That said, if you have a good library system already and need just a good raw processor and you only shoot popular modern cameras, then DxO might be a good raw processor for you. The toolset is good, the output is good, it’s easy to manipulate images and get prettier pictures, but it can’t see dng files from the C5050, it won’t flip my negatives right way around, the pricing structure is overly-complicated and has too many options, and it doesn’t have a library. The Smart Lighting, ClearView, and Noise Reduction are pretty good, though you wouldn’t know it from this review… Others mention it ad nauseam, so I don’t think I really need to. They’re both competent raw developers, to be sure, but this isn’t a DxO vs C1P article, it’s (nominally) a review of DxO.ĭxO OpticsPro is undoubtedly one of the better raw converters out there. And, anyway, I’m not so sure what any of this proves: DxO is sharper than C1P out of the box, but only by a tiny amount and probably because its camera profiles have some sharpening baked in Capture One and DxO exposure and contrast sliders work differently, as do other things like the Micro Contrast/Clarity sliders but that’s about it. The colors are still ever so slightly brighter in C1P, and the shadows are a bit muddier or softer or something too… I’d try to do a bit more, but it’s late and there’s no need to try to get exactly the same image out of two different raw processors. That sounds ominous, but I decided to try anyway and loaded a couple of C-5050 dngs into DxO. But then I saw the note that DxO will work “with RAW files that have already been converted into DNG format, so long as the original RAW file is also supported by DxO OpticsPro.” That’s somewhat fewer cameras than C1P, which supports “more than 300” according to its rather outdated camera support page, but neither of them touch the C-5050Z.Ĭ1P will happily play around with the dng files that Lightroom (or Adobe’s DNG creator) creates from the ancient ORFs, and I assumed that DxO would too. Well, when you click it, *poof* sliders at last.Īnyway, the negative conversion went more or less without a hitch, except for the lack of flip. So let’s skip right to the Negative Conversion…Īfter getting the white balance close with Red Green and Blue tone curves (it wasn’t easy-I spotted a tiny little ‘+’ in the lower right hand corner of the White Balance panel. So this will be a bit different than the other reviews, a bit more perfunctory, in many respects. Metcalf, once I found that there was no way to flip an image in DxO,** I knew it wasn’t going to be useful for me long term, and so I decided to just have some fun. With apologies to the developers and to Dr. If you’d like to see a bit more, including a 2 hour shoot-out between DxO and C1P, read on… I’ll give you my first thoughts right up front: 1) DxO is capable of rendering fine details in ways that other programs simply can’t* and 2) the omission of a flip option renders it useless to me, given that I scan film from the emulsion side and therefore require a flip to get things back right again. Much like C1P, I had no intention to test DxO, and much like C1P, I’m glad I did. Much thanks to Franz Metcalf for his comment on the Capture One review and encouragement to test out DxO.
Installation: usual dmg & drag to applications folder. (See here for differences between additions.)
Prices: Essential: $129 Elite $199 add $79 for the View Point plugin to add the geometric corrections that DxO is known for add an additional $129 for the DxO film pack… A suite of all three is available for $289 for the Elite or $189 for the Essential. Program: DxO Optics Pro (In 2017, with version 12, the name was changed to DXO PhotoLab.)