DxO Optics Pro 7 Elite

Lens Sharpening: Exclusive to DxO Labs, the DxO Lens Softness tool (based on DxO Optics Modules) automatically compensates for lens softness. Using a new technique to analytically read image content, DxO Optics Pro 7 offers improved preservation of the bokeh while avoiding the creation of artifacts in homogeneous or out-of-focus zones
Sharpness Mask: Lenses tend to soften (or blur) image elements located at the edges. A new cursor lets you harmonize the sharpness of your image from the center of the periphery. This feature is available even if your equipment is not yet supported
Colors and Textures: No more flat stretches of uniform color! DxO Optics Pro 7 includes a tool that brings out the details and textures in saturated areas
Optimized Ergonomics: A Streamlined Workflow: Easier to use, DxO Optics Pro 7 offers even more intuitive handling. Working in project mode is now optional! From now on, you can work directly from your files and directories. Process your images in an instant! After you select a RAW or JPEG image, your default settings are automatically applied, letting you see all corrections and start processing with ease. In Windows, it is now possible to run several batch processing sessions at once while continuing to customize other images. The Mac version (Mac OS X Lion) offers several multi-touch functions such as zoom, full-screen view, scroll photos, and change tabs
Increased Performance: Up to 4 Times Faster: Substantially restructured, DxO Optics Pro now reaches a remarkable processing speed. Thanks to better system resource management, the use of OpenCL technology with Windows and optimized algorithms, DxO Optics Pro 7 can process batches of photos up to 4 times faster than previous versions, while offering improved image quality after processing (Open CL must be activated manually under preferences)
Tailor-Hand DxO Optics Modules: Tailor-Made for All: Ever since the very first DxO optics module appeared back in 2004, DxO Labs has increased its production rate every year. The DxO Labs team has optimized its calibration methods in order to accelerate the production process, and has set a goal of supporting 10,000 modules by the end of 2012. Therefore many more modules will be available both for currently-supported cameras as well as for newer compact and high-end models as they appear on the market (Check the manufacturer's site for the most current list of compatible cameras)

Uneven sharpness, vignetting, distortions, chromatic aberrations? DxO Optics Pro automatically corrects all the optical faults in your images because it is based on a precise knowledge of your equipment and its weaknesses
A DxO Labs Exclusive: Does your lens lack sharpness? Instantly recover the fine details in your photos, regardless of the quality of your lens

Lens Distortion: DxO Optics Pro automatically corrects all types of lens distortion by taking into account such signification factors as the focal point and focusing distance. The focal range covered is extremely large, from ultra-wide-angle lenses, fish-eyes, and optic kits all the way to super-zooms. In all, DxO Optics Pro covers more than 2500 lens-camera combinations. Even extreme and highly complex distortions (such as fish-eye, for example) are corrected. Naturally, advanced control options are available when you need them. Use DxO Optics Pro to correct: barrel distortion, pincushion distortion, complex distortion, and circular fisheye distortion. In the case that your particular combination of camera back and lens is not supported by DxO Optics Pro, you can nevertheless make manual corrections that will eliminate most if not all of the distortions present in your image
Vignetting: Vignetting - sometimes referred to as edge or corner fall-off - is at the core an optical phenomenon which results in a loss of light or a darkening in the corners of the image. DxO Optics Pro is able to automatically correct this issue with a high degree of behind-the-scenes sophistication. Of course, the correction can be controlled or even switched off if the vignetting is part of the photographic intent. DxO Optics Pro's vignetting correction: automatically eliminates vignetting taking into account all relevant factors (type of lens, aperture, focal length, etc.); takes into account the specific issues linked to digital photography such as the in-camera tone-curve; ensures that the correction does not result in over-exposure (clipped highlights); performs correction without color shifts and with strict noise control. In case your particular combination of camera back and lens is not supported by DxO Optics Pro you can nevertheless make manual corrections that will eliminate most if not all the vignetting present in your image
Color Fringing (Chromatic Aberration): Color fringes, particularly noticeable at the edges of high-contrast photos are principally caused by lateral chromatic aberrations, where the lens - like a prism - splits the visible light into its different color components. DxO Optics Pro analyzes each image and automatically detects and corrects these fringes or irisations, thanks to its precise characterization of the fault based on the specific lens-camera combination that you use
Lens Softness: Lenses tend to introduce a certain level of softness in images; it is usually more pronounced on the edges than in the center of the image. DxO Optics Pro automatically improves the sharpness of images, based on teh DxO Optics Modules containing all the performance data of your particular camera and lens. All relevant parameters are used to produce the best results (with respect to aperture, location in the image, ISO, etc). With DxO Optics Pro you'll start using your lenses in a different way, and see sharpness in a new light. With DxO Optics Pro's lens softness correction you will: regain lost details, harmonize sharpness from center to edge and from one image to the next, add micro contrast for more pop, and add sharpness based on a level determined by you

