DxO Photolab 7 Elite edition - InDepth Review - The Best RAW Editor of them All?
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- DxO's highly capable RAW editor just got a welcome point release update to version 7. I took the new Elite release for a spin, tested the new features and put it through its paces. (Sorry about the sound at the end there - looks like my hum removal plugin in Final Cut Pro shit itself at the end of the render).
- Jak na to + styl
Just bought it. As a simple hobbyist, probably all programs would work for me. What made me choose Photolab is that as far as I know, it's the only program you can actually own when you buy it and don't rent it as a subscription.
There are many others that can be bought outright
Lightroom was tempting - including the price. But ending the subscription would mean I would lose access to my project files. I’m so glad that perpetual licenses are holding the line.
No it’s not. There are plenty of photo editors you can own perpetually. ON1 Photo RAW and ACDSee Photo Studio being two of them amongst others.
love your straightforward and authoritative review. thanks
Thank-you kindly - I appreciate it :)
Great video Andy- I've been doing some research on photo editing software as, quite frankly, I've grown tired of Adobe's pricing model. Very informative and straightforward review with no BS attached. Looking forward to learning getting acquainted with DxO.
It's a great app, that's fur sure. :)
Thanks for the great video. Being a long time LR and PS user I came across DXO when my DJI Mavic 3 Pro raw files were not recognized in LR. I watched this and a few DXO demos and bought it right away. I like control of my raw files not software. Thanks again helping solve a big problem.
You won't find a better RAW editor on the market at the moment. I've tested all the current versions and DxO's a long way ahead of the competition :)
Great review Andy. I'm just getting back into photography after a very long time and have been looking at the different apps available. For me I just want to get the most from my photos and not add/remove things or add 'special effects'.
I think this honest review has swayed me towards DxO PhotoLab.
Thanks Chris. Sounds like it'll be a good fit. Give the free trial a good go and you'll see pretty quickly whether it fits your post-processing workflow. :)
I liked this guy’s low key style. I subscribed. Will update to 7 version.
Appreciate it - and thanks for the sub :)
I've just upgraded from Photolab 6 to 7 and I love it.
Thanks Joanne - it is indeed a great app :)
Excellent detail about DXO photolab 7 I also own LR and PS plus Capture 1 pro 23. The advantage of capture one is the photo import feature which breaks down your photos into similar groups and as a wildlife photographer shooting in burst mode this is it's best feature. For a long time DXO has always had better retention of detail in skies but I want to expand a bit on the difference between LR and DXO denoise. You only showed a photo at ISO 6400 but where DXO excels is above that and even before deep prime XD deep prime could denoise a photo at ISO 25600 and still retain colour and detail which no other denoise can do although Topaz is now getting close. I usually process my photos in LR and use their denoise but special photos I want to take further I process in PL7. Sometimes if I have a big batch I will do them in photolab as a batch with a preset I have made for those photos. The biggest drawback of PL 7 and everything before is you cant see a full size preview of a denoised photo unless you send it to an external editor or save the photo but I still believe it has the best denoise and colours of any app.
There's a good reason for the use of 6400 - I don't have any higher than that :) I will find some online and see how it does. I agree with your findings and guess that the main take-away is that there's no single app that does it all and you have to use a few different ones to arrive at the solution that works for your particular processing style.
Really helpful advice on the Deep Prime XD denoising algorithm. I have been using it all the time, without thinking, so now I need to revisit my decision.
Thank-you. It does have its uses, that algorithm, but for 99% of my shots the regular version does a cleaner job. :)
@@Andyhutchinson I have compared the denoising algorithms on a number of my photos. In many cases, Deep Prime and Deep Prime XD were indistinguishable. On one, XD noticeably lost quite a lot of detail on someone’s face. In general, I feel that XD might be better, but it seems to depend on the particular photo.
nice summary. very helpful.
Thank-you :)
I like your Style. Nice Work. Thank you! As Adobe has gotten to nosy for my comfort, I´ll give it a Testdrive today.
Hope you enjoy it!
