DxO Optics Pro 8 Announced

From DxO:

DxO Optics Pro 8 introduces DxO Smart Lighting allowing greater photo details and more vivid colors

Comprehensive image content analysis coupled with camera calibrationpushes image quality even further

Software will be available on October 29, 2012 at a 33% discount through November 15th

October 24, 2012 - DxO Labs announces the October 29th availability of DxO Optics Pro 8, a major new release of its image quality processing software of reference for all demanding photographers. Available for both Mac and Windows, DxO Optics Pro 8 provides the best tool for automatically adjusting contrast and light, the most advanced optical corrections, and even finer and more precise color management. Its enhanced performance and improved interface deliver a better user experience.

DxO Optics Pro is based on a unique approach consisting of extensive camera and lens calibrations in DxO Labs' laboratories. The software integrates several powerful tools delivering automatic RAW and JPEG image processing for both amateur photographers and experts: optical and geometrical corrections, exposure and contrast, noise reduction, and color and detail preservation.

DxO Optics Pro's many presets allow photographers to process images according to their own taste, getting in just a few cliks the best out of their photos, whatever the shooting conditions.

DxO Smart Lighting: Mastering the light with one slider

New DxO Smart Lighting brightens up photos by optimizing contrast and lighting quickly and efficiently. This exclusive DxO Labs technology intelligently adapts to image content and allows users to easily adjust image contrast using a single slider. DxO Smart Lighting automatically recovers details both in highlights and shadows under even the most extreme shooting conditions.

For more advanced users, DxO Optics Pro 8 offers a new Selective tone tool that allows them to apply precise corrections separately to highlights, midtones, and dark zones.

Brilliant and fully textured colors

The Protection of saturated colors tool can restore a significant number of details and rich textures hidden in areas of vivid or saturated color that can appear flatly uniform to the eye.

DxO Optics Pro 8 automatically applies the color rendering settings chosen by the photographer while precisely taking into account the current image content. Textures in vivid colors reappear, revealing all the details in the image.

Exceptional optical corrections: Even more supported lenses

Flaws in photos are specific to the combination of lens and camera used. DxO Labs has measured nearly 10,000 combinations to provide the specific corrections required for each camera.

Developed in DxO Labs' laboratory using an exclusive calibration process, DxO Optics Modules contain tens of thousands of data about the inner characteristics and flaws of each camera and lens. This unique and world exclusive database allows DxO Optics Pro to automatically correct all optical flaws with an unrivaled level of quality, for both RAW and JPEG images, including distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberrations, and lens softness.

DxO Optics Pro 8 further improves the correction of chromatic aberrations for RAW-format images by combining DxO Optics Module data with image content analysis.

The Lens softness tool, also based on DxO Optics Modules, automatically boosts lens resolution by homogenizing sharpness across the field. Optimized in DxO Optics Pro 8, the tool gives photographers extremely sharp images from the center of the image right out to the edges, even when the settings are pushed to high levels.

The opening of a new laboratory in Seattle has reinforced DxO Labs' measurement and calibration capacity. Now with six laboratories located in both Europe and the United States, DxO Labs has set a goal of providing 20,000 available DxO Optics Modules by the end of 2013.

A smoother user experience: Regrouping features and Retina screen optimization

DxO Labs has extensively revised the DxO Optics Pro 8 interface for more user comfort. The most commonly used functions have been regrouped to offer photographers easier visibility and handling.

A specific workspace brings together the most important and common operations such as white balance, color and contrast adjustment, and exposure compensation. Similarly, many advanced tools have been more logically reorganized in different palettes.

DxO Optics Pro 8's Mac interface has been entirely redesigned to take advantage of all the visual quality offered by Retina screens. Photographers can now enjoy unprecedented displayed details in their images!

Faster and truer viewing: A more efficient display and workflow

Beyond the improvements in terms of image quality and interface, DxO Optics Pro 8 has increased display speed.

Thumbnails now display in real time the current state of the photo, thanks to live preview. The user can now instantly figure out if a photo is the original one or the working version.

To improve workflow further, now every photo once opened in DxO Optics Pro instantaneously loads, even after closing and reopening the application - a real time-saver.

New tools: Print module and new Output settings options

DxO Optics Pro 8 now includes a new integrated print module allowing photographers to directly print RAW or JPEG images on the fly as they preview them. Different print modes and layout options are available, from contact sheet to full page printing.

As a part of the new Output settings options, users can now also adjust the destination and size and choose among several resampling solutions.

Availability and special introductory offer

The Standard and Elite editions of DxO Optics Pro 8 for Mac and Windows will be available on October 29, 2012, in the DxO Labs online store (shop.dxo.com), and at photo resellers during November, at a special introductory discount valid until November 15, 2012:

USD:

• DxO Optics Pro 8 Standard Edition: $ 99 instead of $ 169
• DxO Optics Pro 8 Elite Edition: $ 199 instead of $ 299

EUR:

• DxO Optics Pro 8 Standard Edition: 99 € instead of 149 €
• DxO Optics Pro 8 Elite Edition: 199 € instead of 299 €
  (Suggested retail prices, including VAT)

BGP:

• DxO Optics Pro 8 Standard Edition: £ 89 instead of £ 135
• DxO Optics Pro 8 Elite Edition: £ 179 instead of £ 269
  (Suggested retail prices, including VAT)

Photographers who have purchased a DxO Optics Pro 7 license on or after September 1, 2012 are eligible for a free upgrade to version 8. Other users can take advantage of a special discount on all upgrades from now until November 15, 2012, directly from their customer account.

A complete, fully-functional trial version of DxO Optics Pro 8, good for one month, will be available on October 29, 2012 on the DxO Labs website (http://www.dxo.com/intl/photo/free_trial_version).

B&H carries DxO Products.