DXO Background

DxO Pro V 5.1 is a product of earlier versions starting with the DxO Analyzer, an optical test system used by the manufacturers of optical systems and lenses, launched on February 2004 in Las Vegas NV. The software was created by Do Laboratories in Paris France. The first DxO package was introduced a number of years ago and has been updated a number of times with the current 5.x release.

Our evaluations of the previous versions were recently removed from this web side because they no longer filled a useful or needed purpose since the DxO 5.x software has changed and improved drastically.

DxO has gone through a good number of software redesigns eliminating confusion, duplication and improved on a over-complicated workflow. The results in version 5.1 are striking and welcome. Finally there is a piece of software that is usable and to the point yet, DxO could add additional capabilities to make this software more flexible like adding a delete function as related to the selection table and a printing function to print the images.

Acquisition Notes

The Standard version is designed for digital non-SLR cameras (fixed lens) while the Pro Elite version is geared to the professional market and has extensive manual override abilities as well as lens software modules for professional lenses. It is our intent to deliver a functional review on the D-SLR version for  the advanced amateur users only. Ordering DxO can be expensive because it is camera dependent that is, the software will work for one camera only but comes with all lenses as selected and belonging to the respective camera. This means, if you order (downloaded from www.dxo.com/en/photo) the software for a Canon 20D, you can download the software modules for every Canon lens available or just the ones you own. With previous version, If you changed cameras, it would cost you another $149.00 so you better make sure to pick your favorite camera or make sure that is no longer in effect.

You can select the lenses you own or you can select the entire lens line the camera manufacturer makes however, according to DxO, the more lens modules you select/download, the slower the program runs..  A full list of supported camera's and lenses can be found on their (well done) web site. A free, 21 day, fully functional demo with one companion lens (if you are a new customer) is available from their web site. A complete list of supported lens manufacturers such as Sigma is also available on www.dxo.com/modules.

The DxO Demo

As mentioned before, a fully functional demo is available from the www.dxo.com/intl/photo web site however, new customers are limited to one lens. Update customers are free to download all lenses if they want to.  You can try the demo with your favorite lens for 21 days after which it is automatically disabled. If you down load the demo, get the manual as well because you will have questions regarding workflow, color space, file formats etc., which are not elaborated or difficult to assimilate using the demo version.

DxO measures all sorts of lenses and cameras in their labs. The software reads the metadata/EXIF data, identifies not only what camera and lens you used, but the focal length, aperture, ISO and focus distance settings, and then applies exact corrections to the images using a number of application methods.

DxO can process images fully automatically or individually using different presets or adjustments to done to each image. The program is most useful using the automatic method to mass correct images for exposure, color and overall quality then correct those that need special attention such as keystoning, perspective, chromatic problems and the like. The program is also useful when processing Raw images to JPEG format. Post processing can be done with DXO or another capable editor such as Photoshop. I do the latter since DxO has no printing capabilties, I do final processing and printing with Photoshop. 

Lens Imperfections

To some degree, all lenses have imperfections. The ones with lesser imperfections cost more and the ones with more imperfections cost less. Did we ever worry about it? Only at the moment we purchase one. Therefore, professional lenses have few optical problems and have, in my opinion, less use for DxO lens correction software. The market for this software is probably the real photographic hobbyist and advanced amateur. It is this market that would appreciate a lens performance improvement without spending a fortune. This opportunity has come available with the introduction of the digital camera and digital darkroom processing.

It is only recently that the ability was made available by DxO Laboratories, PtLens and Photoshop CS2 but I have never ran every and or all images through any lens correction routine. Only those that were (to me) in obvious need for it such as barrel distortion, red/purple fringing (chromatic aberration) to name e few. Other types of irregularities were visually hard to diagnose so we let them go. Now we are given the opportunity to run every image through a software routine and remove lens irregularities thereby upgrading our images to a higher lens standard. What a country some comic used to say! But think of it, it is indeed quite an opportunity to level the playing field with those who have the better lenses. Having said this let's take a looks at the software.

The Current  5.x Version

DxO had always two versions. One version oriented to the amateur photographer and the other for the professional market. Again, there are two versions and it is the "Standard" version we selected as the one to base our "User Review" on. The Standard version is probable the one most widely purchased and the most useful to family picture takers and the advance amateur market. The "Elite" version for the professional marker has additional capabilities also found in professional photo editors like Photoshop.

