DXO PL7 Elite advice

[Alnitak]

I missed the Black Friday sale last year, so waited until today to purchase PL7. Currently, I have mostly been using DXO Pro Optics 11, and NX Studio, as I moved on from Capture NX-D, CS4 and LR 2.7, which I used with D100, D200, D300s and Nikon 1 system and still have installed on my old computer.

Now that I am shooting D850 and D500, I figured I should upgrade software, especially for the noise processing (wildlife and indoor sports are my main interests). I know it will be a steep learning curve and will probably miss some of the features of the older software. However, I am not a pro, and frankly, now that the kids have grown and moved away, I don't shoot near as much as I used to. Therefore I wanted to avoid the Adobe subscription model, just as I avoid the MS 365 subscription -- still using the 2019 suite I purchase for $10 through my former company.

I have a few questions on PL7:
-- How often do you find yourself upgrading to the latest version? When major changes like Deep Prime XD come out? Yearly? When a new camera needs added support? Etc?
-- Is the upgrade price the same as the purchase price, or just a small incremental change?
-- What other DXO software, like Film Pack or Nik Collection are recommended and why (e.g., to get similar capability to mask, like in Photoshop)?

I am sure I will be going to YT tutorials as I get stared with PL7, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

 

[bleirer]

I would start by reading the user manual, it is linked in the software. It goes through all the tools one by one. On the DXO website there is a FAQ that answers a lot of questions. At the forum linked below there is a chance to ask questions and get some tutorials.

DxO Forums

Exchange live with the community of the users and teams of the products DxO

feedback.dxo.com

 

[bleirer]

One thing I found out was I had to go to the Nvidia website to get the most recent gpu driver. The one Windows automatically used was several versions behind. Compared to using the CPU only it sped me up a lot.

 

[Alnitak]

I would start by reading the user manual, it is linked in the software. It goes through all the tools one by one. On the DXO website there is a FAQ that answers a lot of questions. At the forum linked below there is a chance to ask questions and get some tutorials.

DxO Forums

Exchange live with the community of the users and teams of the products DxO

feedback.dxo.com

Thanks. That makes a lot of sense, and I should have expected they would have their own user group. I will check both out.

 

[Alnitak]

One thing I found out was I had to go to the Nvidia website to get the most recent gpu driver. The one Windows automatically used was several versions behind. Compared to using the CPU only it sped me up a lot.

Good advice. My old computer only has a NVIDIA 970, so below the recommended gpu from DXO. My newer desktop, 3-4 years old, has an EVGA RTX 2080 SUPER FTW3 ULTRA -- best I could find a few years ago during Covid and the chip shortage, however, it should work with PL7. To your point, I suspect the driver hasn't been upgraded since it was installed, so will definitely do that!

 

[AlexY]

I missed the Black Friday sale last year, so waited until today to purchase PL7. Currently, I have mostly been using DXO Pro Optics 11, and NX Studio, as I moved on from Capture NX-D, CS4 and LR 2.7, which I used with D100, D200, D300s and Nikon 1 system and still have installed on my old computer.

Now that I am shooting D850 and D500, I figured I should upgrade software, especially for the noise processing (wildlife and indoor sports are my main interests). I know it will be a steep learning curve and will probably miss some of the features of the older software. However, I am not a pro, and frankly, now that the kids have grown and moved away, I don't shoot near as much as I used to. Therefore I wanted to avoid the Adobe subscription model, just as I avoid the MS 365 subscription -- still using the 2019 suite I purchase for $10 through my former company.

I have a few questions on PL7:
-- How often do you find yourself upgrading to the latest version? When major changes like Deep Prime XD come out? Yearly? When a new camera needs added support? Etc?
-- Is the upgrade price the same as the purchase price, or just a small incremental change?
-- What other DXO software, like Film Pack or Nik Collection are recommended and why (e.g., to get similar capability to mask, like in Photoshop)?

I am sure I will be going to YT tutorials as I get stared with PL7, so any suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks.

Good questions...I just upgraded from Photolab 6 elite to 7 elite today, and this is my 2nd upgrade, having started with PL5 elite. Currently, if you own a previous edition - must be one of either of the prior 2 - you get a special upgrade price which is generally a bit less than half of the full price, which is quite substantial. This year, the full price is $229 and the upgrade price is $109 which was further reduced to $89 for Black Friday. The reason that I upgraded each time is that I thought that the improvements were worth it and it was cheaper than continuing to pay a monthly fee for a product that I would lose all access to if I stopped paying the monthly fees.
I also purchased the Nik collection when I purchased PL5, but since I only use Silver efx (and that rarely), I haven't upgraded even though there is a substantial discount were I to do so. I did add FilmPack7 to my order today as I like the added benefits it brings to PL7 elite (contrast control, vignetting and luminance masking) and the black friday discount brought the price down by $50. I can now upgrade my FilmPack software at a reduced price if I so desire in the future.
Although there aren't nearly as many YT tutorials on the DxO products as there are on Lightroom, there are still quite a few excellent ones - check out Robin Whalley and Dxflow for example.
I like Photolab and have been using PL7 and FilmPack7 on a trial basis for a little over a week now. I've stopped using Lightroom a couple of months back and have no regrets about that decision.