So many photo-editing apps have improved greatly and much more with the use of AI. Even the raw images I took some ten years back with my old DSLRs are now fantastic looking - devoid of noise together with improved sharpness and color rendition.
Yea I did that too - went back through the archives to see what these apps could do for my old Canon 550D shots - it's a lot of fun. :)
Agree would like to see update of masking tools. My primary editor is C1, but I absolutely hate their messed up pricing structure and don’t tell you what updates till you pay for upgrade. . I also use DXO 7 and nik and am ready to dump C1 if DXO updated upoint.
Been with DxO since PL5. Was happy processing my raw images in other software but the lens and camera corrections in DxO are what sold me. I use PL7 Elite exclusively now.
I don't use PL7 exclusively, I use it in combination with FilmPack 7, ViewPoint 4, Nik Collection 6 and Affinity Photo 2. It's brilliant and the results are practically perfect. 🙂
Have you noticed many differences in the processing? I am on PL5 and wondering if it is worth the upgrade to PL7. My main point of interest is with the ClearView Plus tool
@@skeelo221 The improvements are subtle . I don't use Clearview very much. Mostly I like DxO for it's lens and camera adjustment database.
Thank you for your excellent intro to Photolab 7 and your no nonsense take on it. I downloaded the free trial and it is excellent, except there is a noticeable colour shift on my olympus micro 4/3rds images. I have tried using no colour corrections and a myriad of different settings (including the specific camera settings) but to no avail. The shift is not linear so not correctable even with complex curves. Any suggestions?
Thank-you. Not heard that one. I suggest you contact DxO directly - they take their camera corrections extremely seriously and I suspect they'd be interested in any problematic camera profiles. In the mean-time - perhaps download DxO's PureRAW converter and see if the same issue occurs (which would point to a flaw in their demosaicing engine, rather than a bug in Photolab). :)
I first started using DxO a long time ago after comparing a number of different raw processors and found it was much better with my Olympus files than any other I tested. Still using micro 4/3rds and getting excellent results "out of the box". Sounds like a problem with your set up.
Odd, I use Olympus(Em1ii) and find the colour very neutral in PL with no obvious changes. And yes, I do have a calibrated monitor :-)
Thanks for the upload, interesting. I've got PL7 and Film Pack seven...As you say they are great at some things , other apps are good at others. I still think DXO has the best Raw converter, and PL7 gives a good conversion with a few tweaks, better colour and DR. I will finish stuff off in Photoshop/ light-room for more complex edits. I sometimes run a Photoshop layer and re-do the remaining background noise in Topaz at the end for very high ISO/noisy files.
Definitely has the best RAW demosaicing in my opinion - particularly in conjunction with the lens and camera data they also apply to the image. :)
Thanks for a good overview and comparison. I'm getting a Lumix FZ1000 mkII soon (next to Sony RX100 mkIII) and am looking for an app to get the most out of its images (will probably shoot both RAW and JPEG). Now importantly, I'm not a wizard on the laptop... just looking for a tool to enhance whatever comes out of the camera. Do you think DXO PL7 would work as a general app for that? Or would Lightroom be a better choice?
DxO is actually a good choice if you're new to RAW editing. I suggest you start with the basics - get comfortable with the default sliders you get in all RAW apps (highlights, shadows, colour balance etc) and then progress on to its more advanced features safe in the knowledge that you're starting out with the best RAW editor on the market.
nice review without stutters or mumbling I hear on other reviews. A pro review. I edited a photo and now I want to save it. PL7 does not have a "save" in the File menu on my Mac. Is that because it does not use a catalog? I've been using Lightroom and not seeing a "save" option in PL7 is nearing mental breakdown territory. Can you explain what I am missing? The raw photo file is located on an external hard drive. I know that I can export the file as a way of saving it. Thanks for the review and tips.
Thanks David. Basically the edits are recorded in the catalog and you don't need to save. Every change you make in Photolab - highlights, colour balance etc - all get stored away as you edit and there is no need to save. You need only export when the photo is ready and you need to change it from a RAW to a regular image format like JPEG.
