DxO Labs announces Optics Pro 7 with faster performance

DxO Labs has announced that Optics Pro 7, the latest version of its Raw processing and optical correction software, will be available from November 30th. The company says version 7 has been extensively re-written to make it faster - up to four times faster in the case of batch processing. Version 7 also includes support for popular enthusiast cameras, such as Fujifilm's X100 and Sony's A77, as well as more than 300 additional camera/lens Optics Modules. Refinements include an improved lens softness tool that attempts to correct for inherent lens softness without interfering with bokeh in out-of-focus regions. DxO Optics Pro 7 will be available with a 33% discount until December 24th (and free to users who bought version 6 after September 1st).

Press Release

DxO Optics Pro 7 once again redefines the standard for image quality and offers batch processing up to 4 times faster

With a newly-optimized interface and workflow, DxO Optics Pro 7 will be available on November 30, 2011, at a special 33% discount

November 23, 2011 - DxO Labs announces the November 30, 2011availability of DxO Optics Pro 7, a major new release of its leading image-processing software for demanding photographers. This new version, released simultaneously for Windows and Mac systems, redefines the standard for image quality, achieves batch processing up to four times faster, and offers a considerably optimized interface and workflow.

DxO Optics Pro 7 supports five additional cameras with this release: Fujifilm X100, Nikon P7100, Sony Alpha 77, NEX-C3, NEX-5N, and includes more than 300 new DxO Optics Modules.

Based on a unique, ultra-precise modeling of each camera-lens combination, DxO Optics Pro 7 automatically corrects optical defects at a level of unparalleled quality. The software integrates the most powerful RAW converter and noise reduction technology on the market, as well as sophisticated tools for optimizing color and exposure. During batch processing, all algorithms intelligently adapt to the content of each image for a perfect result and unequaled productivity.

THE MOST ADVANCED OPTICAL CORRECTION TECHNOLOGIES ON THE MARKET

DxO Labs has optimized many features of DxO Optics Pro 7 to help serious photographers obtain high-quality images from their JPEG and RAW files.

The Lens Softness tool, exclusive to DxO Optics Pro, is based on DxO Optics Modules and compensates for lens softness by applying a gradual correction across the field to achieve a uniformly sharp image. Thanks to the ultra-precise information provided by DxO Optics Modules for each camera-lens combination, this correction is optimized and ideally adapted to each and every pixel. Based on its ability to analytically read the image, DxO Optics Pro 7 can perfectly preserve the bokeh while avoiding the creation of artifacts in homogenous or out-of-focus zones.

DxO Optics Pro 7’s Unsharp Mask tool has a new “Edge Offset” slider that allows users to manually adjust the progression of the correction in the field. This means that even in the absence of a DxO Optics Module, photographers can obtain crisp and uniform sharpness from the center of the image field right to the edges.

Finally, the Protect Saturated Colors tool offers the possibility of restoring a significant number of details and of recovering rich textures in highly-saturated zones. The selectivity of this feature has been improved in DxO Optics Pro 7 for even greater efficacy and better preservation of unsaturated colors. The default preset now includes this feature.

BATCH PROCESSING UP TO FOUR TIMES FASTER

In addition to the progress made in providing even better image quality, there have been multiple improvements to DxO Optics Pro 7’s engine to greatly increase processing speed.

Thanks to better system resource management, the use of OpenCL technology on Windows platforms, the harnessing of graphics card computing power, and many optimized algorithms, DxO Optics Pro 7 can process batches of photos up to four times faster than previous versions.

AN IMPROVED USER INTERFACE

While retaining the fundamental assets that have made the software such a success (powerful and precise automatic corrections, intelligent presets), DxO Optics Pro 7’s workflow has been simplified to provide greater ease of use.

Management by project is now optional: users can select images for processing right from their hard drive’s directories. The addition of editing features makes it possible to sort, rename, move, copy and even delete photos in DxO Optics Pro 7.

Three tabs now guide users through the entire workflow. The corrections preview in the first tab allows users to start processing immediately and thus save a remarkable amount of time.

Batch treatment has gained greater flexibility for Windows users: it is now possible to run multiple processing sessions simultaneously, even while customizing other photos. The Macintosh version takes advantage of Mac OS X Lion and offers several Multi-Touch functions (zoom, full-screen view, scroll photos, change tab).

