Has anyone tried the new ON1 noise reduction software?

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After playing with the no noise trial a bit I have to say I like it enough to add it to my software collection. ON1 is really for RAW files at the moment. There is an obvious difference using it with non RAW files, but I know that is a work in progress. I've only tried the auto settings so far. I do not know how much a change in sliders will improve the non RAW output.

The program is slow to open a file compared to Topaz, but once in the program it is FAST! It works as a stand alone and as a plug-in for a number of programs besides Adobe. There is a DNG component when going back to LR from no noise, but it is not the only option, and it is no worse than any other DNG work around. There is a good chance I will be using it more than PL4.

You do have a 14 day trial period to decide.
 
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I would avoid ON1 NoNoise if you are a Windows user.

I prepurchased it and severley regret my decision. It does not work as a Photoshop filter if you run as a general user. It totally fails to even start. I had the same issue with ON1 Effects and reported that bug months ago but ON1 are not interested in fixing this issue. They even refuse to refund my purchase. It works from the Admin account but obviously that is 1) a high security risk and 2) the Admin account does not have access to my photos as a general user.

ON1 Support is absolutely terrible I would avoid ON1 if you are a Windows user.
 
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Interesting. I'm a windows user and it works fine for me. Since I have other tasks that require admin mode I didn't realize there was a potential problem. Everyone has to decide risk/benefit for themselves. All I can say is I haven't had a problem with them.
 
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I had the same issue with the Topaz AI plugins. However Topaz support were much more helpful. Compare their responses:

1) Topaz provided a workaround within 24 hours and fixed it in about 2 months with a new installer

2) ON1 just rudely replied I have to run as Admin, they have no concept that doing so gives me access to Admin's files not mine and is a security risk as you have write access to system files. They have no workaround. They have known about the issues for months and appear to have no plans to fix it. And worse of all they refuse a refund.

Matt Kloskowski's review of ON1 NoNoise concludes he is staying with Topaz.

Personally I find both ON1 and Topaz not to my liking. Nik Define works good for me when the noise is low and I still find I can get better reesults with Imagenomic's Noiseware for high noise images. Both Nik (DXO ) and Imagenomic understand Windows architecture and work fine as a general user.
 
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Interesting. I understand your concern with running in admin mode, but for me it is not an issue. I am very aware of what it means, but I feel secure with my chosen protections. I will agree on1 support can be irritating, I just never had a problem with them.

To be fair, Matt is staying with Topaz due to his workflow issues. He prefers speed on loading due to his favorite setting, and de-noising non-RAW files. It makes sense the way he works.

Personally I find DXO a more irritating company than ON1. I was one of the unfortunate to discover their upgrad policy has no grace period! If you upgrade close to the release of a new program you end up paying for the next upgrade too. I do have their PL4 and NIK3. I only upgraded to PL4 because of the noise reduction and am glad to have the on1 option now. I hated having to start PL4 just for noise.

Quite truthfully I do not do noise reduction on a regular basis. Most of the time LR noise reduction works fine for me.
It is for those special (to me) photos that I want to spend time with that gets the extra treatment. I hope ON1 is able to improve its non-raw noise reduction soon.
 
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I have started comparing On1 NoNoise AI to Topaz DeNoise. The noise reduction using either program is impressive. So far I've only tried both programs on a limited number images, but so far I leaning toward purchasing On1 NoNoise. The images I tested were from several different Nikon bodies including D100, D2h, D2x, D7200,D500, and D850. Images tested were a variety of high ISO and underexposed images.

Reasons:
  • When using Topaz DeNoise if the noise was not completely eliminated / smoothed out it sometimes leaves a Moire-like pattern. This pattern could become more or less visible depending on image scaling. Particularly noticeable on D850 images. I have yet to see this issue in images processed with On1.
  • Topaz DeNoise did not filter or map out hot pixels from the sensor. While these are easy to clone out, it is tedious if processing a lot of images.
  • On1 NoNoise AI is slightly lower in cost ($70 vs. $80)
 
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IMH experience:
First, I prefer doing denoising on the raw file first of all (after culling)

My workflow
Using DeepPrime :
Fast RViewer - PL4 (denoise and optical) - Lightroom

If I transfer the RAW file from LR to PL4 I cannot use Deep Prime (file not recognized as RAW)


Using NoNoise:
Fast RViewer - Lightroom - No Noise (RAW) - Automatically back to LR

For me this would mean more flexibility.