 

[Soopahmahn]

I invested in PL5 and happily upgraded to PL6, but I'm going to skip PL7. Not enough exciting features this time around for me. I'll likely upgrade to PL8 when the time comes.

At this time there are no similar capabilities to mask, that is in the same manner, as in LR or PS. There are intelligent masking tools, they've just different. I do hope they come out with an object-driven assistance, e.g. "select sky" in the near future. But I get a lot of good work done with the tools available.

I do use LR more these days... PhotoShop I try to steer clear of due to complexity and the urge to over-process my work. But that's just me, and that may change in the coming years.

 

[bleirer]

One cool thing about PL7 is the ability to use calibration targets like color checker passport or Spyderchecker.

 

[raptor photo]

1: I upgrade every year, sometimes skip one if it isn't a good upgrade. For non-payment updates, maybe every 3 months.

2: The upgrade price is 80 to 90 dollars if you wait until Black Friday.

3: Nik Collection and VP are useless for wildlife IMO. Filmpack has some useful contrast sliders and luminosity mask, so that could be worth it.

I strongly encourage you to buy into it if you're a wildlife photographer, incredible NR, incredible masking, and the micro contrast tool is a personal favorite of mine. Color Wheel is useful too. The only downside is their highlight adjustments, so I normally use masking on bright spots more often that just using the highlights slider. The highlights adjustments are way too non-selective for wildlife.

 

[Alnitak]

Good questions...I just upgraded from Photolab 6 elite to 7 elite today, and this is my 2nd upgrade, having started with PL5 elite. Currently, if you own a previous edition - must be one of either of the prior 2 - you get a special upgrade price which is generally a bit less than half of the full price, which is quite substantial. This year, the full price is $229 and the upgrade price is $109 which was further reduced to $89 for Black Friday. The reason that I upgraded each time is that I thought that the improvements were worth it and it was cheaper than continuing to pay a monthly fee for a product that I would lose all access to if I stopped paying the monthly fees.
I also purchased the Nik collection when I purchased PL5, but since I only use Silver efx (and that rarely), I haven't upgraded even though there is a substantial discount were I to do so. I did add FilmPack7 to my order today as I like the added benefits it brings to PL7 elite (contrast control, vignetting and luminance masking) and the black friday discount brought the price down by $50. I can now upgrade my FilmPack software at a reduced price if I so desire in the future.
Although there aren't nearly as many YT tutorials on the DxO products as there are on Lightroom, there are still quite a few excellent ones - check out Robin Whalley and Dxflow for example.
I like Photolab and have been using PL7 and FilmPack7 on a trial basis for a little over a week now. I've stopped using Lightroom a couple of months back and have no regrets about that decision.

Thanks so much for your informative reply. I think I am aligned with the path you have taken. Appreciate your time.

 

[Alnitak]

1: I upgrade every year, sometimes skip one if it isn't a good upgrade. For non-payment updates, maybe every 3 months.

2: The upgrade price is 80 to 90 dollars if you wait until Black Friday.

3: Nik Collection and VP are useless for wildlife IMO. Filmpack has some useful contrast sliders and luminosity mask, so that could be worth it.

I strongly encourage you to buy into it if you're a wildlife photographer, incredible NR, incredible masking, and the micro contrast tool is a personal favorite of mine. Color Wheel is useful too. The only downside is their highlight adjustments, so I normally use masking on bright spots more often that just using the highlights slider. The highlights adjustments are way too non-selective for wildlife.

Great info! I appreciate the detailed reply, as with all that have provided feedback. It certainly is a learning experience, but it helps having knowledgeable people who have been there and done that to leverage. Thanks for your time and response.

 

[bleirer]

Fantastic black Friday deals though on new and upgrades.

 

[joe43]

I upgraded to PL7 from PL6 last week. I paid an upgrade fee, maybe $89 as I recall, not the full price. The major reason I upgraded were for the enhancement to the Local Adjustments, like Control Points and Control Lines. You now accss them from a panel on the right side and some to most have sliders that I find to be easier to use. HSL in PL7 is now available as a Local Adjustment as well as a global adjustment. This can be a major benefit for some users.

 

[bleirer]

I upgraded to PL7 from PL6 last week. I paid an upgrade fee, maybe $89 as I recall, not the full price. The major reason I upgraded were for the enhancement to the Local Adjustments, like Control Points and Control Lines. You now accss them from a panel on the right side and some to most have sliders that I find to be easier to use. HSL in PL7 is now available as a Local Adjustment as well as a global adjustment. This can be a major benefit for some users.

I'm tempted to go for the $89 addition of filmpack because it gives luminosity masking as well.

 

[AlexY]

I'm tempted to go for the $89 addition of filmpack because it gives luminosity masking as well.

Go for it....I've done so and have been using PL7 with the FilmPack for a couple of weeks now and really like the combination. You also get 3 different contrast controls - highlights, midtones and shadows, plus a very nice set of vignetting controls.
I think that today's the last day for the discount???