In part this is driven by changes in technology. But all RAW images do, I find, require Capture Sharpening.As a general statement, I agree Donald, but have modified my view a little over time. I agree that sharpening depends on the image itself. I would find it extremely limiting if it were the only editing tool I had. My work flow is to do as little as possible in the raw converter, so I can get around the weaknesses in the software. Not so much for everyday use, unfortunately. It continues to be my go-to software for images that were shot under difficult lighting conditions and places where I want the utmost in lens profile correction. Integration with Photoshop is acceptable, but not great (hence my preference for ACR). As I am not a fan of the U-Point technology found in Nik as I find it to be fast (good) and crude (i.e. The user interface, speed of the software (especially the Prime noise reduction) are the weaknesses.

The quality of the raw conversions, lens corrections (assuming that they have done the camera / lens one is using), ClearView haze reduction and noise reduction are superb. Richard - I've read the linked review and as a long-time user of DxO products, I would have to say that the assessment in the article matches my own experience with this software.Īs I don't use a DAM tool, I find the DxO approach totally to my liking. As an example there is no profile available for my Nikkor f/3.5 24mm PC-E lens, so this option does not even show up for images taken with that lens. If that does not exist or has not been installed on your machine, you cannot access this functionality. The only proviso for using this function is that there has to be a camera / lens profile that has been installed on your computer for the camera / lens combination used for the image in question. Using this data, they have designed algorithms that not only take care of some of the curvature and aberrations, but also a way of counteracting some of the softening outside of the more traditional techniques like USM. This allows DxO to understand the 'flaws' of each lens, at different focal lengths, focus distances and apertures. What DxO has always done is to test lenses and develop a performance profile of each one. I have upgraded DXO and am quite impressed with 'DETAIL > Noise reduction - RAW' (high ISO) function and 'DETAIL > Lens Sharpeness.' Does anyone know how 'Lens sharpness' differs from Unsharp Mask?Unsharp mask is a generic technique that increases microcontrast at boundaries of light and dark areas of the image.

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