DXO is the company name and they have multiple products. Photolab is the standalone, full featured alternative to Lightroom while PureRaw is the more limited version that works as a plugin to LR. Both include NR.
I don't use Adobe products anymore. I believe DXO PL offers direct export to Photoshop and LR, but it is a standalone program. Topaz has moved away from separate modules, with only Gigapixel and AI remaining. The modules, like denoise, are way overshadowed by the new software, but it takes a modern, powerful computer to fully take advantage of what it is capable of doing.
RoamingScott wrote:
I don't know if you use LR at all Steve, but their denoise has gotten better than Topaz IMO...Topaz has a nasty habit of making bokeh very splotchy.
I don't use LR, just Capture One. The subscription model rubs me the wrong way, probably in an irrational way. As far as the various denoise I have tried I have liked Topaz denoise the best. It leaves the files better than they started and is one of the software purchases I have been happy with. Not sure why the most recent denoise on photo AI is worse.
tschopp wrote:
As far as the various denoise I have tried I have liked Topaz denoise the best. It leaves the files better than they started and is one of the software purchases I have been happy with. Not sure why the most recent denoise on photo AI is worse.
This is where I find Topaz aggravating. The next version is sometimes better, in some areas, and sometimes worse in other areas. Photo AI is the worst culprit. I settled on the combined product rather than the trio of Topaz alternatives, some time back, but the individual functions do not work as well. After every upgrade, I need to re-think what to use and how to use it, and find out what the results are, which becomes very time consuming. Sometimes I just cancel out of Topaz and go back to making the changes manually.
Now that LR has AI based de-noise, supersize and object removal, I have pretty much decided to stick with the Adobe product. The LR versions work reliably and predictably, which matters to me.
PS I agree that DXO is pretty good. But now Adobe seems to have caught up. At last, some real value for that subscription payment!
