that's what I understand from the manual -

"It’s important to note that shadow and highlight clipping displays are computed in the final output color space, and hence these displays, and any adjustments performed based on them, will be affected if the output color space is subsequently changed."

David

No it does not. The blurb is misleading and totally wrong. When i discussed the issue with their technical support they decided to take it out of the technical FAQ on their web page but did not do it out of the manual.
You will also notice that in DXO you can select multiple output at the same time with multiple color space. So the software would not know which one to select as the reference.

Cheers,

Luc

Oh, that's disappointing. But thanks for the info, Luc.

David

LR yes, ACR no (it provides values and Histogram based on the workflow settings).

I downloaded and tried to test DxO this past week (after having a lot of trouble with LR losing files and other hair-loss invoking behavior).

BUT, no support for DNG files, though in DxO's own words:

"We’ve long been pioneers in establishing compatibility with Adobe technologies and this is no exception. We see Adobe Lightroom as an important platform for photographers and our goal will be to enrich that platform and provide better value for you – the photographer."

DxO supports DNG, but it depends on the workflow you choose.

If you choose to put DxO in front of LR, DxO will take in a RAW file and pass a DNG file to LR.

If you choose to call DxO from LR, then no, it doesn't support returning a DNG. However, this is a limitation of LR, not DxO, as LR only accepts two formats being returned from external editors: TIFF or JPG. (My source for that statement is DxO.)

What DxO seems to miss is the ability to browse raw files at high resolution before selecting for processing.

Say you take ten shots of a model. The first thing you want to check is whether you have nailed the focus properly. You can't do that quickly with DxO. You'd have to use another image browser like Bridge then move back to DxO. From a workflow perspective its a serious omission.

I am a new fan of the program but see this as an obstacle to pro use.

Or have I missed a trick?

Quentin

Nope your not missing anything, I use breeze browser Pro as my browser for sorting and DxO for DSLR processing, C1 for MFDB processing. DxO handles my Canon files better than anything else so I stick with it. To save time with DxO use presets and stacks
Marc