I have two questions concerning major releases of PL. My understanding is that major releases require purchasing a new license for fee. Do new cameras and lenses introduced during PL-N for some N (currently N=5, someday N=6 or an entirely new name for a “similar” workflow application from DxO) work and are available to PL-N-m (say N-m = 4)? In other words, will PL4 be able to download camera and lens “correction” modules that were introduced during the PL5 epoch? Second question: when PLN is introduced, are “bugs” and security issues in PLN-m still “fixed”, or to get such fixes, one needs to always have a license for the latest major release? In terms of such fixes, when PLN is released for production use, is PLN-1 and earlier considered “EOL”?
Your text seems a little convoluted and would have been easier to understand if you had just refered a single case like PL5 versus PL4.
The answer to both your questions is this. As a general rule once new versions of PhotoLab are released each October, support for new cameras and lenses, new feature enhancements and bug fixes ends for previous versions. Most commercially available imaging software only provides new camera and lens support for current versions.
DxO support will still attempt to assist with issues with older versions but will not supply updates to those versions. However, occasionally, bug fixes are released for previous versions to resolve some serious problem but that is rarely done.
Mark
Let me be less convoluted. The Nikon Z9 with multiple NEF (raw) formats each of which has a different compression ratio (and presumably different compression methods) will be shipping (most likely) to the USA in late December 2021. How soon after that will the various NEF formats be supported? Will this not be until October 2022, ie, PL6 ? To be clear, the support for the Z9 NEFs if introduced in PL6 will not function in PL5, etc? Note that there is a high expectation that most working photographers who use the Nikon system will be adding/using a Z9, with many pre-ordering now. The Nikon workflow application that includes the Z9 will be released at about the same time as the Z9; many (myself) included prefer non-Nikon workflow – I have adopted PL DeepPRIME as my replacement for rental Adobe PS.
You will not have to wait until PL6. The Z9 will likely be supported within a couple of months after the camera starts shipping. Exactly when will depend in part on DxO having the availability of a camera body to test. Whether all the compression ratio NEF formats will be supported I cannot say. I believe historically that DxO tended to support the largest uncompressed raw files on most camera systems but I don’t know their current strategy.
If support of a new camera is not introduced until sometime after the implementation of a new version of PhotoLab, it is unlikely that support for it will also be added to the previous version. As a result support for the Z9 will not be available in PL4 unless DxO changes its strategy. In the case of an important camera like the Z9 I would expect to see support for it fairly soon. I purchased the new Nikon Z fc in early August as a walk around vacation camera. Raw support was available for it when PL5 was released on October 20th, a little over 3 months after this camera was announced.
Mark
I have a doubt about new lens support on already supported cameras in previous versions, new minor enhancements and bug fixes.
@Marie , @sgospodarenko
Do you confirm @mwsilvers statements above?
Patrick,
Are you agreeing with me or are you suggesting that DxO does provide some support for previous versions? It was a bit unclear to me. While lens support might be added to previous versions, I don’t believe new cameras ever are.
Mark
Mark,
while I agree with you about new camera support not provided on previous versions, I think that we already have new lens support on already supported cameras in previous versions, new minor enhancements and bug fixes.
So yes I think that DxO is already providing this.
I don’t think new minor enhancements are implemented in earlier versions of PhotoLab although there are occasional bug fixes. Can you give me an example of a minor enhancement implemented in a non-current version of PhotoLab? Lenses are sometimes added to the previous version if a camera is already supported.
Mark
From a non-DxO public URL (does this list censor such references?):
What are the file sizes? 55MB Lossless raw, 33MB High Efficiency Raw Star, 22MB High Efficiency Raw. Thus there will be many Z9 users who will pick Lossless raw or perhaps High Efficiency Raw Star, both of which purportedly have acceptable image quality, with lossless compression raw being “indistinguishable” from full raw NEF (that is a larger files size). Nikon and supposedly Adobe will be supporting all of the formats – which ones will DxO support? Will these be within PL5E?
Actually with a Z7, all compressed raw are supported by PL from v2 to 5.
But I don’t know if all Z9 compressed raw will still be as it seems there are new compressed raw available…
Hello,
There is a difference in the support of new lens and a new camera. If the camera itself is supported by the version let’s say PL4, so even if the new lens is added during PL5 version, the lens will be available for PL4 as well.
But if the body itself is introduced in PL5 → it won’t be available for PL4.
