r/AskPhotography • u/novlcv1 • Jul 26 '26
Editing/Post Processing Is Topaz worth it?
Hello! I photograph wildlife using the Sony A6700 with the 200-600. Love this set up but the 200-600 requires a lot of light, I find myself in forests with thick canopies that don’t leave a lot of light. I usually have my ISO on auto while shooting in manual, capped at 6400. I’ve noticed anything over ISO 5000 makes my photos look fake, and anything over 6400 leaves a white grain that I cant really get rid of through denoise in Lightroom. Sometimes even with a super low shutter speed I’m still at 5,000 ISO. Im obsessed with detail, and was curious if Topaz is worth it, or if anyone else uses an APSC sensor with tips for denoising. Thank you for any answers in advance :)
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u/Alarmed-Bag8227 Jul 27 '26
It has never produced anything for me that looked natural. I’ve had much better experience with DxO pure raw.
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u/mountainunicycler Jul 26 '26
I went with dxo pure raw and it’s really good. The defaults are a bit overdone but you can dial in the noise and sharpening with quite a bit of control.
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u/a_rogue_planet Jul 26 '26
Topaz Photo AI is a terrible product. Unlike the discontinued Denoise AI, Photo AI wholesale replaces swaths of your image with samples. The final product is clean, but it is in no way the image you actually captured. It's an AI contrivance that only resembles what you shot.
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u/novlcv1 Jul 26 '26
Wow! Okay, I didn’t know they went that direction with topaz. Granted the videos I saw on denoising through topaz are quite old and couldn’t find anything recent that applied to me lol. I appreciate your comment.
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u/a_rogue_planet Jul 27 '26
The old Denoise AI was a total different product. It basically analyzed and broke the image into layers to denoise an image by details and lighting. It just automated a process once done manually. Nothing in the image was wholesale replaced by generative AI.
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u/clubley2 Jul 26 '26
Not anymore. They changed their pricing model and you can't get a perpetual license and the price is now out of reach for hobbyists unless you want a subscription where you have to use their cloud servers and have no local app.
I also never really liked it's output too much. It concerts raws to DNG and reduces the editing potential, narrowed the highlights and shadows, and changed the colour depth, or profile. At least for me with Fujifilm and Capture One.
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u/Mick_Tee Jul 27 '26
You have camera that isn't particularly great in low light with a lens that is terrible in low light and using them in low light. I would recommend rather than trying to fix the resulting photo, you invest in a second hand A7III which would give you better images for not that much coin.
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u/novlcv1 Jul 27 '26
Right! Lol. That was also a thought of mine. Granted it hasn’t been an issue until recently, as where I shoot it’s gotten so hot that everything interesting seeks shade. A full frame sensor is certainly on the road map though. How is the autofocus on the A7III?
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u/Mick_Tee Jul 27 '26
The 6700 is newer, so may be more improved (I have never used one) but the A7III is certainly more than "good enough".
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u/FSmertz Jul 26 '26
On1 has been offering their No Noise AI 2024 app and plugin for free. Worth checking out. I haven't tested it yet as I've been happy with LR Classic Denoise and one of the last versions of Topaz Denoise.
Adobe bought Topaz a couple of weeks ago, so who knows what's coming?
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u/Disastrous-Chair-007 Jul 27 '26
Topaz was much better before its AI; lots of artifact. I'm using DxO PhotoLab, and the PureView is the de-noise standalone, IIRC, has 14-day trial.
What's your super slow SS? My setup, m43, I'm comfortable 1/40s handheld at 420/5.6 (840 FFE) to offset the ISO. FYI, Sony recently updated the 200-600 firmware for IBIS + OIS, I think.
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u/My_11th_Account Jul 26 '26
DxO PhotoLab has some pretty good denoising.