Customer Reviews

Tiffen DFXCMPV2 Dfx Complete Digital Filter Software V2 Stand-alone Version - Windows XP, VISTA or Macintosh v10.4.6 and higher

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Tiffen has delivered a winner with this software. They have packed more filters in here than any photographer would likely use in a lifetime. This particular more advanced version of, Tiffen Dfx Essentials Creative Digital Effects Software, is super simple to use. Each filter can be used at preset levels, or it can be tweaked with parameters. The workflow is different and more photo-like than the twisted difficult to learn menus and words in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

With this standalone version, you load your digital image, which appears in the center panel. Across the bottom are selections for different gangs of filters - much like choosing from the Tiffen filter catalog. You click on the gang, then click on a selection with that group - so HFX may have gradients included. Then a panel on the right fills up with all the intensities for that filter, HFX will vary from 1 to 8 with greater softening effect. You then click on the filter you want, and the preview in the center updates your picture. Don't like the effect, tweak it with parameters.

If you need to add another filter, simply go to the lefthand panel and click on a + button to add another filter. Don't like a filter in the stack you added, click the zap button on that filter and it's gone.

Happy with what you did, simply save the picture out to a JPEG file. Honestly, the software is this easy to use. No you will be truly amazed at the simplicity.

There are some more sophisticated tools in here. They are just buried a bit. To find the usual suspects for blemish cleaning up, color balance correction, red eye removal, etc., you have to select the Image Filter. Then click on the Paint Filter. Now the right hand panel does almost nothing. But a brand new big old tool bar shows up just above the bigger image preview. You can do all kinds of standard Photoshop Elements kinds of things here.

This is super lightweight or non-system taxing software. I ran this on a Quad Core 2.85GHz tricked out screamer (Vista 64 bit) and an Acer Aspire One netbook (with the super slow Atom processor and XP). The software worked equally well and performed equally stably on both computers.

I have also written a much more extensive review of the Tiffen Essentials program. This version 2 is simply a much larger set of filters with much more control over their parameters. Please look up my name at this product listing: Tiffen Dfx Essentials Creative Digital Effects Software.

There is one flaw that I've been able to find, printing capability or controls is really poor in this software. You sort of have to rely on the print driver to set things, and then the sofware asks if you want to scale to fit the page size. There's no page setup or controls over the output. It's really pretty minor flaws.

Tiffen has produced one more version of this program, it is this full package of filters, but set up as a plug-in for Photoshop. This is probably the way a lot of people will go. Photoshop CS4 and Elements do run circles around the Tiffen photo editor, but they have a steeper learning curve. If you already know Photoshop, why learn something else? The plug-in package works with Elements and CS4.

There is one complaint out there about this software, most complain that Photoshop can do every single one of the things this software does, so why bother, why should it exist? What those complaints seem to forget, they had to learn a whole new language and whole different way of working to apply those filters to their work. Yes you certainly can do most all this, the options in Photoshop are just too huge and named such weird ways. The plug-in is just the way to go. Afterall, Shakespeare used the English alphabet like everyone else - so we should all be able to conform to Adobe's idea of how a photographer should work. I say, grab the Tiffen filters, they are excellent.

This software is amazing, and so much fun for the money!! I particularly like the defog and colored enhancing filters, but there is no limit to how creative you can be with so many choices. There is only one drawback (and why I didn't give it 5 stars): after applying a filter and saving, a lot of the meta data is lost. I emailed Tiffen about this, along with some sample photos. After checking it out, they said there was a bug in the EXIF that will be fixed in the next version. So beware, you will lose some meta data. I am still happy with my purchase, and use this software often as part of my workflow.

Update 1/10/11 - I finally updated my Mac from OS X 10.5 TO OS X 10.6 and this sofware didn't behave property. An update to the latest version 2.0.2.2 is required when updating to Snow Leopard and is available for download from Tiffen.com. I did not have to re-enter my license code, it must have been stored somewhere on my computer.

Not sure if Amazon is shipping the latest version or not. The update fixed everything but NOT the EXIF data loss problem.

