By Shutterbug Staff

May 28, 2008 — DxO Labs has announced the beginning of a DxO Optics Pro v5 public beta testing period for users running the software on the Apple Macintosh platform. The free public beta –available in English only at www.dxo.com -- will run for several weeks. Users are invited to provide their feedback at www.dxo.com.

The public beta for Mac features the new breakthrough RAW converter and noise removal technology unveiled in the Windows version, support for the Canon EOS 40D, Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, Nikon D300 and Nikon D3 camera bodies, and improvements to the existing functionality of the software.

At the heart of DxO Optics Pro v5 is an innovative RAW conversion engine which includes a completely new demosaicing algorithm producing images with much more detail and fewer artifacts. The other key characteristic of DxO Optics Pro’s new RAW Engine is that a newly-developed noise reduction is performed upfront, before noise has a chance to be amplified by the RAW conversion process and absorb important fine details.

Combined with other proprietary techniques, DxO Optics Pro v5’s new RAW Engine produces both the most detailed and most natural looking images yet – its very fine and homogenous grain translating into subtle shades and textures. DxO Optics Pro v5’s new RAW conversion engine has been fine-tuned and optimized with the rest of the software’s automated image enhancement features (optical corrections, color rendering, exposure optimization, highlight recovery, etc.) to produce best-in class results.

DxO Optics Pro v5 is available immediately on the company’s e-store or from respected retailers for Windows users. DxO Optics Pro v5 final release for the Macintosh platform is expected later in Q2.

DxO Optics Pro v5 is available in Standard and Elite editions at pricing unchanged from version 4.5:
DxO Optics Pro v5 Standard: $169
DxO Optics Pro v5 Elite: $299
(All prices are excluding sales taxes)

All customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro v4.5 on or after August 1, 2007 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 5. For customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro before August 1, 2007, the pricing of upgrades is as follows:

DxO Optics Pro Standard (any version) to DxO Optics Pro v5 Standard: $95
DxO Optics Pro Elite (any version) to DxO Optics Pro v5 Elite: $125

www.dxo.com