with really pushing boundaries like ISO 12800 (the antonov) it still will show noise. Image noise reduction hasnt advanced much since it was first introduced, with the exception of DxO Prime noise reduction in the Elite edition of DxO PhotoLab 2. thought of this as mediocre, but with cropping, denoise and some adjustments it came out quite good. By default, DxO PhotoLab applies HQ(Fast) noise reduction mode as soon as you open an image in the application. When you first open an image in DxO Prime, the program automatically gets to work detecting noise. Image is ISO 2500 during day (correct exposure helps with denoising). Next, we attempted to reduce the noise in this image with DxO Prime. if they could only get some R5 color profiles now. The biggest advantages so far is integration with the RAW processing and it produces way less artifacts (which I noticed with exported topaz when you try to adjust some stuff shows up that is really weird) and the color remains true (topaz often washes out things) Noticeably cleaner background, slightly more detail (check the chin whiskers) to trade off against said grain, and a more natural look to the file. Both of these areas are sharper and have more contrast in the Topaz version. Compare the black bars on the tail and the detail in the lichen in the lower left corner. In my opinion, Topaz Denoise AI is a good notch better. Topaz maintains the original contrast and doesn't lighten the image.
It seems so far to do a slightly cleaner noise reduction/sharpening, but its quite close. DXO Prime has been easily the best noise reduction software for the last couple of years.
Of these three, DeNoise AI is the overall winner as it was able to completely remove background noise, whereas PhotoLab left a very fine grain still visible, as did Neat Image. The denoise engine is as good as topaz (which i have latest of), in some ways better as I do not have to convert my canon RAW files to another format to save. DXO PhotoLab 3 (Using PRIME noise reduction) Neat Image. I ordered On1 photoraw 2022 which has their denoise engine built in and holy cow, this version fixes most of my gripes with the product (each year its been a swing and near hit, but miss).