On1 Photo RAW 2024.5 - Reviewed - It's Improved

I've been putting Photo RAW 2024.5 through its paces over the last couple of weeks. In this review I concentrate on those features that have been updated and refer you to my previous review for the other features. I'm pleased to report that there are positive improvements to the app, but there is still work to do.

00:00 Introduction
02:32 RAW Demosaicing
07:20 AI Brushes
08:54 AI Masking
12:33 Denoising
16:16 Verdict

[robertoosthuizen]

Brilliant work, Andy. Great to see an independent view

[markrouleau]

I too play with On1 whenever a new version comes out, and am impressed by how much better it's gotten: I think their engineering team is catching up to their marketing. Most disappointing is that they don't seem to have the will to circle back to features they added during their "more hype than substance" days, and as a result, things like HDR merge and Panorama merge (for example) are still several steps behind many freeware offerings.

[gizmothemighty]

Thanks! I do agree with your test results! I like how easy to use ON1 interface is so at the moment I am actually using DXO Pure Raw 4 for demosaicing and noise and then the rest of the processing in ON1

[ChrisLegg]

Thanks for the truly unbiased deep dive. Saved me a small, but meaningful (to me), amount of money.

[TroupeGoal]

Very interesting stuff, sort of makes me appreciate the 'it just works' effectiveness of Lightroom when I select the sky, even if I'm looking at alternatives to it.

[DalsPhotography]

Thank you for reviewing the program, I like it, and I use it, but the best thing they do have is their huge presets collection. The AI brushes are not too precise if you have smaller details. Thank you and have a nice day, best from Uruguay. PS the "Black slider" is not good either, it turns things into white!!! On the first set of photos, I think you should turn the exposure down to he On1 app as well.

[Eigil_Skovgaard]

It's almost there - like Topaz Photo AI. In both cases we can watch the never ending attempts to add sales arguments for support of the next release instead of correcting known issues. I had a On1 Photo RAW license for a short time. Then dropped it, when a bug came in the way. The 'almost there' impression has been painted all over these products for a very long time. I think the On1 team is honestly struggling to keep up, but the results are what count.

[TerenceKearns]

Excellent review. I have on1 2020 but I would be happy to pay for better debayering.

[SwampyDuckRidesAgain]

Found this really useful as I was going to buy especially as some folks had recommended. I like the thought of no subscription but I do want everything to be as good as possible so if something else’s does it better then enough said.

[mechanickiwi]

After using lightroom for years, then getting screwed by adobe, I tried on1. I use sony A7, surprisingly I get the same results as lightroom by loading the Jpegs that the sony produces, then tweeking them in on1, (just like any other photo processing software 😊)

[mtbboy]

Great comparison. Great review. Definitely lots to define. The lack of more advanced adjustments which Photoshop offered was disappointing.
9:00 I don't think this showed up when I tried it, or it had this when I tried it, or I somehow missed it. But nice to see it has sky mask now or has it at all. But Shame it's not as good as Lightroom. Lightroom does a great job.
Nice DXO improved and added features over the years, it came a long way from DxO Optics Pro 9 Which I tried many years ago Completely different name, and design.
But tested DCO PhotoLab 7. But it's not perfect.
I didn't find tone mapping / texture and clarity
The de-fringing control is not as good as Lightroom Classic and Rawtherapee, they don't have perfection but more adjustment. But they call it Chromatic Aberration.

[joshh]

I jumped ship to make a point. I’ve enjoyed it so far but usually don’t need to make too many heavy adjustments with what I’m doing. The denoise isn’t as good as Lightroom definitely. I haven’t had to many tougher images to edit though recently. Waiting and see where adobe goes over the next 3 months, I might just keep Lightroom and ditch photoshop as affinity 2 as met all my needs. On1 hadn’t been a regrettable decision but it’s definitely no there with Lightroom, it’s not deal breaker level though.

[craigwhite]

It looks like some savvy people watching this.Any recommendations for Android apps for raw editing .
PS I am green & inexperienced

[pleclere]

I'm new to this program, so still in my test period. I had a quite noisy picture that was denoised and sharpened via AI so it became sharper and the main subject stood out, but the picture also became too smooth so lots of details in for instance the wood disappeared. I tried to reduce the denoise to increase the details, but than it seemed to become much more noisy. I probably need to use masking to get around this. Still have to discover it further, but not sure it is a program for a beginner in AI controlled program.

A suggestion for a better program for an amateur, or should I try it further as the price is acceptable for me?

[alrafter]

I've used on1for about 3 years now . I downloaded this 24.5 version as soon as it came out. I don't know what has happened but it is now almost impossible to use it takes minutes to do anything .I am using 6 months old laptop with 16 GB ram, I7-I3700H processor, and RTX-4060 graphics. No problem with anything else.

[gregboyle]

Maybe you could compare Luminosity masks to see if ON1 would fare better. Those would seem to be better tools for detailing around tree limbs (although tree limbs against a dark background may not work very well with a Luminosity mask). I know you were concentrating on AI Masking tools but your tests just made me curious.

[DalsPhotography]

Did you try Topaz Denoise older version comparing to all of these as well? Thank you!

[Hikebike]

Thanks Andy! Question: if you start with a decently exposed image is the RAW processing deficiency as big a concern or drawback?

[ShootingAndReloading]

Another good video :) It would be nice if you could share the test RAW files so we can test on our preferred editor.

[drchtct]

Great review which perfectly shows the cheap engine behind this. No point in AI masking if the RAW processing is terrible and you can't recover anything anyway. I tried a bunch of free open source and cheap software and none of them came close to the image quality of my free Capture One Fuji Converter. The tool is fairly limited but I still get better results in half the time than paying for these shitty AI-heavy knock-offs.