Photography

I don’t know anyone using their software and I know a lot of photographers. I guess they’ll make you buy the current version on sale and then push the new version shortly after. I know the adobe licenses aren’t cheap, but I can wholeheartedly recommend grabbing a year of the photography package on Amazon when it goes on sale. Which happens around Black Friday as well. Or was it prime day, can’t remember right now.

I usually upgrade every 2 years. They do post the new features on their website. Try looking at that and see if its worth it.

I would not worry about the age of your camera.

I have used the NIK collection for years even before DXO bought it from google. I really like Silver Efex for B&W conversions it's much better than LR for me when it comes to B&W conversions. The rest of the DXO pack is nice but not something I really use regularly.

I have done the trial on filmpack 7 but honestly to many of them were simply not to my style. The software was good both DXO and Filmpack have free trials.

I'm very happy with PhotoLab 6. The most - maybe only - compelling feature in 7 for me would be the color calibration tool.

I'm just an amateur, so maybe the answer will be different for a professional, but I doubt there's much reason to upgrade a single version as long as your gear is supported by the older version. Maybe wait 2-3 main releases. Ultimately, the buy-once nature is the main reason I initially started using DxO instead of Lightroom. If I'm going to buy a new version every year I might as well just get an Adobe subscription.

DxO does a small handful of things genuinely better, but I think most people will be better-off with Lightroom most of the time. It's easier for beginners to find good tutorials, the updates happen quietly in the background instead of nagging you every week, and the tools for stacking, masking, and local adjustments are just SO MUCH better. Plus if you use local storage you get Photoshop basically for free.

DxO has a UI that's easier for a native Windows user to understand, the AI noise reduction tools are a bit more granular and don't make a second file, and it's got a bit more adjustment range for white balance if you shoot in really weird light; I once shot a band lit under predominantly blue lights and made it look natural. For most users that's a pretty short list of benefits, which leaves "you don't have to buy it every year" as one of the biggest selling points.

The new version looks neat. The new local edit controls look particularly useful.

But the one thing DxO really truly needs is configurable keyboard shortcuts. Capture One has its speed edit keys. Lightroom has LrSuperKeys. ON1 and Darktable have a similar system. DxO not only has no such system, no programming interface for third parties to implement them, and you can't even change the default shortcuts.

Thanks everyone!

Thanks everyone!