As for the support of the previous version when it concerns bugs → yes, we support the previous major version and fix critical issues if any (all other cases are handled via support).
Regards,
Svetlana G.
This means that DxO does not update PL4 with bodies that are introduced in PL5. Right?
Svetlana said,“But if the body itself is introduced in PL5 → it won’t be available for PL4”
Mark
A question for Svetlana or anyone else familiar with the actual internal DxO development and deployment software engineering timeline.
- Introduced: Which of: a) the date the body is announced, b) the date that the body is listed on the manufacturer’s product list with pricing, or c) the date that the first production run of that body actually are delivered to “retail” channels (“photography shops”), the date that is considered for starting support by DxO
- DxO PL, etc, major production release version that supports a body: is this the date explained by (1)? Eg, if PL5 is the current production release based on the date of (1), but PL6 actually has the support for the body because of the development time interval, will that be put into PL5? (I am using specific numbers rather than N and N+1, but the latter, not specific to either 5 or 6 is the real intent of my question).
- If a body has multiple “new” image file formats (eg, the various new compressions Nikon has introduced with the Z9), and say PL5 supports a subset (one?) of these formats, but PL6 supports a larger subset (all?) of these formats, will this “expanded” support be backported to PL5? Or, does the introduction of at least one Z9 image format meet the DxO promise of new body support in the DxO production release current with the Z9 introduction?
Clarifications would be appreciated. The promises of major bug fixes (does this include later discovered “security” issues?) and later lens support for bodies supported under an earlier releases already is “better” than the “support” from many DxO competitors – another reasons to stay with DxO.
Check out the following support page:
For my current primary body, I find:
Nikon D850 DxO PhotoLab 1.0.0 DxO PureRAW 1.0.0 RAW S not supported
If the Adobe DNG raw converter supports RAW S, and as the D850 is supported, would this by-pass the lack of RAW S NEF support? The same question may arise for the Z9, as some of the compressed raw formats may not be supported by PL native, but might be supported by the Adobe converter; once Z9 support is introduced in PL, and if the Adobe PNG raw converter were to convert a PL unsupported compressed format into a DNG raw, would PL thus support the resulting DNG raw image file – full support including PL-E DeepPRIME?
I think you may be overcomplicating the approach to adding a new camera to Photolab. I don’t believe it has anything to do with introduction dates or retail availability dates.
When DXO is able to acquire a loaner copy of a new camera body they will use it to create a new optics module. However, acquiring a loaner copy of a new body is not always that straightforward or fast. Sometimes, as @Marie has indicated, loaners from whatever sources DXO uses are not readily available because they have already been loaned to someone else. That someone else could be a trusted tester and reviewer or another software firm.
Even after acquiring a body to test The actual creation and implementation of a new optics module may depend on several factors. The acquisition of a loaner doesn’t mean that they will implement a new optics module for it in days or even weeks. Even once an optics module is ready for a new camera, an updated version of PhotoLab needs to be released in order to use the new module. During the year those are point updates to the current major version. However even those updates are done only periodically and include support for a number of new cameras and new lenses as well as bug fixes and the occasional minor enhancement.
Additionally, in my experience, new cameras introduced to the marketplace shortly before a new major release of Photolab is implemented are generally only available in the new version when it is released, rather than the current version.
Mark
From what you have written, I believe that an earlier assumption I made concerning module support for DeepPRIME thus is correct. When a new camera body gets a module, that body is not tested with all possible lenses that might be used on it (for a Nikon Z9 plus FTZ II, all of the existing F mount lenses from many manufacturers and all of the Nikon Z mount lenses). Rather a body module is created and the already supported lens modules are then combined with that body module to give a DeepPRIME supported configuration for a supported raw image format from the supported camera body. Presumably, the combination of modules for bodies and lenses (including teleconverters) is done through a mechanism similar to a (mathematical) convolution (either continuous through integration over the mathematical support interval, or the equivalent discrete “convolution” – the internal mathematics and algorithms used by DxO do not seem to be published or otherwise revealed – if I am incorrect in this statement, citations or URLs would be appreciated).
I doubt very much that DXO would be willing to share their camera, lens or DeepPRIME algorithms with anyone, much less on some public forum. DxO is famous for their proprietary optics modules, and DeepPRIME is the best noise reduction available. The math behind it is not for public consumption. 
Mark