http://dxopro.com/

had a lot of promised when they introduced a math model based raw conversion, that promised to cure all the small little flaws in lenses that modern digital cameras reveal so much more than analog did.  

there where a lot of problems though in the beginning. did not support the cameras/ lenses we use, did first work only with jpegs and not raw and pricing was hilarious for pro equipment based on camera model and lenses which needed to be licensed in pairs ...
our of curiosity downloaded the latest and greatest and was very pleasantly surprised! not only 3 easy product licenses and affordable as well, but a lot of cameras and lenses supported in the pro package.

even more pleasant was the result of test runs. on a quad g5 its reasonable fast - considering this is yet another step in the work flow - output to tiff,. dng not supported but aperture ... but whoa! the images sure look crisp and clean. hard to believe, even in auto mode its a lot better than dpp/ aperture can do even with considerable work.

for mobile use its an universal binary as well - nice!

now what really piqued my interest was the new film  pack, which emulates looks and grain of classic film like ektachrome, fp4 and hp5 - well yes, I am that old ... results look strange when compared to the super clean and smooth digital images of today, but sure they look very much like the real thing ... why we would want that is a completely open question, but then again there is always the 'artistic' use ... if one is inclined to do so ...

expect some samples over the long weekend. I guess they will get my order before 31st dec - so I get the film pack for free.