DeepPRIME XD, TransX Sensors Support, and More Options
Review by Erik Vlietinck
PureRAW lets you benefit from DxO’s PRIME denoising neural network, which indisputably is the best available, without having to buy a license for PhotoLab. With version 3, DxO has added the power of DeepPRIME XD that became available in PhotoLab 6 last year (you can see my review of PhotoLab 6 in the November 2022 issue of Photoshop User). As was already clear and, in spite of this reviewer’s skepticism, DeepPRIME XD is capable of squeezing detail out of images that you didn’t know were present in the image in the first place.
DxO originally positioned PureRAW as sort of a Trojan horse for its noise-reduction system, and version 3 shows that it’s time to move to the next step: offering more options and support for even more camera/lens combinations. To start with the latter: PureRAW version 3 supports TransX sensors, making Fujifilm photographers as happy as the Bayer club. Phase One or Hasselblad cameras are still not supported, though.
It means most of us will rejoice in having access to more functionality in a vastly improved user interface. The UI is still as simple as they come, but PureRAW version 3 is more intuitive than before. You still drop images in the empty window but, once the photos have been listed and you click the Process Now button, a pop-up dialog lets you access other corrections besides DeepPrime, including Lens Softness, Cropping, and Optical Corrections. You also now get to choose between JPEG, DNG, and TIFF as export formats.
Furthermore, there’s an Add to Queue button that initiates a batch-processing feature with the same options. I tried that one, checked every option in the pop-up, and found that my photos were cleaner than before, with more detail; however, a blue color cast in one of them wasn’t corrected perfectly. I thought I’d found a major point of criticism until I realized it’s because PureRAW version 3 is correcting only those flaws that are hardware-related!
