CONCLUSIONS
We have used nik Sharpener Pro for over 6 weeks now and have sharpened hundreds of pictures. It has produced consistent results which appear to have a better focus compared to either no sharpening or the "Sharpen" filter in Photoshop. When we used the "Sharpen More" filter in Photoshop, areas of the picture with more details appeared to be over sharpened. In other words, we preferred the nik Sharpener result almost every time. While nik Sharpener standard edition works fine, we missed the Pro features way too much and would recommend most go for the Pro version. We also highly prefer nik Sharpener Pro to the time consuming guessing on the parameter settings in the Unsharp Mask filter. Sometimes when resizing to a very small image the difference is lost, however in our photo galleries at 480 by 360 we could see a clear difference. We also did feel that the colors were maintained better with nik Sharpener. In the samples above the red above the "DIS" appears more saturated, the yellow flowers seemed to have more color and detail, and the clock has better contrast etc...... In print tests of Nikon 990 shots nik Sharpener clearly does sharpen very noticeable the image when compared to no sharpening and the sharpen filters are off on the printer. The difference was not too dramatic when we used the sharpen setting in our Epson 1200 printer driver. However, the effect of nik Sharpener Pro is most appreciated when working with newer files from cameras like the Canon G1 and D30 where they appear to have intentionally used little in camera sharpening or left the data RAW. Canon D30 pictures just snap to life with nik Sharpener and the resulting prints are just fantastic as are pictures for the Internet at 72 dpi. Thus, nik Sharpener may not be needed by everyone, especially those with a smaller CCD camera where the firmware does adequate sharpening already. However, nik Sharpener works best on those files left mostly unaltered, and then it does work like a charm. Depending on the camera you have and the volume of work you do, nik Sharpener Pro is clearly a very useful product for many who need consistent results, color protection, batch processing and other Pro features. We think it is a must for cameras like the D30 as it helps make those images really shine, while saving time trying to get the parameters right in Unsharp Mask filter. With new pricing at $199 for the nik Sharpener Pro Internet and Ink Jet filters we feel you cannot go wrong with nik Sharpener Pro, especially for Pro users or if your camera is producing "soft" images and you need to print or resize a lot of pictures.