DXO Optics Pro - special offer and observations.

I just thought I'd let everyone know that there is currently a special offer on DXO Optics Pro 8 for $99 (usually $169) until 15 November.

It was enough to make me pick it up. I compared the output from RAW files from my NEX-F3 in Lightroom and DXO Optics Pro and DXO did a better job. Default settings mind you - but I would rather spend more time photographing and less time post-processing.

A couple of settings I did have a play with though were 'RAW noise' and 'DXO lens softness'. The default settings are fairly conservative - which is a good thing, but in certain circumstances you can push these higher and achieve even better results.

One thing I did observe to my surprise was the standard jpg's from the NEX-F3 are pretty good (I just have mine on 'Standard' Creative Style). In my test shot it looked better than the Lightroom output. The jpg was sharper - which is obviously something you could tweak in Lightroom - but the Lightroom output also had some chromatic aberration that was not present in the jpg. The jpg also does a pretty good job at correcting for lens distortion in-camera.

The DXO output was better than the jpg, but based on what I observed I wouldn't be as adamant about photographing in RAW+JPG as I have been.

Those are my observations anyway - but I'm not an expert so am open to be challenged on my findings.