Restore proper perspective and straighten the horizon line, all while preserving the volume and form of your subjects. DxO Optics Pro integrates three simple, practical, and powerful tools to tilt straighten, raise, and restore real perspective and a horizon line worthy of the name

The correction of volume anamorphosis is exclusive to DxO Labs. Wide-angle lenses distort subjects located at image edges - for example, people at either end of a line of people in group shots have noticeably disproportionate silhouettes. Only DxO Optics Pro restores proper proportions and shapes while maintaining the realism of the scene

Volume Anamorphosis: We can think of volume (i.e. 3D) anamorphic distortion as the photographic equivalent of the problem that mapmakers have when trying to represent our 3D planet on a two dimensional sheet of paper. Mapmakers know that it is impossible to conserve all the properties of the earth's features (surface, distances, etc.) on a flat surface. Mapmakers choose the best trade-off for the objective they are trying to achieve.
The same applies to photography - 3D objects (people, faces, or columns, for example) can appear distorted when projected on the camera's sensor. People's appearance at the edge of a group, architectural shots or crowd close-ups can be vastly improved with just one click of DxO Optics Pro's feature. Simply choose the type of shape being distorted and let DxO Pro do the rest. The results are remarkable!
Keystoning/Horizon: Unlike the corrections described above, keystoning and horizon corrections are not based on DxO Optics Modules and must be manually set by the user. With this feature of DxO Optics Pro your lenses in effect become 'shift' lenses, greatly widening your photographic possibilities! Horizon correction is an easy-to-use image rotation tool. Use DxO Optics Pro to correct: the distorted perspective which sometimes appears in architecture photos; a slightly slipping horizon

Shooting in RAW format gives you that absolute control over how your photos are rendered. DxO Optics Pro's RAW converter is based on detailed characterization of your camera by DxO Labs. Demosaicing that is perfectly adapted to your photos is the gauge of incomparable image quality. Aesthetics are always very subjective. You can adjust the parameters of RAW development to suit your own ideas, save the settings, and then easily apply them to batches of images

Select a Tool Tailored to Your Equipment: If you are shooting in RAW, it's because you want to avoid standard processing and to take full advantage of your camera's potential. So you need a RAW converter that is both powerful and intelligent. Thanks to precise prior calibrations performed by DxO engineers DxO Optics Pro adapts specifically to your camera to extract and optimal performance, all while giving you complete freedom to adjusts its RAW conversion settings
Discover Unparalleled Productivity: DxO Lab's prior calibration of a camera identical to the one that you use allows DxO Optics Pro to automatically correct one photo or hundreds of photos in a way specifically designed to guarantee very high image quality. That said, quality being a subjective notion, you can use DxO Optics Pro's many sliders to adjust the RAW conversion to suit your tastes. You can even save your personalized settings and easily use them for batch processing
Keep the Details, Not the Artifacts: Images generated by digital camera sensors must undergo RAW conversion, a process analogous to silver-halide film development. DxO Optics Pro's RAW conversion algorithms represent the latest advances in image processing, allowing you to restore fine details while eliminating or avoiding the introduction of such artifacts as moire or colored noise
Push the Limits of Low-Light Photography: DxO Optics Pro's noise reduction module lets you restore the details and saturation of an image up to 100,000 ISO. Gain up to two stops!
In Search of Shadows and Lost Light: HDR Mono-Image: Digital cameras do not do well with overexposure. Once sensor pixels are saturated, they produce only white. However, when only one channel is saturated, DxO Optics Pro can extrapolate and reconstruct the lost information from the other unsaturated color channels. Futhermore, DxO lighting's powerful automatic recovery of details in low light and in shadows, coupled with DxO Optic Pro's denoising tool, allows you to correctly reconstruct and render scenes with strong contrasts in a single dynamic, high-definition image
Change Your Camera at Will: Each manufacturer, and often each camera model, is characterized by how it renders color. But what color range do you want for your images? DxO Labs has tested a wide range of digital cameras, giving you the choice of applying their different color renderings to your photos, regardless of the camera that you actually use. This is a great way to unify all your images, even if you work with several different cameras
White Balance at Your Convenience: Sometimes a digital camera makes a poor estimate of white balance and produces an unpleasant color cast. Thanks to DxO Optics Pro and the flexibility of shooting in RAW format, you can set the white point of an image and exercise complete control of white balance in three different ways: choose from among standard situations; sample a white area within the image; manually enter the color temperature for the lighting of the scene

With DxO Optics Pro, no need to rely on flash photography to bring out the full emotion of your night shots and to obtain detailed textures and incomparable colors. Based on our precise laboratory analyses of cameras similar to yours, DxO Optics Pro is tailor-made to allow you to radically and automatically eliminate digital noise from all your photos