This software has the effect of making me think in different directions in a positively creative way. It's UI is intuitive. You can take any image and start experimenting with all the "What ifs?" that you can possibly evolve your ideas into.

I've got the stand-alone version and it works just fine, as my main thrust is always in dabbling into new avenues of presenting the essence of the image. Besides, think of all the $$$ you save in comparison to buying these filters separately for your camera.

I should mention that it's only crashed once, on the first day, when I pushed so many different buttons it wasn't even funny. So that was purely my own fault. All in all, this has become my new favorite "box of idea crayons", and the price is worth it.

I would love to recommend this product because it seems very useful on the surface. Sadly, I cannot. While many of the filters are useful, the software is not the least bit intuitive. This standalone version does not integrate with either Aperture or Photoshop. To use the filters in conjunction with those applications, you have to buy another version of the software. Most importantly, as useful as the application may seem, it is not worth the price. None of these filters are any more exceptional than actions and presets you can find out on the web for free. Furthermore, because the software launches an entire application, even in Photoshop and Aperture, it can be a resources hog. It may seem convenient to have everything in one window, but launching an entirely separate application in conjunction with Photoshop and/or Aperture can slow your system down.

I am a huge believer in this software. The options for processing your shots in color and black and white are almost endless, and the user interface is incredibly easy to use. The effects are really cool, and expand your creativity. I know it is not a replacement for Photoshop, but for effects alone, it is the best product on the market (and not at all expensive). I am a professional wedding and party photographer, and my clients love the effects that this product allows. Highly recommended.

I really like this software. I had this installed for a couple of months when I had a system crash and had to re-install all of my software. When I tried to activate this software I kept getting error codes. Tiffen told me I had exceeded my licencing limit even though it has only been installed in one computer and I have two licences. All I can get from them are the same automated responses. I feel like I have wasted my money. I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as I have gotten nothing for my money. And this was not cheap either. I would never buy a Tiffen product again.

Great concept and a money saver to boot.

This software installs easily.

The problem is that Tiffen assumes that we all know all their vernacular. I have written them asking them to include some definitions - either in the text of with a glossary. Got a luke-warm response.

I need to understand the meaning of "gamma" and many other words before I will be able to use the software. There a just too many choices to make and a primer is needed so I can make smart choices, not just endless guesses.

Easy to install & use. Sure beats having to buy multiple, and very expensive filters for your digigal camera.
Great product!

Even though I am strictly amateur I used to lug around all sorts of lenses in my camera bag and try for special effects in my photographs. Never mind that most of them were disappointing when I got them back from the developer, I remained enthusiastic about my hobby. And then in the digital age, every picture I saved was good, but I was pretty much stuck with basic photos so I agumented with photo editing programs. I have worked with PhotoDraw, Digital Image Suite, several Corel editing programs, Photoshop Essentials and Art Rage, all with good success but nothing is like this program to carry my work a step further. It is like having every effects lens you could imagine. It was easily installed on Windows 7 and getting effects was easy, just import a photo and click the menus, the effects produced show on the screen as you are trying different ones, and if you like something simply 'save as'. The number of possiblities are staggering, so my main issue now is, "how did I do that?". The only less than perfect things I have noted are that only one photo at a time can be imported, and only jpg files will import. So far that has not presented a problem for me, one can save the effects one has just labored over for the next photo if the same effecs are desired.

Tiffen Dfx v2 is much easier to use than CS4, and is compatible with both Window XP Pro, XP Home, Vista 1 and Mac OS X 10.4 or above for 64 bits PC. I can now add more than 200 different filters to all digital photographs. Although the software costed me only about $70 (on sale for only one day from Amazon.com), each of the simulated filters, if I were to buy them in real optical glasses, would have costed me at least US$80 each for each of the common lens sizes (52mm, 67mm, 72mm, and 77mm). That is, the real optical glass filters would have costed me several thousands of dollars compared to $70 for one single Tiffen Dfx software filter that does it all.

Highly recommended for beginners and advanced digital photographers. I am sure you will like it --- 100%.