Raw editor Noise Reduction comparison test

Raw editor noise reduction comparison

This comparison looked at the NR ability of 3 common Raw editors: Adobe Lightroom, Capture One Pro 20 and DXO PhotoLab 4.

The image was captured with a Fujifilm GX50R with Fujinon GF45mm lens
ISO 12,800 f2.8 1/60s

Raw files imported into Lightroom, Capture One Pro 20 and DXO PhotoLab 4
Application of Noise Reduction was the only edit in the Raw converter at Auto settings:
Lightroom 30/50/0
Capture One Pro 50,50,50,40
DeepPRIME, Luminance 40

Exported to full-size JPG at max quality
Three JPGs imported into Adobe Lightroom and minor adjustments to even out brightness. No colour edits.
Duplicates made in LR for 100% crop and images exported at 3000px on the long side (full pic below), no downsize for 100% crop (2582x1620) and full-size export. No sharpening on exports.
Finally, images passed through JPEGmini PRO to reduce file size.

Link to DropBox containing all files here.

Finally, I did a few quick global edits including colour, contrast & sharpening, with a crop & minor rotation in PhotoLab 4 to bring it near to how I would deliver to the client. The editing process was intuitive for a user who is experienced in Lightroom or C1P.

The export time from PhotoLab 4 to a 3000px file was substantially longer than LR or C1P - like just under 4 minutes for a single file! This is no doubt due to the DeepPRIME noise reduction. Definitely not something that I would use for all images in a shoot, but when the highest quality NR is needed for a small number of images, I think DXO PhotoLab 4 has the edge.

DXO PhotoLab 4 is US$199 for a perpetual license.