DxO PhotoLab 5

[Pa]

PhotoLab 5 is announced and available now.

I haven't studied it enough to decide if it's worth it.: $80 for upgrade until Nov. 14.

 

[drr1531]

Has it been a year already? Seems like PL4 just came out.

 

[drr1531]

Looks like mostly performance tweaks. Only major addition seems to be added support for Fuji raw files(beta).

 

[Clix Pix]

Good grief -- I agree with Dan that it feels as though PhotoLab 4 just came out!!!

 

[Pa]

The new version always comes out in the Fall. They usually have enough new features and improvements to tempt me into springing for it, but maybe not this year.

The improved U-point feature sounds modestly intriguing, but that is all.

 

[Tim Robinson]

I'm not upgrading this time. I barely use it and Topaz's denoise has gotten good enough to the point where I'm not really needing the one thing I bought into DxO for.....

 

[Clix Pix]

Come to think of it, you're right, Jim -- I remember now that when I first bought PhotoLab it was in the autumn of 2019 and it was PhotoLab 3, and then last year in the autumn was when we had the update to PL 4.... Time marches on inexorably!

I've been mulling over the idea of taking the leap into Lightroom, but am waiting to do that until after the next MacOS release, Monterey, which is coming soon. It may be that I decide that I prefer Lightroom, in which case I would still hang on to DXO PL for some of the things I especially like about it but just not update to PL 5. Something to think about over the next few weeks!

 

[Pa]

Time marches on inexorably!

Dang it!

I've been mulling over the idea of taking the leap into Lightroom, but am waiting to do that until after the next MacOS release, which is coming soon. It may be that I decide that I prefer Lightroom, in which case I would still hang on to DXO PL for some of the things I especially like about it but just not update to PL 5. Something to think about over the next few weeks!

There is no way I would be going back to Lightroom.

 

[Clix Pix]

I've never tried Lightroom -- well, I did very briefly, actually, come to think of it. Years ago when it first came out, I did a trial of it but that was also when Apple released Aperture, and so of course I went with Aperture and loved that software. I wish Apple hadn't dropped Aperture! Anyway, during my search in 2018-2019 for something to replace Aperture nothing seemed quite "right" to me, comfortable to use, until I hit upon DXO and decided, "aha! This is it!" Ticked most of my boxes and I enjoy using the program. Feels intuitive to me and I can get done what I want to get done fairly easily without a lot of excess stuff getting in the way, features and functions that I'll never use. That was a problem I had with Capture One Pro, which was totally overkill for me.

 

[drr1531]

I've never tried Lightroom -- well, I did very briefly, actually, come to think of it. Years ago when it first came out, I did a trial of it but that was also when Apple released Aperture, and so of course I went with Aperture and loved that software. I wish Apple hadn't dropped Aperture! Anyway, during my search in 2018-2019 for something to replace Aperture nothing seemed quite "right" to me, comfortable to use, until I hit upon DXO and decided, "aha! This is it!" Ticked most of my boxes and I enjoy using the program. Feels intuitive to me and I can get done what I want to get done fairly easily without a lot of excess stuff getting in the way, features and functions that I'll never use. That was a problem I had with Capture One Pro, which was totally overkill for me.

If you're using the catalog in PL4 and are happy with it I recommend sticking with it. It's far superior to LR for editing. So unless you need LR for the catalog or want access to PS for layer editing there's no need to go there. PL is the premier software for NR and lens corrections.

 

[Pa]

In addition to being a photo editor and raw converter, Lightroom is a sophisticated database management program. You can't work on images until you "import" them into LR. Once you do that, you can't move those files anywhere else on your computer without doing it within LR or it will not be able to find them.

If you like the database management features and want to go through the process of importing and cataloguing all the image files on your computer, I'm sure it has some advantages.

I much prefer DxO because it just works within the folder structure on your computer.

 

[Clix Pix]

Thank you both for bringing up things about which I had been concerned and am definitely going to be looking at closely before or if I press the "trial" button! The catalog thing is definitely a concern, as I prefer to keep my images under my control, not under the control of some software. With PhotoLab 3 and 4 I have been free to set up folders the way I want, and I definitely prefer that! I am also bad about keywording and tend to skip that so yeah, this would add something to my workload when editing if it is deemed more necessary to do in Lightroom. I usually give my folders a meaningful name along with the date and so far I have not had any problem finding a specific image that I recall having shot last year or whatever..... I was more concerned about the editing features and functions in Lightroom than the database/cataloging features....

Kind of ironic, actually, that someone who started out her career in the library world as a cataloguer avoids this type of thing now! To be honest, I wasn't all that fond of cataloging, even when I was being paid to do it, and was much happier when eventually I went into working as a reference librarian -- suited my interests and personality much more!

 

[drr1531]

There's nothing in LR to prevent you from setting up files the way you want. You just need to do it within LR in order to keep file and catalog structure the same. Otherwise you can have files scattered all over your computer and look perfectly organized in the LR catalog. Also no requirement for keywording. But attributes and keywords are what makes the search engine go.

All that said if you're already happily organized LR doesn't bring much to the party.

 

[NCV]

I need to have DXO on my computer so that I can process my old M43 Olympus shots, as it was the only program that cured the horrid CA's with my Panasonic 12-35. I quess I can skip this version as it works well with those files. But I prefer Capture 1 for my Nikon shots.

 

[Mike Buckley]

If you don't want to hassle with LR's catalog, simply use Photoshop and it will automatically launch Adobe Camera Raw when a raw file is loaded. ACR has the exact same editing engine as Lightroom, so everything that can be accomplished in one can be accomplished in the other. The difference is the user interface.

If you're dead set on using LR's user interface to edit your images but don't want to use its catalog, you can remove the image files from the catalog upon exporting them. Having done that, you can move them around using whatever method you want. When using that workflow, you're using LR only to edit the images, not to catalog them or keep track of them. I did that for awhile before switching to ACR.

 

[Clix Pix]

I used Photoshop years ago -- last time was CS 3, so a while ago! It's not totally unfamiliar to me. I'm just mulling over this-and-that and thinking about possibilities for the future but I don't want to muck up the way I've already got things set up, too. Fortunately, no urgency here one way or the other..... Thanks, Mike, for letting me know that I can remove the image files from the catalog after exporting them. Good to know!

 

[davidzvi]

Figures they finally add x-trans support after I finally bit the bullet and upgrade to the LR subscription.

Edit: Well there are still a few formats it doesn't support that I have so .......

 

[Mike Buckley]

I used Photoshop years ago -- last time was CS 3, so a while ago! It's not totally unfamiliar to me.

It would be difficult for you to imagine the capabilities that have been added to the ACR plug-in since the last time you used it.

 

[Pa]

I discovered today that even the latest update to PL 4 does not support the Zfc.

 

[Palouse]

I discovered today that even the latest update to PL 4 does not support the Zfc.

PL 5 does