[JohnBee]

I have been anxiously awaiting this update for sometime now.
The big question now is... Will Topaz labs maintain it's superiority against Adobe's latest NR advancements?

And to that I'd say lets download the trial and find out!

http://www.topazlabs.com/downloads/index.php?d=denoise

[mysticcowboy]

It's pretty close. I downloaded the new Topaz filter today and processed a 3200 ISO image with both it and the Lightroom 3 beta. (K20D) DeNoise is improved and is better than the new Lightroom, but not by the huge margin it used to hold. My guess is that I'll use the Lightroom NR tools most of the time, because they're built in, and will only use DeNoise for problem images in Photoshop. Until NR gets incorporated into an adjustment brush that ability to selectively apply it via layer masks in Photoshop is still sometimes necessary.

michael mckee
My Port Townsend – A City in Photographs – 365

[JohnBee]

I also agree with this.

Unfortunately... both CS5 NR and TD were not sucessfull in removing the perverbial low frequency noise in the red channel(yellow blotching). Though Niksoft does manage to do it quite effectively. I was really hoping to see Topaz Denoise address this in their most recent updatge as well as a host of other issues I had with the prvious version but it seems this release was more of a UI update than a NR engine one as far as I can see.


Among the things I was hoping to see were:

• Vertical and Horizontal noise pattern removal(debanding).
• Caching of redraw during panning.
• NR brush or other form of selective controller.
• Performance improvement.
• Low frequency noise management.
• Give ACR v6 NR engine a run for it's money.

But alas... it seems as though Adobe really did pull a rabbit out of its hat this year. Though I'm not writing off TD just yet(still testing), I will say however that I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of the 3'rd party NR solutions will be bringing out next.

[philbaum]

It's pretty close. I downloaded the new Topaz filter today and processed a 3200 ISO image with both it and the Lightroom 3 beta. (K20D) DeNoise is improved and is better than the new Lightroom, but not by the huge margin it used to hold. My guess is that I'll use the Lightroom NR tools most of the time, because they're built in, and will only use DeNoise for problem images in Photoshop. Until NR gets incorporated into an adjustment brush that ability to selectively apply it via layer masks in Photoshop is still sometimes necessary.

michael mckee
My Port Townsend – A City in Photographs – 365

It was nice that the Topaz Upgrade was FREE to previous owners, shows that they perceive a full fledged assault on their market share, perhaps. It would be nice if Adobe did this a time or two with Lightroom :-)

I plan to use LR in the same way you do, for the majority of the work. If you have like 20 images to get done before the next day, LR seems like it would be way ahead of Topaz, although i never did delve into their bulk processing. I do know that when i export a 3200 ISO picture thats had NR from LR, it seems to be much faster than Topaz single use.