Thanks to DxO Labs, we get to end this week with a freebie. If you're interested in mixing up your post-processing workflow, you can get a free, no-strings-attached license for DxO OpticsPro 9 between now and February 28th.
This is a big week for new top-tier gear at DxOMark. First, they crowned the Canon 1D X Mark II the best Canon sensor they've ever tested, and now the affordable Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary has been named DxO's top-ranking Sony E-Mount prime.
When Sony announced the QX-100, I jumped on Amazon and pre-ordered it immediately. It seemed to solve the most obvious problems I had with smartphone photography quality: a larger sensor, better low light performance, and better optics. But upon receiving it, the deficiencies quickly became apparent. The display-less design required you to use Wi-Fi to pair it with your camera -- a frustratingly slow experience. I tried shooting blind, but the lens barrel design gave you no indication of whether the image was straight. And finally, the thing wasn’t pocketable.
DxO Labs, the French software company known for photo software and gear tests, made a huge announcement today by unveiling a camera of its own. Called the DxO ONE, it's a pocket-sized 20.2 megapixel camera that aims to combine DSLR-quality with the convenience of smartphone photography.
If you missed your chance to snag a free license for DxO FilmPack 3 last September/October when they were handing them out for free, you're in luck! The company is at it again, and this time you have until August 15th to grab a quality piece of film emulation software for the price of 'on the house.'
The verdict is in, again. After giving Nikon’s D810 a spin, DxOMark has officially declared the D800 successor the king of sensors. While the improvements to the mid-term update may seem marginally small, DxOMark reports these minor tweaks provide “an excellent result” in improvements.
The DxO Mark verdict is finally in for the much-lauded Sony A7s, and as you might expect, it steals the low-light crown from the Nikon Df handily. The problem is, it seems to fall short of its main competition (the other two A7 cameras) in every other category.
Up until now, when exporting a RAW image from Lightroom to another program to work on, Lightroom first had to convert it to a JPEG or TIFF image. This effectively rendered shooting in RAW useless if you were wanting to do much outside editing on the images. Here to change that though is DxO with Optics Pro 9.5.
DxOMark is certainly not the be-all-end-all of camera sensor testing outfits, but what it has going for it is consistency and a whole lot of experience. So while you might not put much stock in their sensor scores, DxO is a great resource for comparing sensor performance between models.
We say all this because there are some Nikon fanboys who will immediately be upset by the news that DxOMark claims the new Nikon 1 V3 might not live up to its price tag.
Want to quickly make your digital photos look like analog ones without shelling out big bucks for paid software …
Stephen Shankland over at CNET has written an interesting behind-the-scenes look at how DxO Labs -- one of the world's premier camera testing services -- evaluates equipment. DxO Labs is based near Paris, France and was the result of a 2003 spinoff from a company called Vision IQ, which specialized in swimming pool safety. Since then, the group has published over 185 in-depth camera reviews on its website DxOMark.
Everyone is expecting news of a new Canon 60D soon, and a leak yesterday by DxO seems to indicate …