MORE SUPPORTED CAMERAS AND LENSES

DxO Optics Pro 7’s automatic corrections rely on a wide library of DxO Optics Modules, developed at DxO Labs, based on a precise analysis of each combination of camera and lens under all shooting conditions.

A recent process breakthrough in DxO Optics Module development will enable DxO Labs to greatly increase its productivity. DxO Labs expects to reach the threshold of 5,000 available modules by the end of 2011, and has set a goal of reaching 10,000 modules by the end of 2012.

DxO Optics Pro 7 includes more than 300 new DxO Optics Modules and supports these additional five cameras: Fujifilm X100, Nikon P7100, Sony Alpha 77, NEX-C3, and NEX-5N.

A TRUE DIGITAL PHOTO LABORATORY

DxO Optics Pro 7 is an extremely powerful software designed for the most exacting photographers. As with previous versions, it includes:

• A powerful RAW converter coupled with an unrivaled noise reduction engine (luminance, chrominance, dead pixels, colored noise, color moiré…), even at the highest ISO settings, to automatically enhance textures and details.
• Sophisticated corrections that rely on DxO Labs’ meticulous preliminary calibration of photographic equipment in its laboratories.
• An single-shot HDR feature that offers the possibility of creating an HDR image from a single RAW or JPEG image file, thanks to exclusive exposure and contrast optimization technologies that allow users to recover a large number of details in over- or underexposed parts of their images.
• An optional DxO FilmPack plugin that allows users to faithfully reproduce the aesthetic signature of more than 60 legendary films rolls on their RAW and JPEG images.

AVAILABILITY AND SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER

DxO Optics Pro 7 for Windows and Mac will be available on November 30, 2011, in the DxO Labs online boutique (www.dxo.com) and at photo resellers at a special introductory discount valid until December 24, 2011:

USD:

• DxO Optics Pro 7 Standard Edition: $99 instead of $169
• DxO Optics Pro 7 Elite Edition: $199 instead of $299

EUR:

• DxO Optics Pro 7 Standard Edition: 99€ instead of 199€
• DxO Optics Pro 7 Elite Edition: 199€ instead of 299€
  (Suggested retail prices, including VAT)

GBP:

• DxO Optics Pro 7 Standard Edition: £89 instead of £135
• DxO Optics Pro 7 Elite Edition: £179 instead of £269
  (Suggested retail prices, including VAT)

Photographers who acquired a license for DxO Optics Pro 6 on or after September 1, 2011 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 7. Other users can take advantage of a special discount on all upgrades from now until December 24, 2011, directly from their customer account.

A fully-functional trial version of DxO Optics Pro 7, good for one month, is available on the DxO Labs website (http://www.dxo.com/us/photo/free_trial_version).

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Comments

Total comments: 167 1 2

By mantra (Nov 23, 2011)

hope it will not shipped with the more terrible copy protection

once i wanted to try and in case buy it , because i use lot wide lenses

but it did mess up my windows :(

1 upvote

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi,

When did this happen?
I'm asking this because we did improve our copy protection in the latest updates of DxO Optics Pro 6. Version 7 will shipped with this improved version for which we didn't get bad feedback from customers.

All the best,

Axel

2 upvotes

By mantra (Nov 23, 2011)

it was an older version
maybe 3 or 4 , hostestly i don't remember
but i remember after the uninstall , i had weird hardware in my machine (never installed)
i remember i had installed outpost and nod 2.7 , and i got many blue screen of death
i swore to never install again dxo
thanks
cheers

1 upvote

By Ken Aisin (Nov 23, 2011)

Tell me about it. With Version 5, whenever I needed to restore Windows, I just had to return the serial key, reinstall Windows, and use the same key to reactivate Version 5 once everything's restored.

But with Version 6, this feature was gone. Whenever I needed to restore Windows, I had to contact customer support to grant me a new activation.

One time I remember I had to re-install Windows couple of times in a week because I was testing out several new video cards, and was having compatibility issues. I explained my situation to the tech support in my email, and I was told that frequent reactivation will require management approval. This was ridiculous. So, I just gave up, and went to get myself a copy of LightRoom 3 instead.

0 upvotes

By Peter McNeill (Nov 23, 2011)

Do DXO still use that nasty Pace Anti_Piracy software? Last time I used DXO I swore never again til they got rid of that piece of junk. It gave me fits removing it since it didn't uninstall with DXO.