A Custom Tool that Guarantees Quality and Automaticity: The characteristics of noise can vary greatly from one camera to another. DxO Labs has applied its reputation-enhancing principles of custom settings to its noise reduction tool. A camera similar to yours was calibrated in the DxO labs and its noise has been precisely characterized. This means that after automatically identifying your camera and retrieving the image data, DxO Optics Pro can automatically denoise your photos without you having to adjust a single slider. Of course, you can change the denoising settings and then save them to apply to one or hundreds of photos
Saturation and Sharpness: Gain Up to 2 Stops: DxO Optics Pro equals outstanding noise reduction. Thanks to the latest technological advances, DxO Pro's denoising module lets you preserve the saturation of your images and reduce noise to a very fine grain, even at very high sensitivity. Indeed, the fact that noise suppression occurs before the demosaicing of RAW files (before mixing "good" pixels with noisy pixels) means that DxO Optics Pro helps you obtain high-quality images even at a high ISO. A photo taken at ISO 12800 and then denoised using DxO Optics Pro is comparable in quality to a photo taken at 3200 ISO (before denoising): you gain 2 stops! Did you know that you can go beyond the maximum ISO setting for your camera? Here's how: make sure that your camera saves your images in RAW format; set your camera's ISO to the maximum; set the exposure compensation to a negative value; take your photos; during RAW conversion, apply positive exposure compensation. DxO Optics Pro corrects the noise created by the exposure compensation
Improve Your Entire Photo Library: Both old and new images, whether RAW or JPEG files, can benefit from DxO Optics Pro's noise reduction capabilities. For photographers who have kept photo files from years ago, shot with less technologically-advanced equipment, this means that they can use the latest technology from DxO to breathe new life into their images

DxO Optics Pro restores the ideal balance between the dark and light areas in your images. Exposure and contrast are optimized both locally and globally with unique precision. Thanks to DxO's exclusive HDR mono-image feature, you can use a powerful exposure optimization tool to bring out numerous details in the dark and burnt areas of all your photos, based on just a single image

Opening Shadows, Enhancing Contrast: A substantial proportion of photos have some harsh shadows in which details stay invisible. Sometimes it is a backlit subject or an area of the scene where the sunlight is blocked from entering. Or someone is wearing a hat that partially darkens his or her face. Someone may have a very dark complexion or is wearing very dark clothes. In all these cases, skilled darkroom technicians in the film era would practice "dodging". With the help of various home-made instruments they would block the light from falling on excessively dark shadows. The restult was mostly good, even if dodged zones often lacked contrast.
DxO Lighting Engine uses a similar technique: DxO Lighting automatically detects which zones needs to be brightened; DxO Lighting not only enhances local brightness, but raises local contrast as well, in coordination with its management of global contrast; DxO Lighting keeps intact the subtle shades of color in the shadows which have been brightened, to preserve the natural look of your photo
Single-Shot HDR: HDR (High Dynamic Range) is a trend in photography whose purpose is to raise the richness of details in both the highlights and shadows of your photos, by shooting several identical views with bracketed exposures. A powerful alternative solution consists in shooting only 1 photo and using the specialized "HDR presets" included with DxO Optics Pro. This preset uses the full power of the DxO Lighting engine. Basically, it allows an extreme level of brightening within excessive shadows, all white: preserving the quality of colors, and in particular avoiding excessive saturation and unnatural appearance when the correction is applied at high levels; maintaining a very low level of noise, thanks to the exclusive de-noising engine built into DxO Optics Pro, and calibrated by DxO's labs for your specific camera model. The single-shot HDR preset, like any other preset, can be applied to any image entering DxO Optics Pro workflow. It will instantly apply a complex set of corrections to an image (or batch of images) and allow immediate processing without requiring any manual settings
Highlight Recovery: Preserving highlights is of first importance for any digital photographer. This is because camera sensors get saturated above certain levels of light received, any light above this level is treated as pure white. But though they give their full attention to this phenomenon, and thought they try to slightly underexpose their images, photographers frequently encounter saturated or nearly saturated highlights. Sometimes they are simply due to strong light reflection. Very often they appear in shots of the sky, in which clouds appear uniformly white and lack details. DxO Optics Pro has a specialized "Highlight Recovery" engine, which adjusts the exposure level of the global image to the exact amount necessary to recover highlights. This engine is even able to reconstruct highlights for which the information is partly absent. When one of the three colored channels is not clipped, this remaining "unclipped" channel is used as a basis for calculating the values of the two "clipped" channels. It is important to note that Highlight Recovery works in close relationship with DxO Lighting. Since Highlight Recovery tends to lower the global exposure level, it has a natural tendency to make shadows deeper and to lose some details in these regions. DxO Lighting then adds its touch by opening the shadows, while leaving intact previously-recovered highlights

