news // 2007.10.05 08:17:23 [hh]

DxO kündigt neue Version seines digitalen Profi-Fotolabors "DxO Optics Pro 5" an

Der französische Profi-Photo-Software-Hersteller DxO Labs kündigt für Ende Oktober Version 5 seines Raw-Workflow-Tools "Dxo Optics Pro" (Windows XP, MacOS X) an. Neben einer völlig überarbeiteten Oberfläche und stark verbesserter Performance sollen zahlreiche qualitative Verbesserungen in den Bereichen Demosaicing und Rauschreduzierung zu deutlich besseren Ergebnissen führen. Die Ankündigung klingt äußerst vielversprechend.

Demosaicing
Das Unternehmen zu dem neuen Demosaicing-Algorithmus, der die Grundlage aller RAW-Konvertioerungstools ist: "DxO Optics Pro v5’s RAW conversion engine includes a completely new demosaicing algorithm which produces images with much more detail and fewer artifacts, setting a new standard in image quality. Demosaicing is the crucial step of RAW conversion during which the camera’s image sensor pattern is reconstructed as a visible image for the human eye. Inherently, demosaicing involves trade-offs between image sharpness, details, noise, processing time and conversion artifacts. The quality of demosaicing determines the amount of detail and artifacts in the final image. These artifacts, particularly visible and unsightly, are compounded at high ISO settings and are in large part responsible for what is deemed the unnatural look of digital images."
"DxO Labs’ approach to demosaicing turned a number of classical solutions on their head: instead of only considering pixels with respect to their direct neighbors, DxO’s new RAW Engine uses a ‘non local’ approach looking much further than is usual from each pixel in the image in order to reconstruct detail. This significantly reduces demosaicing artifacts", so Frédéric Guichard, Chief Scientist bei DxO Labs.

Rauschreduzierung als erster Schritt
Ungewöhnlich ist auch, die Rauschreduzierung direkt auf den RAW-Daten zu machen, um so eine Verstärkung des Rauschens durch die weitere Verarbeitung zu vermeiden: "The other key characteristic of DxO Optics Pro’s new RAW Engine is that instead of applying noise reduction techniques after demosaicing, a newly-developed noise reduction is performed upfront, before noise has a chance to be amplified by the RAW conversion process and absorb important fine details.
Combined with other proprietary techniques, DxO Optics Pro v5’s new RAW Engine produces both the most detailed and most natural looking images yet – its very fine and homogenous grain translating into subtle shades and textures. DxO Optics Pro v5’s new RAW conversion engine has been fine-tuned and optimized with the rest of the software’s automated image enhancement features (optical corrections, color rendering, exposure optimization, highlight recovery, etc.) to produce best-in class results."

Weitere Verbesserungen

Als weitere Verbesserungen gegenüber Version 4 nennt der Hersteller:

• 
  Dust/Blemish Removal now available in version 5
  DxO Optics Pro v5 now incorporates a new tool to remove dust and blemishes from any digital image. Once dust and blemishes have been marked by the user, DxO Optics Pro v5 can automatically process any number of images with this particular dust/blemish template.
• A revamped User Interface
  Based on extensive research and communications with photographers, DxO Optics Pro’s user interface has been reorganized to improve workflow and ease of use. In particular, tools are now organized into four main sections that match the photographer’s approach: Light, Color, Geometry, Details. Users of DxO Optics Pro v5 can also customize their workspace to their particular way of working or choose to keep the tool organization of the previous version. DxO Optics Pro’s powerful project and preset functions have also been overhauled for increased ease of use and functionality.
• Increased speed and camera support
  Benefiting from an entire rewrite using Microsoft’s .NET and Apple’s ObjC-Cocoa technologies, DxO Optics Pro v5 is up to four times faster than version 4.0. This is due in particular to the use of GPU processing – where the power of dedicated video card chips is used to accelerate an application.
  DxO Optics Pro v5 will also support the latest Canon and Nikon Digital SLR camera bodies. Support for the Canon 40D, Canon 1Ds MKIII, Nikon D300 and Nikon D3 will be included in DxO Optics Pro v5 over the next few months following the availability of these cameras.

Preise und Verfügbarkeit

"DxO Optics Pro 5" wird Ende Oktober für Windows und etwa einen Monat später für MacOS X auf den Markt kommen. Die Software wird weiterhin in den Varianten "Standard" und "Elite" mit den von Versiomn 4.5 bekannten Preisen erhältlich sein. Vergünstigte Upgrades von dieser Version sind ebenfalls möglich.

Weitere Informationen: www.dxo.com/ de/ photo

 

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