Topaz Gigapixel AI

Conclusion

Topaz Gigapixel AI offers some of the most impressive software technology since the introduction of Photoshop itself. Having been around long enough to see the introduction of layers, and being dumb enough to not understand why you would ever need that (…duh!), and curves, healing tools, and what were possibly the first steps into this technology: "image awareness". But Gigapixel is really taking it to a whole new level, and we can hardly wait to see where this technology goes. With this level of software corrections and enhancements, will we see the end of large and expensive camera systems as we know them (heard that before!)? As the cameras in our phones get better and better, there’s now rumours of 10 times optical zooms with motorized telescoping lenses and image stabilization coming out in future phones, AI image processing will become more and more the norm, we believe.

Pros:

• Great enlarging software
• Improves overall image quality
• Restores facial features
• Enhances texture of detailed objects
• Crystal clear upscaling with no blocky artifacts
• Helps to fix pixelation in lo-res images
• Very easy interface to learn and deal with
• Batch processing

Cons:

• Somewhat expensive; $49 fee to receive upgrades after 1st year
• Quite slow performance without high-end hardware
• Taxing on the computer system, as the fan always comes on high
• Since the last update, we’ve noticed a few crashes

Personally, this reviewer has gone all in and bought all of the Topaz software, it’s hard not to once you see with your own eyes what this stuff does to your images, full-size and at full resolution. It is incredibly impressive, even more impressive than what can be shown here. I would wholeheartedly recommend this software to any of my friends and fellow Pentaxians who are doing photo editing. All of the Topaz stuff works as plug-ins in Photoshop, or, as I am using them, as standalone applications. And for the short time I’ve been using them, I have had zero lock-ups and zero crashes, and they’ve had several updates over the last few weeks.

This app does more than just the usual unsharp masking in either Photoshop or Affinity Photo; it is actually adding details that are not in the originals, not just sharpening up what is there, but it does it intelligently and as naturally as possible. This should be a valuable addition to any professionals arsenal of tools, or even to hobbyists and artists who want to print large with the best possible detail.

Wonderful stuff, Topaz! We look forward to what the future holds for this amazing company and their revolutionary software. We would give it a strong 9.5 out of 10. Nothing's perfect in this world, except perhaps Bach, Coltrane, and Amarone, but those are other stories entirely. Happy shooting, everyone!

All images copyright 2022 by Cameron R. Hood

Arco da Rua Augusta, Lisbon, Portugal at 8'