An interesting dilemma, input appreciated

[Digital Nigel]

In preparing for the delivery of my new mac (hopefully arriving today - good bye, Windows), I was doing an audit of all the software own that might be usable on the Mac, or which would offer an upgrade price, I discovered that I am eligible for a $99 US upgrade to Topaz Photo AI. I had totally forgotten about it!

I had been planning to wait for something like this until DXO Pure Raw went on sale. Both have solid reasons to use. Topaz can be used on Non Raw, while DeNoising is probably better in DXO. Though the mild denoising I need for conventional ISO levels in m43s will likely be adequate for either most of the time. Sharpening seems roughly equal, and Topaz has Gigapixel AI is built in to Topaz Photo AI

So what would YOU buy in terms of the cost benefit ratio? $99 for Topaz Photo AI usable immediately, or $129 (full price) for Pure Raw (usable immediately), OR waiting till Pure Raw goes on sale again to see what that price will be (price uncertain).

Please be aware that DXO have historically released PureRaw in the March of every year since it's inception, so version 5 will be coming out real soon. Given the added functionality and additional capability that v4 has over v3, I would expect v5 to be more of the same. Unless DXO offer a free upgrade (unlikely) I'd be tempted to wait for 6-7 weeks. And DXO do offer a free unrestricted and un-watermarked trial version for a month, which would almost get you to the v5 release time.

Yes, that sounds like good advice.

One unusual thing this year is that we don’t yet know what will be in the March PureRAW release. Normally, it has the latest NR from the PhotoLab release from 5/6 months earlier, but PR4 was, unusually, upgraded to get DP XD2s immediately.

 

[charlyw64]

Also, no program is allowed to be installed without permission from the user.

Dream on... The last time I noticed something awkward was when my computer at work greeted me with a ransom notice - and nobody had the rights to install anything - but the malware had utilized a zero day exploit of Windows in conjunction with time delayed deployment (so that the first occurrences of such nefarious actions would happen long after distribution and would trigger a virus definition update at Microsoft or others too late), the window of opportunity was about a fortnight. By that time all backups and almost all computers in the local network were affected and thus written off... The only unaffected computers were running MacOS and Linux...

 

[tbcass]

Protect your Mac from malware - Apple Support

What is malware on Mac? - Apple Support