Obtainable via the internet www.dxo.com//intl/photo the program can be down-loaded on a trail bases long enough to establish its value and suitability for your needs. Downloading procedures are simple and administrative server software to keep track of who is who and who has what seems very sophisticated and flexible. DxO allows two "down load's" for two computers or, two operating systems. This is generous and makes for good relations and happy customers who can run DxO under Windows and the Intel OS if they are working with an Apple  iMac.

The 5.x version is so far the best DxO effort I have seen and is much simplified over its predecessors. A new window showing the disk file structure is a welcome addition and facilitates quick drive/directory/file selection. They still employ a "project" or batch approach which needs a disk location and file name containing process data and nothing else. Why this is needed is beyond me and will probable confuse a number of users. That same process window contains data input fields for output file location, type of file (jpeg, tiff or dng) and a number of other settings. Multiple process windows can be selected like processing  the same batch with an jpeg and another with a tiff extension.

Images can be selected from a multiple sources. Images are selected one-by-one and the "Select All" button is still missing making it a "pain" ** selecting all images from a large file. Oddly enough, the Mac version has the "Select All" button thus facilitating large file processing. After the image selection process, a label located between the selection and selected windows indicates the next step if all images are to be processed with the same preset and it says,  "Add to my project with:" where you can select the preset of choice. If different presets are used for different images or "keystoning" and the like is required, you need to go the next process pane called "Prepare" for image preparation where every image can be evaluated and corrected manually using DxO presets or your own.

** The 5.3.2 version recently released (01-09) the missing "Select All" button was added however, one has to select an image before it becomes available in he EDIT dropdown box.

Presets

DxO has made a major change in the way presets are created and selected. An old problem still remains and that is the inability to view the DxO presets. There are six of them protected by a padlock icon. These presets can not be viewed nor can settings be changed.  Therefore, one has to run them, one by one,  to evaluate the correction parameters. As suggested in previous review versions if DxO would let the user have access the DxO presets in order to view the settings. One can learn from this and it would help creating your own presets.

The above picture show the preparation window with the nine available image editing functions. Clicking on a icon makes that function available, clicking on the triangular handles moving it from horizontal to downward vertical selects the sub-function's) as required. Larger function icons to select an editing function are available on the left top of the screen.

After preset selection, whether all images are done with one preset or all images are treated individually, the process moves to the next pane by clicking on the Process tab.

Processing the images

The above picture shows the processing pane. The picture to the left is the data input window with a number of drop-down boxes where some of the confusion starts. The large "New Output " button on the provides for a new and empty process window. In the event you want to process in TIFF format you can create an additional process window and leave the current window in tact or, if you want to process in two formats JPEG and TIFF, you can do that too! The problem here is that the "New Output" button is obscure because it is created underneath the current one and therefore not visible until the slider is moved downward. Do not repeat click on the button because you will have many and many new windows. The next little problem has been around for while and that is the "OUTPUT NAME". Output name of what? It is not the name of the output file where the processed images go that's called the "DESTINATION" file. What is it? Well it appears to be a processing data useable for future processing/track or what ever you

have. But where this file is and what it does is not really clear. I named the output name similar as the destination file however, the  project name "untitled2" remained the same. Neither one was on either one of my hard disk. So, what happen to these files?  DxO manual explains that these files end-up in the database file as side cars. What is a side car other than a motorcycle one?

 

The next one is the Destination or Output file. This one makes more sense and, once named and given a location, the images will be in that file. That works! The remainder of the window is self explanatory.

 

The last process feature is the "picture review" where the images can be viewed and inspected for quality difference. Printing the images is not a DxO function and other software is needed.

 

Conclusions

The above is a basic user review and many capabilities of the program have not been discussed. The question is, is it improving the overall quality of an image. The answer to this question is, depending on the quality of the correction preset, yes it does! Do you need it or, would you buy it? If you own a recent Photoshop such as CS2 and up or similar good photo editing software, you don't need it! What ever DxO does, Photoshop can do better and, Photoshop can print! What DxO has over Photoshop and the rest,  that it can auto correct and change the format of a lot of images in relative short time (like changing raw format into JPG or TIFF using the "No Correction" preset) but then there is the printing problem. Why DxO excluded this capability is a mystery! It excludes DxO as a stand-alone image processor.