[rawr]

A heads up for anyone interested.

DXO Optics Pro v6.2, a very good RAW convertor & image editor/manager with some powerful features, is available for a discounted price until the end of this month. The discount was due to expire mid-June - now they have extended the offer until 30 June. The discount is equal to about 30-50% off list price. The USD price is now $99. Given the current strength of the Australian dollar, that made it a good deal for me.

https://shop.dxo.com/login.php?CountryShow=United%20States

Dxo Optics Pro is most useful if you have the Pentax bodies the software has in its calibration database, and the lenses they also have in their lens profile database.

For Pentax the bodies Dxo has special support for are the K10, K200D, K20D, K7 and Km. No K-x yet

K-mount lenses with Dxo profiles include:

Pentax smc DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL II
Pentax smc D-FA 50mm f/2.8 Macro
Pentax smc DA 16-50mm f/2.8 ED AL [IF] SDM
Pentax smc DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL
Pentax smc DA 50-200mm f/4-5.6 ED
Samsung D-XENON 12-24mm or Pentax smc DA 12-24mm f/4
Samsung 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 or Tamron AF18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) or Pentax DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3
Pentax smc DA 50-135mm f/2.8 ED [IF] SDM

I mainly bought Dxo to work with my K200D/ 18-55 WR combo to help give that camera some extra headroom. Dxo can work with the camera's RAW files directly, and I have been quite impressed so far with what it can do (eg highlight recovery, distortion correction and noise reduction).

Dxo works with the K-x too, but until they have a Dxo module for the K-x you can only feed Dxo K-x JPG's, not K-x RAW. And many of the image enhancement features of Dxo don't work for the K-x automagically, (since they depend on having calibration modules that match particular camera bodies) although you still can operate most of them manually.

A handy Dxo v6.2 User Guide is here:
http://www.dxo.com/var/dxo/storage/fckeditor/File/manuels/DxO_Optics_Pro_v6.2_User_guide.pdf

Free 30 day trial download here:
Free Trial Version

[causey]

It doesn't seem they are in a hurry to support the K-x, which for this camera makes this piece of software pretty much useless. (I am inclined to think they'll never support it.) Anyway, if you buy it now for the discounted price and your camera is not supported yet, chances are you are going to spend more to get the upgrade that will support it.

Question to the OP: does the DxO recognize your 18-55mm WR as part of the 'k200d + 18-55mm AL II' module?

P.S. To ask their team to include K-x modules in the future upgrades, use this FORM.

Here's their current short term ROADMAP.

[rawr]

Question to the OP: does the DxO recognize your 18-55mm WR as part of the 'k200d + 18-55mm AL II' module?

Yes, it does. Automatic distortion correction etc work fine. Dxo reads the EXIF - and the EXIF for that lens says '18-55mm AL II'.

Dxo Optics Pro can still do useful work on the K-x JPG output, and there are some things DXO does well, so it's nice to have it handy.

I also have Lightroom, PSE8, DCU4 (of course), as well as other image tweaking tools that all work with the K-x DNG's if I need to do any K-x PP'ing, so I consider Dxo as just a good addition to the toolbox for not a lot of money.

Of course, it would be great if they supported the K-x, as well as more K-mount glass. I have already suggested that to them. The more they hear from Pentax users, the better.

[Rupert]

I have downloaded the Free Trial, and as yet I am not all that impressed with either the layout or the results compared to simple processing in Elements. It could be that I am not familiar enough to make full use of its potential, so it I will continue to work with it until I feel like I have a better understanding of the process.

I would like to hear the opinions of others and maybe see some results that you think are better than you can obtain with your current software. The idea is appealing....processing to match the camera/lens.....but in reality, it may not be as impressive as it sounds? Or it may be more impressive......
Regards!

[Derridale]

I bought version 5 a couple of years ago, and have never used it. It doesn't support ANY of the lens and body combinations that I have with the exception of the Tamron 18-250 (as the rebadged Pentax 18-250) on my K20D bodies.

I have a lot of lenses, but NONE of them are covered.
I have Pentax Ltd lenses all the way from the 15 right up to the 77mm.
I have DA Star 16-55 and 50-135.
I have Sigma 10-20, 100-300, 50-500, 180 Macro - none are covered.
I have Tamron 90mm Macro - not covered.
I have the Pentax 10-17 Fisheye - not covered.
I have the Pentax A 50 f/1.2 and the Sigma 50 f/1.4 - not covered.

They are very heavily biased to Canon and Nikon, with a smattering of Pentax and Sony.

They are very unresponsive too - when I submitted a list of lenses that I wanted included (as they ask you to do), in order of likely popularity (with the DA Stars and the Ltds at the top, plus the Sigma 10-20), I got a stock impersonal reply about how they were always seeking to imrove their product, blah blah, blah. And nothing has ever resulted. That was about two years ago.

I don't hold out any hope of those lenses and my K20D body combination being added now or in the future.

Don't waste your money...!

[Rupert]

I bought version 5 a couple of years ago, and have never used it. It doesn't support ANY of the lens and body combinations that I have with the exception of the Tamron 18-250 (as the rebadged Pentax 18-250) on my K20D bodies.

I have a lot of lenses, but NONE of them are covered.
I have Pentax Ltd lenses all the way from the 15 right up to the 77mm.
I have DA Star 16-55 and 50-135.
I have Sigma 10-20, 100-300, 50-500, 180 Macro - none are covered.
I have Tamron 90mm Macro - not covered.
I have the Pentax 10-17 Fisheye - not covered.
I have the Pentax A 50 f/1.2 and the Sigma 50 f/1.4 - not covered.

They are very heavily biased to Canon and Nikon, with a smattering of Pentax and Sony.

They are very unresponsive too - when I submitted a list of lenses that I wanted included (as they ask you to do), in order of likely popularity (with the DA Stars and the Ltds at the top, plus the Sigma 10-20), I got a stock impersonal reply about how they were always seeking to imrove their product, blah blah, blah. And nothing has ever resulted. That was about two years ago.

I don't hold out any hope of those lenses and my K20D body combination being added now or in the future.

Don't waste your money...!

I think some of your lenses are now covered....I know the DA*50-135 is covered, but I could find little improvement with their program over a little work in Elements. It is a high priced program, and so far I tend to agree with your analysis....they are heavily slanted toward Nikon and Canon.
Regards!

[Bart]

I have a lot of lenses, but NONE of them are covered.
I have Pentax Ltd lenses all the way from the 15 right up to the 77mm.
I have DA Star 16-55 and 50-135.
I have Sigma 10-20, 100-300, 50-500, 180 Macro - none are covered.
I have Tamron 90mm Macro - not covered.
I have the Pentax 10-17 Fisheye - not covered.
I have the Pentax A 50 f/1.2 and the Sigma 50 f/1.4 - not covered.

DA* 16-50 and DA* 50-135 have been supported for years!
No Ltd's, no manual lenses.
Don't know about the other ones. You might recheck the site since you had wrong information about the DA*s as well.

Just try to convert some pictures with both DxO and your usual software and then compare.
Should open your eyes


By the way - works perfectly fine without a specific lens module as well!

+ you can download a trial version (like with most any software) to judge for yourself - always the safest bet.