If i read a review i expect the person writing it has used it, this is not a review but a preview with facts lifted of the DXO website by someone familiar with the previous version.
Just because DXO say it can extract more detail better highlights & is faster might just be hype.
A review would give impressions of how the reviewer thought it stood up to the claims DXO are making after using it.
I'm hoping DXO 5 is all it claims to be but reading comments left on the forums by a lot of people who have tried the latest version i get the impression DXO has released a alpha or beta version full of bugs.

As previews go this is pretty good have looked at some more of your articles & they are all pretty good i enjoyed reading about Graham Nash i am a fan of the Hollies & Crosby Stills Nash & Young but i had never heard about his Photography side

Hi Stephen,
Thank you for your comments. Sorry about the delay, but with the ice storm that hit the Midwest and Mid-south, I have been without power for the last couple days.

I do work with the programs/products albeit on a short time and more limited basis. So while it is a review, it is also a preview.

I seldom look at forums and/or other reviews until after mine is published so as to not taint my thoughts on an item.

I wish I had multiple cameras, lenses, computers, and operating systems to do a more through test of every product (and the time to do through analysis as well). Glancing at the forums, it seems that the two biggest problems are the Vista OS, and Nikon cameras.

I use XP SP2 because it is more stable, and the camera gear is Canon.

The two biggest problems that I had were on install and on initial load. I don't usually comment on install since it is a one time event and in this case, mine came from a download as opposed to a DVD install.

So my biggest problem was/is with the load time. I could speculate on where that problem comes from, but most people just want to know the impact to them.

Once it is running, I personally like the results. Perhaps it is slower when processing, but as long as I can select and let it run in batch mode; my own concern is with the results when it is done. And those I like.

I am involved in the software industry myself and my experience has been that most of these issues will be resolved and then the product will be operating at where it is touted.

Some on the forum say that this is Beta software. All software that is released to the general public is beta software. I was involved in a shrink wrapped software package that had 50,000 current users. We had 150 beta testers and 20 QA team members (0.0034% of the total current users). When highly technical software gets to all the different configurations that are out there, there is no telling what will turn up.

My suggestion to anyone with any new version of software, if you are squeamish, hold off till a couple of revisions are out and let the dust settle.

My bottom line is that this is a quality company who has been making a quality product and version 5 will be no different.

T.

"this is a quality company who has been making a quality product and version 5 will be no different"

My experience of using DXO has been an extremely frustrated one, I'm afraid. The bug list is long and affects a wide spectrum of users/hardwares. For instance, the latest version released on 02/17/2008 has the following confirmed bugs:
- Cannot properly crop a portrait oriented image using fixed ratio.
- No local help.
- Non working shortcuts.
- Indoor images tend to oversaturate yellow and red.
- Adjustment on function such as 'Intensity' doesn't update the histogram or the preview image.
- Cannot work with Lightroom.

More bugs are found on the daily basis by DXO users. Adding salt to the wound, in the DXO forum, many users reported that they had a very hard time obtaining refund or getting technical support from DXO.

DXO is a great converter when it works. Unfortunately, in the current state, it's leaving behind a wide wake of frustrated and angry paying customers. Check out the DXO forum first before you buy.

Sorry, but you just lost ALL credibility with this comment, "All software that is released to the general public is beta software." And it does seem more like a DXO press release (like someone else said) than any kind of honest or objective review. If you want to review software, don't you think the experience that thousands of others are having should be considered.

Sorry, but you just lost ALL credibility with this comment, "All software that is released to the general public is beta software."

I guess you don't have much experience in the world of software if that looses credibility. I have been involved with it for over 20 years and it is a fact.

Why do you think that so many companies are coming out with "public beta's?" It is to lessen the impact of general release problems and perceptions. These public beta's are an earlier release of what they used to send out as general releases so that they can find all the problems with all of the different configurations of equipment.

I am currently working with a company who has a release out (for over 10 months now) in which there is a functional problem that affects %5 of users, but it is a problem that was not experienced during beta. If they had 10,000 users (I don't know their user base), that is 500 users. How much noise can 500 users make? Is it fair to say that the product is crap when 9500 are not experiencing the problem?

And it does seem more like a DXO press release (like someone else said) than any kind of honest or objective review.

I am reviewing from the stand point of what does the product do, what does it have to offer, does it in general live up to my expectations, and to whom is it going to be useful to.

My goal is to locate what I feel are quality products and give them the attention that can allow someone to make an informed decision on is this product for them. In this case I have worked with the prior version, and had no problems with this one. I don't spend weeks trying to analyze all of the aspects of every product, I look at its functionality and usefulness.

If you want to review software, don't you think the experience that thousands of others are having should be considered.

First, you used the word thousands of others, did you actually count the unique individuals that are having problems (what is the definition of having a problem), did you get the number from DxO, or did you just make that number up to make your point? (would this go to credibility?) Second, when I write a review, I generally focus on my experience with the product. My experience was generally a good one.

Just about all of the software I see out there has a 15-30 day trial version that I encourage people to try out before laying their money down. Most of the problems that would stop me from using any particular software, I have caught during this time period.

So, if I thought that thousands of people were having problems with a particular software product, I probably would not have pursued getting the product and subsequently reviewing it.

T.