Quote Originally Posted by Jonathan Huyer View Post
Great comparison Brant! I also own the Topaz software, so I did a quick check of the new LR Denoise against Topaz Denoise and Topaz PhotoAI. On a bird photo at ISO 3200 using the R5, I could not see any difference between Topaz Denoise and the new LR Denoise. Both put out exactly the same result in the default settings, as far as I could see. But when I use PhotoAI, the result is noticeably better because I can also add sharpening. It really works well and is super quick.
Brant and Jonathan, This is what I was finding as well. My shots tend to have higher ISO because most are shot with a 2.0 tc on my 100-400. Denoise in LR really smudges stuff once the noise is more serious. I think it is a work in progress and they are on the right track though. If they added a sharpening feature to the Lightroom denoiseAI in the future, I could have saved some bucks.

I heard some rumblings on another group on FB that DXO does a great job with raw noise and sharpening, some claim better than what Topaz does...never tried it myself, but curious.