So does it do what it says on the box?

I have already implied that DxO corrects distortion and geometry in pictures and I will come back to this later on. However, I have only briefly mentioned one of the other 'Wow' features of this program. Noise reduction, is something that Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) does in both Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. In fact it seems that programs such as Noise Ninja are hardly needed these days. I shoot regularly at ISO 1600 and apply some noise reduction in Lightroom 2. However, it must be said that simply the default auto setting in DxO gives a far superior result, and will give good results at much higher ISOs.

Roll mouse over image to see "after" view

The 100% crop above was shot at ISO 1600, I have increased the exposure by 1 stop, effectively making it ISO 3200, and the default noise reduction has been applied. As you can see from the screen grab the effect is extremely marked, and bearing in mind that at normal size the effect would appear even better, one has to give an unreserved thumbs up to the people at DxO. Some adjustments such as Noise, Sharpening etc. do not show on the preview screen unless it is enlarged to 75% or above, a reminder of this is shown, but as you enlarge the frame magnification remains the same in both the ‘As Shot’ panel and the ‘Adjusted’ panel.

The screen shot below shows a full window in Prepare mode, with the palettes for the Colour option selected in the top right, which appear on the right of the screen. I have the raw white balance switched on and the Pick Colour (highlighted). The photo taken in a large exhibition hall with appalling almost sodium style lighting that gave a marked orange caste. By using the picker tool on the white area of the sandwich board to the left side, white balance is corrected effectively with a single click. You may also notice that one of the four tabs in the top left is missing, the Review tab. This is because in this case DxO was accessed directly from CS4 and after processing, the image is sent straight to Photoshop, so there is no need for the Review tab.

Below is another window grab showing a 75% crop of an image. One can see the 'As Shot' image is too warm. The man's jacket has an orange caste and shows evidence of colour noise. By first selecting the Colour set of palettes, a one click correction has been made, though I have then selected the Detail set as can be seen, the Sharpness, chromatic Aberration and DxO Noise palettes are switched on by default and the effect of noise reduction can clearly be seen on the right hand panel.

Finally, then in this part of the review let me come back to the other main 'Wow' function of DxO, the Geometry corrections. The program will automatically correct barrel distortion and Pincushion effect. However, sloping horizons and diverging or converging verticals need to be done manually. The window grab below shoes an image of a large building and one can clearly see the things are not geometrically correct, the building has diverging verticals and really appears to leaning backwards.

In the Key stoning/Horizon palette the only adjustment has been in the up/down slider. This corrects the verticals, but obviously creates some dead space in the frame. So, by switching on the Crop palette and checking the Auto box, the best crop is achieved. Pretty impressive I think and much more effort would have been needed in Photoshop to achieve the same effect.