I think I'm going to try the trial version of photolab7 on my raw fuji, even if I'm not convinced of the color management of DXO compared to C1 by watching CZcams videos like yours, I find them too much flashy and unnatural.
Thank you for this video which motivated me to give it a try!
If you prefer the natural look with no tweaks to vibrance or saturation it can definitely deliver that.
@@Andyhutchinson ..." it can definitely deliver that...", you mean C1 or PL7?
Photolab.
@patricklancien1506 did you tried photolab7? Wich si better for RAF files, C1 or PL7?
@@victormanuelsanchezsanchez2344 In my opinion C1.
Great video Andy!
Glad you enjoyed it
Was this video review for the DxO Photolab 7 "Essential" or "Elite" version? Is there a major difference between the 2, because I couldn't quite understand what the differences might be.
Good point, thankyou. It was the Elite version. Difference between the two is basically all the good stuff - the AI denoising, the ClearView tool, Fuji RAW file support, LUTs and numerous other diffences. I wouldn't recommend the Essential version. I will update the title of this video accordingly.
Will be upgrading to PL7 Elite edition shortly. I assume the DXO Pure Raw's 4 noise engine is identical to Deep Prime XD
Yea - you get the (excellent) XD in Photolab 7. No doubt XD2 will be added to either Photolab 8 or a point released for Photolab 7.
I'm still on Photolab 6 because I hate the new local adjustment UI. I much prefer having the controls on the U-Points rather than mousing back and forwards to the right panel. Incidentally, there was a local adjustment panel in PL6 too, it just didn't have all the controls on it, you could only adjust the masks. But I am tempted by the new camera colour calibration tools in 7. Hopefully 8 will suit me better when it appears.
Yea I'm looking forward to 8 too. Now that's PureRAW 4 is out the door hopefully it's not far away.
Andy, thank you for an excellent review. I have been using the DXO PL since V6 and have been using the PL7 happily (still learning it.)
It would be great if you consider doing a more in depth one 😃
Glad it was helpful! Definitely planning more DxO content. :)
What do you consider best RAW engine specifically for Fuji files?
Adobe ACR/LR is not very good for X-Trans demosaic :-(
Thank you.
I’m sticking with PL6 for now. I don’t like the changes to the local adjustment UI, I far prefer the controls to be on the control point. They took them off on Nik and have now put them back as a user configurable option. As for the DAM, I used to use Bridge(it’s free!) but since PL6 I’ve stopped and now use PL, it’s perfectly adequate for me with projects and virtual copies and stars, colour tags and picks. You didn’t cover PLs cloning tools which are IMHO a real area of weakness, even though they did improve in v6. I would like to get their colour calibration feature though, so I’ll probably upgrade when v8 comes out.
Yea fair comment - I did test the clone and agree - it sucks.
So no exposure blending(stacking) or stitching? It seems impossible to find an alternative to LR that is complete.
This is true. Lightroom is unique in its kitchen sink approach, most of the other developers stick to a fairly rigid RAW development process. I guess Luminar gets closest, but Luminar isn't a very good RAW processor.
I find the best combination for me is DxO Pro RAW for the initial development then Luminar Neo for the creative edit.
Nice. Sounds like a good combo :)
Thanx, have you tryed silkypix pro 11?
I haven't - but I will check it out. :)
I used to be a huge fan of it, but then they made PureRaw and that's all I really need. Batch-process everything to DNG and ten proceed to ON1 ;)
Yep, it's a great solution - leverage the power of that demosaicing engine and camera/lens profiles and then tweak in the RAW editor of choice. :)
does it work with Sony A6700 raw files uncompresses ARW as i get errors using raw3 so not sure i want to buy if not working
Best bet is to give the trial version a go and run a few tests. :)
Fantastic, liked, subbed, having fun with photography and I'll check out your drone stuff bro
Appreciate it - and welcome :)
I am experiencing a problem with the Local Adjustments Tab. After I finish with a feature and want to turn the Local Adjustments Tab off and move to another editing feature, I can't do it. Local Adjustment can not be turned off. Can you help me?
