DxO PureRAW

[Simone_DF]

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https://www.dxo.com

The new DxO PureRAW looks very promising, especially for cameras that have problems at high ISO like the Q2 and the SL2. It may be a game changer. 

It may be a better alternative to Topaz Denoise

Has anyone tried it? 

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[jaapv]

Not yet, but I certainly will. Reducing noise at the demosaicing stage must be a good idea.
I feel that noise reduction is one of the weaker points of Photoshop/ACR/LR.
Interesting that they advertise it as an addition to Photoshop. Does that mean that they have thrown the towel with Photolab?.

[Bart D]

Photolab is not an alternative for Photoshop.

[Simone_DF]

11 hours ago, jaapv said:

Not yet, but I certainly will. Reducing noise at the demosaicing stage must be a good idea.
I feel that noise reduction is one of the weaker points of Photoshop/ACR/LR.
Interesting that they advertise it as an addition to Photoshop. Does that mean that they have thrown the towel with Photolab?.

That I don't know, but for one I'm not interested in Photolab but I'm interested in this plugin for Lightroom. Maybe they figured out that there's a market for that, and I believe the work to export their noise reduction feature in Photolab into a standalone plugin must be very little, so why not?

[Bart D]

13 minutes ago, Simone_DF said:

That I don't know, but for one I'm not interested in Photolab but I'm interested in this plugin for Lightroom. Maybe they figured out that there's a market for that, and I believe the work to export their noise reduction feature in Photolab into a standalone plugin must be very little, so why not?

I know of a few people using an adobe workflow who have bought PhotoLab to be used only for the noise reduction qualities.
So, I think this "plug-in" will certainly be appealing to a significant group of people.

Also for other workflows like f.i. capture one or affinity.

[Bart D]

19 minutes ago, Priaptor said:

Does it have modules for SL2 and lenses?

Not that I can see: Supported Cameras - DxO

But you can always enter a request: Suggest Module - DxO

 

[Bart D]

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8 minutes ago, Priaptor said:

Thanks. I did that with the original DXO Photolab when I got my SL2 last May. Still waiting. I wasn't sure if this Raw had some support. 

It uses the same camera-lens modules.

[RoySmith]

The SL(601) is supported but the only Leice L- Mount lens supported is the Vario-Elmarit-SL 24-90mm f/2.8-4.0 ASPH (RAW) and (JPEG). Many Panasonic L-Mount lenses are supported.

Does DxO PureRAW have any benefit with other lenses on the supported camera bodies, or does it only work with the supported lenses?

Edited April 18, 2021 by RoySmith

[Bart D]

5 minutes ago, RoySmith said:

The SL is supported but only the Panasonic Lumix S Pro 50mm F1.4 (RAW) lens.

The M9 is supported but only the APO-Summicron-M 50mm f/2 ASPH lens.

Does DxO PureRAW have any benefit with other lenses on the supported camera bodies, or does it only work with the supported lenses?

The fact that there is at least 1 camera-lens module means that the camera is supported and that you will be able to process all raw files from that camera..
When there's no camera-lens module for the specific lens you use on the the camera, that just means that there will be no automatic geometrical, vignette and corner sharpness corrections applied.

In PhotoLab, you can do all of these manually of course. When using another workflow, you would need to use your other software to do this.

By the way, there are currently 6 leica lenses supported on the M9/M9-P/ME.
Not just one: Supported Cameras - DxO

And 10 on the SL: Supported Cameras - DxO

[RoySmith]

6 minutes ago, Bart D said:

The fact that there is at least 1 camera-lens module means that the camera is supported and that you will be able to process all raw files from that camera..
When there's no camera-lens module for the specific lens you use on the the camera, that just means that there will be no automatic geometrical, vignette and corner sharpness corrections applied.

In PhotoLab, you can do all of these manually of course. When using another workflow, you would need to use your other software to do this.

By the way, there are currently 6 leica lenses supported on the M9/M9-P/ME.
Not just one: Supported Cameras - DxO

And 10 on the SL: Supported Cameras - DxO

I edited my first reply when I saw how to view the supported lenses. For the SL they support several Leica-T and Panasonic LUMIX lenses, but only 1 Leica-SL lens.
Thanks for the explanation of what PhotoLab will do with Supported Bodies & Unsupported Lenses. If my primary use was for noise reduction and demosaicing images then it would be a consideration.
Sometimes it’s hard to view the improvements in the web photos published. Does DXO have before and after DNG files to download ?

