X-H2s and extremally high ISOs + DxO Prime XD

The recent releases of DxO's Photo Lab and Pure RAW now include Prime XD, there new noise reduction with extra detail. Last night I decided to push my limits and find my limit. These two samples tell the story and represent what I found in multiple images.

ISO 10,000 seems to hold up
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/300s 10000 ISO +0.7 EV

ISO 12,800 starts to louse detail. Look at the eyes and dark part of face for lost detail
X-H2S NIKON AF-S NIKKOR 500mm f/5.6E PF ED VR lens 500mm f/5.6 1/125s 12800 ISO +1.7 EV

Morris

Wow. That is amazing.

Pretty incredible results. Would be amazing if a camera could someday have such power within its processor (and not chew up battery too much) to do that in camera, or even half that good!

-Matt

We see this in JPEG images. When we shoot RAW, we want something very close to what the sensor captured so that we can process and get the very best.

Morris

Have you tried Adobe's new Noise AI. I tried it and it does a remarkably good job. I own DXO Prime XD but haven't made much use of it.

Bob

it is full of bugs

PS: "I own DXO Prime XD" - like a patent or so ? charge DxO some money, if they don't pay - sue them

I wish PureRaw had a sharpness slider just like PhotoLab. I know PureRaw has a lens sharpness toggle button but I found that it doesn't really do much, it still looks over processed.
PhotoLab denoising does a way better job with feather detail compared to Topaz Photo AI.

I suppose to be accurate I should have said, "I own a licensed copy of the software to use in accordance with the policies laid down by DXO." 😁

Not surprising results. I have found the X-H1 RAW images processed with DxO PureRaw 2 were very good up to ISO 10000, as long as the subject DR doesn't exceed what the sensor can tolerate, about 4.5 to 5 f-stops. Generally when you shoot at those ISOs it is dark and there isn't much scene DR, so it all works out.

I did not notice a significant improvement in either detail or processing speed when using the PureRaw 3 in the DxOs PhotoLab 6.4 over the standalone PureRaw 2. The Prime XD setting took much longer to process and I didn't feel it delivered commensurate results over PureRaw 2. Went back to using Capture One with some files processed in PureRaw 2 and then rendered in Capture One.

It comes down to whatever you like to do; if you like DxO PhotoLab then the PureRaw addition is a plus, otherwise you are better off with the standalone PureRaw application, IMO.

I liked DxO PhotoLab before they tried to make it into a image processor. I'm glad they went back to there roots with PureRAW as a RAW converter. I find the difference very noticeable between Prime and Prime XD when the ISO climbs or when I crop. I have a very fast system and there is hardly any difference in processing time between Prime and Prime XD on it.

Morris