Anyone have any experience with Smartdeblur?

Is anyone using this program? They have a free (old) version and a newer paid one. I have the old free one and the demo of the paid one, and I get better results with the free one. Problem is, the free one takes several minutes to process an image, where the new takes a few seconds. They changed the interface drastically between versions (left out one control and added some new ones), so I can't replicate on the new one what I do to get good results on the old one.
I'd appreciate hearing anyone's experience with this program.

I have not heard of it until now, but it appears to use blind deconvolution (it looks like the Pro version may allow you to save the PSF for application to other images). The samples on the web page I found demonstrate very heavy blur/reconstruction, as opposed to problems we might encounter in general photography, like slight blurring due to motion or focus errors (reconstruction), or softness due to diffraction or optical quality/OLPF (capture sharpening).

If you are looking for a utility to perform more reliable blind deconvolution, I would highly recommend Focus Magic. Depending on the amount slider you set in LR, blind deconvolution will be applied to your image (i think amounts greater than about 56 or so). Iridient Developer also has blind deconvolution in its raw conversion application, as does Raw Therapee. Topaz Clarity and InFocus also use blind deconvolution.

I apologize for not answering your original question.

kirk

I've tried Focus Magic and I'm on the fence about it, so I was looking for others that use deconvolution to see how they compare. I have Raw Therapee but I did not know that it used it, I'll have to take a closer look at that.
Thanks for the info.

Sometimes you will see "R-L deconvolution" (Richardson-Lucy) - same thing. In Raw Therapee - Detail tab > Sharpening.

If you have non-uniform blur caused by your optics or some other issue, Piccure+ will address this issue, but it i slow and costs a lot of money for the infrequent use cases you might need. It is effective though, when you need the extra muscle.

Kirk

kirkt wrote in post #18622676
Sometimes you will see "R-L deconvolution" (Richardson-Lucy) - same thing. In Raw Therapee - Detail tab > Sharpening.

If you have non-uniform blur caused by your optics or some other issue, Piccure+ will address this issue, but it i slow and costs a lot of money for the infrequent use cases you might need. It is effective though, when you need the extra muscle.

Kirk

Piccure+ is apparently unavailable; some sort of problem with the company. But I am glad to know about the downsides you mention.
Thanks for the additional info about Raw Therapee.

kirkt wrote in post #18622676
Sometimes you will see "R-L deconvolution" (Richardson-Lucy) - same thing. In Raw Therapee - Detail tab > Sharpening.

Kirk

I played around with that in Raw Therapee and was able to get results that looked as good as what I got with Smartdeblur and Focus Magic. It took a lot more work, but I expect that would change with experience.
(Also it was free.)
Thanks again.