camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

I cannot tell if my experience is shared by others here. When I shoot RAW data I have noticed that the image is pretty sharp without any editing to the point that in a majority of cases no sharpening is necessary.
I use Nikon proprietary software to edit my Nikon RAW data and then I make final adjustments with Affinity Photo. Affinity Photo has in my opinion one of the best sharpening control of any of the other softwares I have used. When I sharpen a file with Affinity I have to keep sharpening at a minimum because the effect can easily over sharpen the file. As I said, in a majority of cases the RAW data has enough sharpening that further action is not necessary.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

Yes, I use Sharpen AI - Focus Mode, when it produces a better result. Focus Mode does tend to broaden the depth of field when that is needed. And can pull into focus something that is slightly out of focus. But for the images I posted, there wasn't a focus problem, and focus mode had less effect.

And I also posted a picture using Denoise AI - Clear Mode. Great product.

R.G. Loc: Scotland

It looks as though Gigapixel AI gives you extra work to do due to the extra noise generated plus the saturation adjustments that would be needed.

tcthome Loc: NJ

. Would not have thought that was possible.[/quote]
Me either. I would think OOF is out of focus & that is it.. It gets good reviews. I hardly ever delete in the camera. Always wait till you view on the computer monitor.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

It will handle only a little bit out of focus. It has its limits. I am attaching an example. The right side has been corrected by Sharpen AI - Focus Mode. The left side is the original.

(Download)

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

Worthy try but as stated before both On1 Resize and Topaz Giga are not sharpening apps. I’ve done personal test of resizing images in both. I really couldn’t see any major difference. But on1 resize is actually part of on1 And it doesn’t cost any more money while topaz giga is $99 and with the announcement they’ve made it will be purchased every year as a move to a subscription plan. This is even for customers who were told these products were free upgrades for a life.

One issue I had with your test was you were using JPEG‘s. Why not use raw which has considerably more information and should get a better result. I did a personal test on sharpening I really didn’t see a lot of difference between built-in functions in On1 and also LightRoom versus Topaz. In fact using AI clear inside Topaz Studio 2 does as good a job at a much less cost and on my equipment much faster as well

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I normally would be hard pressed to understand how your raw images are sharp since the in-camera settings, including sharpening, that are applied to jpegs are not present in raw files. However, if you are using Nikon's software, it's probably like Canon's DPP software and is automatically applying the in-camera settings to your raw files so that in essence, your raw files will look exactly like your jpegs. That would explain why they look sharp.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I did use RAWs. Only converted to JPEG at the end. And I did convince myself that ON1 Resize and Topaz Gigapixel are not sharpening apps. They do add new pixels to allow images to be printed in larger sizes without pixelization. But extra sharpening is not really happening.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

As good as these Topaz AI products are, I keep reminding myself that they are only 1st generation products.

What comes next?

What I hope for is software that can undo the effects of various kinds of lens distortions such as astigmatism, coma, CA, diffraction, etc. When we get the ability to fix the distortion, not just hide it like we do with CA today, the need for high end lenses starts to go away and lower cost lenses start to make more sense. Distortion is a difficult thing to remove, and maybe the AI approach is the way to finally solve this problem.

I suppose the lens manufacturers don't hope for this. But the end users will certainly appreciate it.

Please refer to the following link. I have pulled out one paragraph from this article "What if every lens was perfect?"

https://medium.com/datadriveninvestor/photographys-future-is-computational-e32b78a20f1d

What if every lens was perfect?

Imagine a world where every lens you attach to your camera was optically perfect. No distortions, no vignetting, no flare (unless you wanted it). Sound impossible? Believe it or not, we are already on the path to using technologies that go far beyond the in-camera lens corrections most photographers are familiar with today. Major players are already showing off ways to make these (and other) corrections even before you actually take the shot. But the real innovation will be when the use of machine learning allows hardware vendors to create models that can correct virtually any flaw in even the cheapest lens. And the best part is you won’t even notice it’s happening. All of this will be behind the scenes just like how smartphones from both Apple and Google are doing today where you worry about framing your shot while the software takes care of the details.

yssirk123 Loc: New Jersey

[quote=Ednsb]....topaz giga is $99 and with the announcement they’ve made it will be purchased every year as a move to a subscription plan. This is even for customers who were told these products were free upgrades for a life.

As I recall the Topaz announcement, they didn't say they were going to a subscription plan but instead that they would be charging for upgrades as opposed to providing those upgrades for free as they used to do. You could choose whether you wanted to buy the upgrade or not, but the original purchase would remain functional.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

[quote=yssirk123]

Yes, this is true. You can choose whether to buy the upgrade or not, and the previous version will remain functional.

It will be interesting to see what their follow on to these current AI products will be. I will be paying attention.

martinfisherphoto Loc: Lake Placid Florida

How did you apply ON1 Resize???? If the image is fuzzy to start with it will remain fussy in the end. You process the raw file first, which includes sharpening before you Resize...

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

True not subscription but it looks like they are going to charge all owners if want an upgrade rather than doing what they sold the products under ie free upgrades. The fb group has blown up with threats of suits. I only own Topaz Studio 2 as it has been the only app I didn’t feel I already had covered. My concern is the they have yet to even released the promised functions for Topaz Studio 2 but instead have put out new versions of other apps with lots of problems. I would bet they are in severe financial hardships .

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

I actually tried it both ways and when I sharpened first with Sharpen AI - Sharpen Mode, then I got some artifacts I didn't like when I followed with ON1 Resize. Same with Gigapixel. It didn't seem to like treating the image with the sharpening before resizing.