I'm just evaluating NoNoise.
As for comparing with Deep Prime from the denosing POV, I cannot say just now. Both look good to me.

Please notice that I am no expert and will gladly receive suggestions (aka corrections :) )
 
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When I was having to deal with the very noisy images from the pre D3 cameras I would once a year download 4 NR applications and use them on a picture of closeup of a face and then take each processed image and combine them as a 4x5 section of a 8x10 print. It was easy to see which one was best at reducing noise while minimizing the loss of detail, and even more important preserving the tonality of the image as any compression was quite noticeable when looking at skin. The original Canon 5D cameras were very good at reducing noise but the end result was skin that looked like that of a Barbie doll.

With free trial downloads there is not cost for the software and it took about an hour of my time to complete the entire process. From year to year the best software could change and as I was processing thousands of images I wanted one that would do a "good enough" job in auto mode.
 
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I recently purchased ON1 Denoise 2021 after trying both it and Topaz. For me ON1 does a better job. Today ON1 has updated the program to work better with jpeg photos. BTW: contrary to other members the support staff at ON1 were great. I highly recommend ON1 Denoise and it is a bit less expensive than Topaz.
 
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I periodically download 3 NR applications and install the trial versions on a computer. I then take a good test image of a person's face and make four 4x5 inch images and use a different NR on three of them and the fourth one I do with CS6 manually. When I have the 4 images all on the screen as an 8x10 picture it is easy to compare the applications and I look for detail preservation and especially the overall tonality. With a person's face it is easy to see where the tonal range has been compressed which results in plastic looking skin.

This takes less than 1 hour to do and when I am done I know which one produces the best results. The last time I did this it was a tie between Topaz deNoise and CS6 and Topaz took a fraction of the time to apply. I was doing batch processing of thousands of image files each week and I wanted the application that in auto mode would produce the best results. For a single image Photoshop worked quite well and how much time is not important now that I am now longer processing great numbers of files.

Overall the Topaz suite of applications are the best I have found at any price. When someone says that an application is processor intensive I have to wonder what exactly they mean and how many files they are processing each day. I was doing batch processing of a couple thousand images and at that time it would take about 40 minutes per batch with the Wintel workstation and less than half as much time with a Mac Pro workstation (same Xenon processor and amount or RAM only a much more efficient operating system from Apple).

It is all relative. I remember doing program compiles that with an 8086 computer would take an hour to complete. With my first 286 CPU the compile times dropped to 30 minutes and with a 386 CPU the compile times were less than a minute. After that any further reductions were irrelevant in terms of my overall workflow. Much the same with still image editing.
 
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Ad Astra said:
I would avoid ON1 NoNoise if you are a Windows user.

I prepurchased it and severley regret my decision. It does not work as a Photoshop filter if you run as a general user. It totally fails to even start. I had the same issue with ON1 Effects and reported that bug months ago but ON1 are not interested in fixing this issue. They even refuse to refund my purchase. It works from the Admin account but obviously that is 1) a high security risk and 2) the Admin account does not have access to my photos as a general user.

ON1 Support is absolutely terrible I would avoid ON1 if you are a Windows user.
Click to expand...
I disagree with this
I've had 2x questions to NoNoise support while testing the program and the response was fast, clear and detailed
Maybe a differnt experience?
 
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I've been quite happy with nonoise. It is currently my goto when I wish to deal with noise. The latest version has improved their non raw noise reduction. I just used it via PS and decided I preferred it's version to Topaz. Granted this was only one photo, but I was happy with the results.
 
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pochito said:
I disagree with this
I've had 2x questions to NoNoise support while testing the program and the response was fast, clear and detailed
Maybe a differnt experience?
Click to expand...

Questions are easy for first line support staff to handle. The problem I had was that it was a bug that ON1 second line support acknowledged. Alas ON1 refused a refund and have not fixed the bug which is terrible support as the product does not work. After a titantic struggle I had to file a dispute claim with my credit card to get my money back.
 
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Ad Astra said:
Questions are easy for first line support staff to handle. The problem I had was that it was a bug that ON1 second line support acknowledged. Alas ON1 refused a refund and have not fixed the bug which is terrible support as the product does not work. After a titantic struggle I had to file a dispute claim with my credit card to get my money back.
Click to expand...
What was the bug and do any other ON1 users have an issue with a bug? Just asking.
 
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