Nik Collection 5

This long-standing suite of editing plug-ins has been updated again by its owner, DxO. Geoff Harris sees what the new version offers and whether it's worth existing users upgrading

- Geoff Harris

The Nik Collection has been around since the days of Britpop, so it's lasted longer than Oasis and Blur. Having passed through several owners since appearing in the late '90s, it's now in the hands of imaging specialist DxO. As with the Gallagher brothers, it's never out of the spotlight for long, and the latest version offers some key updates. Version 5 builds on the many virtues of its predecessor, including updates to the Color Efex and Analog Efex plug-ins, improvements to the suite's local adjustment/U Point technology and interface tweaks.

That said, there are some significant new additions, including ClearView, which reduces the effects of fog and haze. More classic analogue presets and other filters have also been added.

Suite talking

To recap, the Nik Collection suite includes eight plug-ins, which integrate with Photoshop, Lightroom and DxO's PhotoLab, while also working as standalone applications. Perhaps the best known is Silver Efex, which for many photographers remains the gold standard for black & white conversion, or adding a huge array of mono effects. Color Efex works in a similar way with colour images and effects, while Analog Efex is where you go for old-school film stylings. HDR Efex Pro and Perspective Efex are self-explanatory, the latter now able to fix distortion on a lot more camera and lens combos. Meanwhile Viveza enhances and corrects colours and tones, Dfine is a noise-reduction tool, and there are also sharpening tools. You also get DxO PhotoLab 5 Essential, a pared-down raw editor which employs DxO's Optics Modules for lens correction and U-Point technology for local adjustments. That's quite a lot of firepower for £135 (£69 to upgrade), equivalent to subscribing to Lightroom and Photoshop for just over a year. Even so, that's quite a big financial commitment for many in these straitened times, so is the new version worth it?

Color Efex