I also like the importing into Smart objects as well and the fact that you can use that Smart Object technology to your advantage after saving. The Alignment control was very much improved as was the de-ghosting. The chromatic aberration was good, but I couldn't tell much difference from HEP1 to HEP2.
I did like the change to the new tone mapping controls - the more I worked with the ones in HEP1 the less I liked the drop down method. I really do like the new layout with the tone compression, tonality, and color at the top and the selective adjustments below. I also like the way that the new tone-mapping algorithm works in that it seems to go for a more natural look on initial processing, but then you can make it your way from there.
Overall I really like this update to HDR Efex Pro. To me speed is not always a critical thing to a process like HDR as much as the quality of output is. In this regard HDR Efex Pro 2 is very much improved – even to the point of outstanding results from the same images I processed in version 1 and for that reason I can very highly recommend HDR Efex Pro 2.
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