Comment edited 59 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi,

When did you last try?
I'm asking because we improved the PACE copy protection in the latest updates of DxO Optics Pro 6. Version 7 will shipped with this improved version for which didn't get negative feedback from customers.

All the best,

Axel

Comment edited 7 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

By Peter McNeill (Nov 23, 2011)

v5 or v6, not sure, but since then I'm a Lightroom user so I doubt I'd bother buying yet another RAW converter at least for the near future. I may or may not trial v7 and see for myself.

Comment edited 55 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

If I may, DxO Optics Pro is not "yet another RAW converter".
It offers so much more that Mike Pasini from Imaging Resource says:

"Optics Pro's automatic optimizations of images from gear DxO has tested let you start editing your images at what's the finish line for other image editing software."
(source - http://www.imaging-resource.com/NEWS/1309631298.html)

So, it may be worth giving it a try :)

Axel

0 upvotes

By Richard W (Nov 30, 2011)

Axel

PACE is a real disincentive.

I actually bought v6 last Christmas and have not actually activated any of my licenses. I have a complex Mac set up with frequent hardware changes in a Mac Pro. I am quite unclear about how 'licence transfers' work when you upgrade or change you computer hardware. I often swap internal data drives and upgrade GPU and have dual boot system.

A few months ago I emailed support asking if it was better to install or wait for Lion as I was planning to upgrade to that. I was advised to wait which to me implied a problem moving licenses. I have waited several months for a fix for v6 in Lion to prevent a green cast problem in Canon RAW files noted in the Mac forum. Will this update now never see the light of day?

If it were not for your draconian copy protection software I might have actually used the software I paid for some time ago, but concerns reading about problems with PACE and licence transfer ambiguity left me not wanting to activate at all.

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 30, 2011)

Hi Richard,

Sorry to hear you never managed to activate the licence you bought.
Can you send me a private message with your email address and I should be able to arrange something with our support.

Talk to you soon,

Axel

0 upvotes

By Richard W (Dec 6, 2011)

pm sent

0 upvotes

By steelhead3 (Nov 23, 2011)

Do elite users get a free upgrade?

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi,
All customers who bought DxO Optics Pro 6 since September 1, 2011 will get a free upgrade to DxO Optics Pro 7.
And, if you bought Optics Pro before that, the upgrade from any version to DxO Optics Pro 7 will be very affordable.

All the best,

Axel

0 upvotes

By Thaddeus W. Pruss (Nov 23, 2011)

I have two questions:

1. Will the upgrade from DxO Optics Pro 6 Elite run as smoothly and fast as the newly released DxO Optics Pro 7 Elite?
2. Will the upgrade be able to support (as was original DxO Optics Pro 6 Elite) three computers?

Thank you,
Thad

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

In fact, the upgrade from DxO Optics Pro is exactly the same software. The upgrade is just a special price for the license that we offer to our loyal customers.
The upgrade can be installed 2 computers, exactly like DxO Optics Pro 6.

All the best

Axel

Comment edited 15 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

By duartix (Nov 23, 2011)

Support during the v5 fiasco was virtually non-existent. Camera/Lens support took too long to extend from the Canon/Nikon dominance to other players, but speed was always DxO Optics Achilles heel.
Bibble 5 is around 10x faster and that's what I was using about 1 year ago, but one day I figured out that if NR was activated Bibble was \~3x slower. Color profiles for Olympus Pens were sub-par and Noise Ninja did a terrible job under artificial lighting. Manual CA correction never gave satisfactory results.
One day I tried Capture One (C1) v6 and well... never looked back. It's the best of all worlds, much faster than Bibble (with NR on) because it runs on your OpenCL video card, better IQ than LR, auto CA correction that works, great UI, the best color profiles out there, it's really the best I've tested in all fields except for NR where I rate it 4/10, but when my images need proper NR I batch them from C1 to NeatImage which for me is still the NR benchmark.
I'll give it a spin though.

0 upvotes

By mantra (Nov 24, 2011)

capture one is great
but if you have a folder with tons of raw pictures, capture one starts to create a huge cache of all your files

that's the only thing i hate about capture one

0 upvotes

By Kinematic Digit (Nov 23, 2011)

Still no Olympus E-P2 and E-P3 support...