[Bart D]

14 minutes ago, RoySmith said:

I edited my first reply when I saw how to view the supported lenses. For the SL they support several Leica-T and Panasonic LUMIX lenses, but only 1 Leica-SL lens.
Thanks for the explanation of what PhotoLab will do with Supported Bodies & Unsupported Lenses. If my primary use was for noise reduction and demosaicing images then it would be a consideration.
Sometimes it’s hard to view the improvements in the web photos published. Does DXO have before and after DNG files to download ?

Not that I know of but there's the free trail option, there's a number of webinars from DxO and others and the reviews on dpreview and imaging-resource for instance.

Trail version always is my preference since you can experiment with your own files then and make up your mind base on your own findings.
Sometimes the learning curve is prohibitive but this is definitely not the case here 🙂 

[Adam Bonn]

just downloaded the trial and had a quick play

I didn't use the "download M240 and 50 cron APO module" option, as the lens is actually a Planar 🙂 

Not sure what you'll see from a screen grab... but there's a marked reduction in noise (look around her nose)

Both files have zero sharpening/NR 

Which obviously I'd normally use, but I just wanted to share the barebones comparison.

I don't want to comment too much RE usage as I haven't played much... 

I don't see it as a LR (v6) plugin, which if I buy it I'd want to work (probably just needs setting up in the "edit in" function)

On my system at least, it's not super fast... if you're doing a big batch there's time for a cup of tea (or watch Zack Snyder's justice league director's cut 😅)

But the results are very tangible IMO

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[Simone_DF]

13 hours ago, Adam Bonn said:

I don't see it as a LR (v6) plugin, which if I buy it I'd want to work (probably just needs setting up in the "edit in" function)

 

I haven't tried it yet and I may be wrong, but I think the expected workflow is 

- import files from camera into a folder

- dump the folder into DXO 

- import processed files into Lightroom or Capture One or whatever

This is because the noise reduction happens at the demosaicing stage

[Adam Bonn]

1 hour ago, Simone_DF said:

I haven't tried it yet and I may be wrong, but I think the expected workflow is 

- import files from camera into a folder

- dump the folder into DXO 

- import processed files into Lightroom or Capture One or whatever

This is because the noise reduction happens at the demosaicing stage

yeah that's how I did it.

There's a function in pureraw where at the end if offers to open the output in LR, but that didn't work for me... I selected LR from the drop down, then it asked me to locate the LR executable (which I did), then nothing happened 😅

So I had to open LR and import from the pureraw folder

I suspect it's because my LR is v6 and pureraw probably wants CC classic (or whatever the pay per view one is called these days)

When I tested it yesterday, I just dumped the snaps I had on the SD card into preraw.

But last night I took some more targeted test shots (high iso and high iso underexposed type stuff)

I've haven't looked at them yet.

Based on the tiny test I did yesterday I was pretty impressed... impressed enough to add another step* into my workflow and get my credit card out remains to be seen....

Slightly joking... but this could mean my worst case high ISO/pushed M240 RAW workflow is:

Base DNG on SD card^ - import to pureraw^ - import to LR - green shadows plugin^ - NIK define debanding - export 🤣

(with ^ denoting a duplicate file creation)

I ought really to try pureraw on the M9... that's after all more noisy than the M240

 

(*OT but it kinda reminds me of my fuji days when LR demosaicing was shit, so we all bought iridient x-transformer to take that part of the process away from LR. I suspect the duplication of files will be as annoying now as it was then...)

 

Edited April 19, 2021 by Adam Bonn

[Adam Bonn]

righty another quick test

M9.

Shot at iso640 and underexposed 2 stops in camera.

In LR raised 2.14 stops and +57 shadows. Zero NR/Sharpening on either

The effect of dxo pure raw is plain.

Whether or not one considers it too much or a bit artificial or not is down to each of us

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[jaapv]

Looks OK, but hard to tell with the motion blur.

[jaapv]

CL not supported - lost interest.

[Adam Bonn]

2 hours ago, jaapv said:

Looks OK, but hard to tell with the motion blur.

look at the door behind the woman. It's very smoothed out though... It's kept passable detail in the hair and face though

2 hours ago, jaapv said:

CL not supported - lost interest.

My feelings (OMMV) are, might be worth it to save a very noisy shot, but I wouldn't want to run everything though it

I also tried to push an M240 iso3200 shot 2 stops and the colour completely fell apart

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[RoySmith]

It’s a shame that they don’t have a LR plug-in, as without it the workflow looks cumbersome. I certainly would not like to run all my photos through it.

[Simone_DF]

I just tried DxO and unfortunately it doesn't support the SL2 / SL2-S 😞