Not an issue I've encountered - definitely one for the DxO support.
working with dxo control points can produce very natural looking results. when only a few lokal adjustments are need it is also the fastest option. c1 is laborious in comparison with at the end often inferior results. for complex local adjustments adobe is now far ahead of every other software on the market.
Absolutely. :)
Switching from Capture One. DxO has better imaging, better purple-fringing removal; lens softness removal; noise reduction.
100%. :)
Thanks for the review. Looks like you'd benefit from a real NAS computer.
You bet
Given: I left Hassie when GFX showed up. Shot the Fuji GFX series since it came out.
Have PhotoLab 5, fully updated, since it came out but never much cared for it.
Today is the first day I have had to fire up my new Hasselblad X2D 100 and 30mm XCD lens.
Until this month I have done all my landscapes in C1 with my GFX 100s files, together stronger than either alone.
Personally, for a chap that shoots only landscapes, C1's Library and file management logic is poor at best. But once I get the images into C1 the way I want to work, their toolset I have felt is great, and in particular, their RAW RIP is far better than Adobe, to my eye.
Today after shooting off 100+ clicks on the X2D, updated to the latest Phocus.
Amazed at how much I am annoyed by the still-dead Phocus - I thought in the 6 years since I sold my H5D50WiFi there should have been great strides in Phocus. Nope!
So fired up DXO and saw that unlike C1, it opens 3FR AND applied a module for my lens on that X2D! Wow, was impressed with it, but PL5 just leaves me feeling like "something is missing" compared to C1.
So off I go to CZcams to see what are the opinions of DXO's PL new versions.
Stumbled across Mr. Hutchinson's piece, and was impressed - seem like a straight shooter! Refreshing to say the lease.
Then said, let's hit up DXO and see if they have an upgrade path!
Arrive at their site and I'm totally turned off!
You either accept 100% of the invasive settings (Accept All) of their website, or you just don't get in to look around, and see what it will cost to upgrade, then spend your money!
Unless there is a "Secret Handshake" I am not aware of that lets me select what other internet sites offer, "Strictly Necessary", my money stays in the bank!
As a retired software developer on Cray/SGI for 12 years back in the days of "Super Computers, what I was confronted with by in their policy, cost them a sale.
Let me know IF there is a "way in" that meets my approval, and I might reconsider.
Do you mean the cookie pop-up? I always just decline the cookies. Or is this something in the shop itself? The T&Cs? In the smallprint it says
"In relation with the processing of your personal data, you have the following rights: some of which are subject to specific conditions: right of access, right of rectification, right of deletion, right of limitation and right to object to processing by sending a request to DxO’s customer service at any time at support.dxo.com/hc/en-us ." So you could upgrade and then request deletion. Be a shame to miss out because it really is a genuinely great app. (I'm not sponsored incidentally - just like the software). :)
Andy, Yesterday, when I went to their site, "Cookies" is the first and only popup that instantly appears on my monitor, well, there was NO field to Accept/Done only "essential" that was valid until I accepted all of their criteria yesterday when I tried to log in and see if they had an upgrade path. I tried 3 different times to not accept their full set of "cookies".
So yesterday I sent them an email and complained in detail.
Just now, after getting your note I tried and got in, there was a field for "Done"! I found an upgrade for $109.00 and just now tried to purchase it.
I selected purchase, entered my CC #, was handed off to another site that is the bank, want to confirm and I was fine with that - "Send a Text".
Here is the funny part: My iPhone normally passes the call to my Mac Studio Ultra, shows who is calling, and I accept or dismiss.
Instead of a "text" I get a recorded voice phone call that says I must enter # in the field as it is a voice call, but there is no field and I received NO text message with a code, only a text with number to press to get the code, but that opens up "Contact" to create a new contact instead of taking me to a code.
I guess, I just saved $109.00 by not buying it!
