Noise Reduction Software

[pAthdoc]

I plan on purchasing some noise reduction software, and it seems as the two more popular ones are Noise Ninja and Topaz Denoise. Most of my PP is done in LR and CS3. At this point, I'm leaning toward Topaz because they're having a $30 off special until the end of the month. Which would you recommend?

[wannabephotographer]

As a company I like Topaz products. I use a few of their plug ins and they've never charged me when they upgrade their software.

[pAthdoc]

Wow, no charge for upgrades?!? I just read a link from a similar thread. It was a comparison between Topaz, Noiseninja, Noiseware, and a few other programs. Although Topaz topped the list in quality of noise reduction, the major complain is that it is significantly slower than Noiseninja and Noiseware. It was something like 140 sec (Topaz) versus 10-11sec (ninja and ware). Do you find Topaz excruciatingly slow because these numbers are pretty significant.

[private]

I have topaz - never use it - I use noiseware - and you can google for a coupon for $20 off or 20% = I forget which...

Also, you can get noiseware - the community edition for free (but it strips your exif data)

[wannabephotographer]

It's the best so I can wait. A little slow but not a huge deal to me. Can't beat it with that coupon!

[pAthdoc]

I tested Topaz and it seems really good, and the speed isn't nearly as slow as I thought it would be. The Topaz site says that the plug-in works with LR, but I can't seem to get it to work there. It's only working in PS. What am I doing wrong? Does noiseninja plug-in work in LR?

[BigFuzzy]

Since you use LR... you may want to know that LR3 (coming out soon I hope) is supposed to have amazing noise reduction improvements, so if you're going to get/upgrade to LR3, you may want to wait until after you get it to see if you still want a separate program.

Cheers
Al