DxO ViewPoint 5 verdict
Summary
DxO ViewPoint 5 is a specialised distortion and correction tool which has some clever features but is a bit of an awkward fit with most editing workflows, partly because it can’t open and correct RAW files and partly because most applications you might launch it from have distortion and perspective correction tools of their own.
DxO ViewPoint 5 is a tool for applying sophisticated distortion and perspective corrections to images, including local ‘Reshape Fusion’ corrections and unique ‘Volume Deformation’ correction for wide-angle images. It works as both a standalone program and as a plug-in for Lightroom Classic and Photoshop or as an external editor for Capture One.
If you have DxO PhotoLab installed, ViewPoint will integrate directly to offer its special geometric corrections within PhotoLab itself, and as part of PhotoLab’s non-destructive workflow.
ViewPoint is a clever and powerful piece of software, but it has a couple of profound limitations which really do restrict its usefulness and make it less appealing as part of a photo editing workflow.
The main problem is that it cannot be used directly on RAW files, only processed JPEG and TIFF images. This means that if you shoot RAW you will have to pass your images through a RAW processing stage first, perhaps in DxO PhotoLab or, more likely, in Lightroom Classic or Capture One. All of these programs have distortion and perspective correction tools of their own, so by the time ViewPoint can get to work on them, your ‘host’ software has already done much of ViewPoint’s own work for it.
Worse, while ViewPoint can apply distortion correction via DxO’s own correction profiles, it will insist on accessing the original straight-from-the-camera image file first, which of course won’t exist if you’re using a RAW workflow.
But let’s look on the bright side. ViewPoint 5 still does a few things which could prove really useful.
For example, the in-built distortion correction might be little use in most workflows, but its perspective correction tools work well and with a great deal of precision and control. Your regular software might do this already, but you might prefer to use the tools in ViewPoint instead.
The mesh-style Reshape Fusion local distortion correction could be useful too, though this is perhaps a rather specialised and time-consuming operation that is not needed very often. After all, surely perspective and distortion correction is a global image problem, not just confined to specific areas?
The volumetric distortion correction is very interesting. We’ve all seen wide-angle shots where objects near the edge of the frame appear to elongate – it’s especially noticeable with human figures – and the Volume Deformation tool fixes that in one click.
I also like the Miniature Effect, which can apply a tilt-shift style blur to the top and bottom of an image to make it look like a tiny diorama full of toy figures. For this illusion to work, though, you need to be shooting downwards towards a scene from a high viewpoint.
Overall, DxO ViewPoint 5 has some interesting and useful features, but its inability to work with RAW files severely limits its usefulness. It’s useful when it’s installed and running within PhotoLab, and it has some features you don’t get with Lightroom Classic or Capture One, but overall it feels like an awkward fit within a modern workflow and a tool that’s only half-useful.