Best to you,
Jack
@@Andyhutchinson
lol - sorry Jack. I know the DxO guys read comments on videos like mine about their producuts, so perhaps they'll reach out to you. :)
I finally got it done!
Now, to see what it will do for me and my works.
Be Well,
Jack@@Andyhutchinson
The last thing I am concerned about in a raw editor is it's ability to manage my library, but I do agree that the masking capability and features is a serious deficient part of the program and I have let that be known. I have yet to upgrade to Photolab 7 due to the lack luster upgrade features from 6. Maybe black Friday will entice my wallet.
Maybe download the trial on a second email address and road test it. Be interested to hear what you think about it.
Not having a library function at all (affinity photo) can be frustrating so I like pl7 just for that function. Imagine only having windows explorer to preview images. 😮
Your table says DxO PhotoLab.. how could I believe your opinions? lol
The table is entitled to its own opinion :)
Still no radial filter.
Control Point brush - Zero Chroma/Zero Luma = radial filter.
Very disappointed in trying Photolab 7 to see how incredibly slow it was in my iMac with 64GB Ram and, worse, how it still doesn’t automatically access folder trees (images inside folders within folders) like almost ever other even basic photo manager/editor there is (PhotoRaw, ON1, Apple Photos itself, LR and even Mylio Photos). Over €200 for the full app and still lacking this basic feature?
Thanks Pat. I'll install PL7 on one of my older MacBooks and see how it runs - in fact I might make a point of doing that for all my reviews moving forwards. Out of interest what generation iMac do you own? As to the folder thing - yea that annoys me too - they're not the only ones that do this and it's such an easy thing to implement.
I bought in because it's not subscription based software. I'm against subscribtions. And it's the best software to edit fuji files.
100% :)
Hey matey, try different zoom levels during your talking head shots to break sentences. 😉 It would suit your "English news anchor cadence"
Thanks for the tip. I did think about doing this but I record and upload in 4K and there's not much wriggle-room on the zoom, but I'll see what I can do. :)
@@Andyhutchinson if you record in 4k you should have a good little bit of crop available. You only need little steps. It's just to make jump cuts a bit more seamless, and to prevent viewers eyes fatiguing.
Doesn’t work with midi controller.
Lightroom is just the GOAT when it comes down to editing. I wish this wasn't the case because of the damn subscription model.
I hear you. :)
It is VERY slow... Especially if you crop.. OMG.. what tedium. I can process 10 co1 files for every one I would do in dxo
Definitely not my experience. Quite the opposite. Faster than C1. As fast as LR.
@@Andyhutchinson so when you have to crop 100 images, how does that go if you have to swing your mouse every time instead of hitting C, or if you have to crop AND ADJUST several other parameters, like rotate, brighten and lower contrast?. I just don't see it. C1 has quick actions now, so it takes seconds to do these adjustments. I can probably do all those in under 5 seconds...
I wish dxo had shortcuts for commonly used commands in the top bar, but I can't seem to locate them....
Photolab 7 for me isn't worth it at all. Reason being it doesn't support the most recent Samsung smartphone past the S4. Decided to try it out and was disappointed to find that out for myself. Unless it was a JPEG, wouldn't work at all. Anyone with a Samsung smart phone and shoot in RAW (DNG) beware.
That's a shame - possibly something they'll update in the future.
@@AndyhutchinsonHope they do so soon as phones are go-to cameras for many.
Samsung smartphones don't produce real raw files from their camera, like Apple. Some real raw files from cameras can be found in last top models from Xiaomi, Realme and Oppo.
Sadly Samsung and Apple apply algorithms on files that cannot be edited. Using RAW label in a totally wrong way. Don't blame DXO for that.
@@furiobisotti8150But if PL7 is compatible with DNG files (which is what Samsung smartphones use) but only to the S3 or S4 (can’t remember which) you would ‘think’ that it would have zero problems with handling the rest and from other smartphones that use DNG files from other brands.
@@jordanking7711 Simple. Because new Samsung devices don't produce raw files. It's a fake definition. It's Samsung, not DXO