New Topaz Sharpen AI

[kilomikebravo]

Got an email from Topaz yesterday announcing their new product, Sharpen AI. The write-up seemed to indicate that this product uses the same machine learning as their Topaz Labs Adjustment, AI Clear.

I installed the new app and tested a half dozen different images with both Sharpen AI and AI Clear. I expected to have the same reaction following an enormous improvement in IQ as I experienced with AI Clear. But, that wasn't the case and I only saw very small differences in the Sharpen AI images I tested compared with AI Clear. So, I suspect the jury is still out. It certainly takes Sharpen AI a whole lot longer to process an image as in three seconds for AI Clear and probably 10-15 seconds for Sharpen AI and it definitely fires up the GPU.

However, I read an article by someone at "Northlight Images" that indicates owners of Topaz Infocus will get a coupon or a code that will allow them to obtain Sharpen AI for free. I sent a note to Topaz to verify this claim and I am awaiting a response.

 

[sar104]

I've also been using AI Clear as part of Topaz Studio for some time with very good results. I got a similar email, and I did some comparison tests today. I found that, in "Sharpen" mode, Sharpen AI doesn't seem to have much effect. In "Stabilize" or "Focus" modes however, the effect is very noticeable. "Stabilize" is very good at removing motion blur and "Focus" does what I would expect "Sharpen" to do. It's much better than AI Clear at removing motion blur but I'm not sure how much better it is at sharpening. It is GPU intensive - on large raw files it was taking several minutes.