I own DxO Optics 6, but I think I'm switching to Capture One now (even though it's more expensive).... This took too long to be updated and lack of support of Olympus E-P3 is the nail for me.

Comment edited 34 seconds after posting

1 upvote

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi,
Our team is working hard on calibrating more cameras and the different lenses that these cameras can accommodate.

As a result, DxO Optics Pro 7 will support 5 new cameras (and hundreds of lenses for these cameras) and 5 more will be added in December, including the E-P3.
And, in January, the E-P1 and e-P2 will be added too.

So, I have the feeling that Optics Pro 7 will bring you all the camera support you need.

All the best,

Axel

0 upvotes

By Archer66 (Nov 23, 2011)

Newsflash: 1$ does not equal 1 Eur, $99 is 74 Eur and VAT does NOT explain the price difference.

3 upvotes

By Kinematic Digit (Nov 23, 2011)

Thanks for the Reply Axel.... if that is in time before the upgrade price then I might reconsider. I use both Lightroom and DxO Optics in my classroom when I'm teachings but since the lack of E-P3 support all term I have not touched it. This is reassuring. By the way Axel, do you guys offer educational discounts?

0 upvotes

By Kinematic Digit (Nov 23, 2011)

Not sure I understand your point Archer66? CaptureOne is more than $1 difference. Upgrade prices are pretty standard practice across the industry, so I'm unclear on what you're trying to say?

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

@Kinematic Digit: We are very flexible on the upgrades: there is no time limit to upgrade. For example, photographs with a very old DxO Optics Pro v1 can still upgrade to the latest v7.
And, in term of educational discount, the best is to ask the question to our customer support at: http://help.dxo.com/uniform/

0 upvotes

By Archer66 (Nov 23, 2011)

@Kinematic Digit: I'm wondering how $99 translates to 99 Eur and $199 to 199 Eur.

0 upvotes

By aboutsam (Nov 25, 2011)

let me tell a story.

I bought a copy of V6 in June because I saw the support for E-P1 will be coming in June. There was a discount and I can use it with my A850 and K10D.. so I bought it.

but later I saw for E-P1 was delay to August. .. in Aug I checked again, it was dropped out. Great now it was be support in V7 in Jan 2012

Dxo can change their plan anytime they like. So, I 100% think I wont see E-P1 support in Jan. don't trust any "is coming" "will come" " planned to support" from Dxo until it actual released.

I am going to do a screen capture of this page, or take a photo of what Axel has said.

Comment edited 8 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

By Kuturgan (Nov 23, 2011)

Does it work with NX200?

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

Hi,
The Samsung NX200 will not be supported by DxO Optics Pro at launch, but it is definitely on our roadmap. It should be available in early 2012.

All the best,

Axel

0 upvotes

By Pictus (Nov 23, 2011)

Axel, does it will support Sigma SD1?
Thanks.

0 upvotes

By Scott Nicol (Nov 23, 2011)

I'm looking forward to processing some of my higher iso a77 shots to see what DXO makes of them - its always done a great job at NR with my a55. One question for Axel - your press release mentions support for opencl in the windows version - will mac opencl be coming at some point in the future? I use a windows desktop and recently bought a macbook pro so will be installing on both platforms...

1 upvote

By worldcup1982 (Nov 23, 2011)

standard or elite (nx200) ?

0 upvotes

By Axel from DxO Labs (Nov 23, 2011)

@Pictus unfortunately DxO Optics Pro will probably not support the SD1. It is mainly due to its Foveon sensor which makes it more tedious for us to support.

@Scott The reason why OpenCL isn't enabled on the Mac version is that it wasn't bringing any noticeable performance improvement. But, we may enable it in the future if we see it bringing something to the game.

@worldcup1982 Based on the current criteria (which shouldn't change for a while) I don't see how the NX200 wouldn't be supported by the Standard and the Elite versions.

0 upvotes

By mkeeley (Nov 23, 2011)

I see the UK are being ripped off as usual, $99 is £67 yet we're being charged £89 which is $138. Not funny!

1 upvote

By zz586 (Nov 30, 2011)

I got DXO Optics Pro 6 after September 1st. How do I upgrade to Pro 7 for free?

0 upvotes

Total comments: 167 1 2