The presets developed by DxO's teams allow you to obtain images of the highest quality with a single click. DxO Optics Pro automatically determines the best settings for each image by analyzing its contents and shooting conditions. Among the many possible choices, choose the preset that best corresponds to your photo. Use, for example, the "High Sensitivity - Noise Reduction" preset for a scene shot at high ISO, or the "Accentuate fine details" preset if you want to improve image sharpness

Rapid Batch Image Processing: All of DxO Optics Pro's corrections are based on what are called DxO Presets. A DxO Preset is a selection of correction parameters that is applied to all images to be processed. Thanks to DxO Presets, you can quickly and confidently process entire batches of photos according to the particular corrections or improvements you want to make (color, contrast, sharpness, denoising, optical corrections); and, too, you can apply your own personally-created presets as well
Optimized Settings, Thanks to DxO's Imaging Experts' Know-How: From the moment you start up the software, unless you indicate otherwise, the default DxO Preset is active and will be used to process all your photos. This DxO Preset has been perfectly calibrated by DxO Labs' imaging engineers and expert photographers to ensure optimal image quality for nearly all shooting conditions, including the most difficult. This DxO Preset brings together your camera's default color rendering and the entire spectrum of our corrections for contrast ("Lighting"), optical faults (such as distortion, vignetting, and chromatic aberrations), a moderated reinforcement of sharpness, and optimal denoising. All of these corrections are perfectly adapted to your particular camera and lens. You can use this default DxO Preset with confidence for the vast majority of your images. You can choose to apply a preset to one, several, or an entire batch of photos at any time
DxO Presets for All Tastes and All Shooting Conditions: The notion of image quality can be highly subjective. Some photographers prefer saturated colors and strong contrast, while others prefer reproducing delicate nuances of color and softened contours and edges. To respond to this important aspect of photography, DxO Optics Pro offers different tools and modes of function that permit you to process your images according to your own tastes and preferences.
In addition to its principal default DxO Preset, the software comes with more than a dozen easy-to-use DxO Preset variants that can be applied to different kinds of images shot under all kinds of photographic conditions - high ISO, vivid color, softened contours, recovery of burnt highlights, recovery of detail in shadows, correction for anamorphosis. See the full list of DxO Presets.
Last but not least, DxO Optics Pro allows you to create your own presets and save your own preferred setting parameters. Once you have experimented with settings and obtained photo results that please you, you can save the setting parameters in a personal presets file under a name of your own choosing. You can then re-apply this preset to one or more photos by selecting it from the updated list of available presets

Easy to use, DxO Optics Pro allows you to process your images in an instant. When you select an image file or files to correct, the default setting is automatically applied, letting you see all corrections and start processing with ease. You can also choose the preset that you want and/or adjust the different corrections cursors that are available in the settings palette. DxO Optics Pro is designed for your level of expertise and offers two workspaces, one for beginners and the other for more advanced users. You can also create your own workspace composed of the palettes that you regularly use

DxO Optics Pro 7 now gives you a simpler and more intuitive way to process your photos, thanks to a new workflow. Working in project mode is no longer obligatory! There are now two ways to work: File Mode or Project Mode
File Mode: A New Way to Work:

White balance, vibrancy, tonal curve, multi-point balance, color saturation protection: take advantage of all these tools to bring out all the brilliant colors of your photos, or to apply a color interpretation of your own.
A DxO Labs Exclusive: Change the color rendering and choose one based on an entirely different camera for endless creative possibilities!

Dust on your sensor can ruin a series of photos. With DxO Optics Pro, you can do once then store the dust correction, and apply it to an entire batch of photos. The dust disappears from all of your photos with just one click. You can also use this tool to get rid of other undesirable elements in your photos, such as antennas or electrical wires. DxO Optics Pro gets rid of these blemishes by reconstructing the image background, allowing you to more fully enjoy your photo

DxO Optics Pro adapts very specifically to your equipment and automatically makes corrections to your images, whether in JPEG or RAW, thanks to a preliminary calibration of equipment identical to yours in the DxO laboratory. Each camera or camera-lens combination is the subject of a very precise analysis with DxO's measurement tools.

The software automatically detects your equipment and shooting parameters for each photo. It then immediately and automatically applies exclusive sophisticated optical corrections (based on DxO Optics Modules), dramatic noise reduction (adapter to your camera sensor and shooting conditions), and other adjustments derived from DxO's image quality expertise

The DxO Optics Pro exists in two editions, Standard and Elite, both of which utilize the same set of features. The difference is that the Elite edition covers high-end cameras (professional, mostly full-frame) in addition to the cameras supported by the Standard edition - which includes entry-level and mid-range DSLRs, and some high-end digital compacts. Please see manufacturer to confirm compatibility for your camera