Thanks for coming back into this one Andreas. I'm happy with DPP, but also willing to try Jon's idea if there is an improvement to be had. Still, I'm not overly keen to get into debates over the 2 systems, they can both clearly do a job the right hands.

What would your ideas be regarding the NR settings in DPP4 for an image like the owl then? I took Arash's table and pushed them a bit further as the table does not go this high, but its interesting that both Jon and yourself recommend lowering the luminance compared to what Arash would (probably) suggest. Exposure wise, this was as far right as I could have gone, with the feathers under the right (as we look) eye nearly but not quite clipping.

I intend to get neat image soon, hopefully that will help as well.

Mike