So. . .tell me about DxO

<p>Hi.</p>

<p>I have a question about the DxO software.</p>

<p>"Should I get it?"</p>

<p>I use Lightroom 3 on a PC. I shoot Canon dSLRs, and have a pile of lenses. (Seriously. . .a pile. It's a disease. I have a whole set of F4 zooms, and a bunch of non-L primes.) I hear DxO features a LR plug-in that automatically corrects for "lens issues". Do I <em>really</em> need this? I use Lightroom for Raw conversion, and all manner of adjustments. I am content with that.</p>

<p>I don't have any fish-eye lenses. . . .do I need DxO for lens corrections?</p>

<p>Jim, <br>

You can download the software and try it for 30 days free. You should be able to tell within a few image conversions. I myself downloaded and tried it out this week. I was very impressed with a few of the images I converted. I found that it is a bit hard to just pickup and start using. For instance, the output to JPG seems to reduce the file more than I would if I was using the Canon RAW converter. I am considering the purchase as a way to extend my low light options with my XTI. All in all, I found it to be worth the purchase price. </p>

<p>In general, I don't think anyone should buy anything unless they see the need for it. A purchase should solve a problem or limitation.<br>

My straight lines weren't straight in my architecture shots and I wanted them straight. Most zooms in their wide setting have barrel distortion. I solved this by purchasing PTLens. DXO can fix this also. I hear that the CS5 is pretty good also (whatever Photoshop version I had wasn't good).</p>

<p>If you only shoot landscapes and portraits, you may never see the slight distortion because you don't have straight lines in your images for reference. Or, your lenses may have less barrel distortion than mine.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I am not much into installing useless software on my machine. . .so I want some viewpoints BEFORE even doing a trial.</p>

<p>To be clear, I am NOT looking to add steps to my picture workflow. I would want the software to work WITHIN lightroom, and have lightroom do both the basic image manipulation (ie, tone curves, contrast and color adjustments) as well as the final JPEG production.</p>

<p>After more research. . .I have JUST discovered the lens correction feature of Lightroom 3.</p>

<p>I learn something new everyday.</p>

<p>So. . . .any thoughts on the lens correction feature of Lightroom 3 vs PTlens (thanks for the tip!) and DxO?</p>

<p> </p>

<p>For curve distortion correction, you want a tool with a database of lenses so it can apply the exact amount of correction for the lens and focal length (for zooms) you used. Trying to find the amount of correction to apply yourself can be difficult. Even worse, some lenses have "complex" distortion, barrel and pincushion in the same frame. PTLens will do this, don't know about the others.</p>

<p>If the correction is applied from a database, be sure to apply the curve correction first, before any rotation or cropping.</p>