Review: Tiffen Dfx Video/Film Plug-in

Studio Daily by Scott Simmons

Just about anyone working in the film and video world will recognize the Tiffen name. Most know the company for its terrific lens filters and Steadicam brand. That’s indeed what you’ll find (along with a lot of other filmmaking and photography accessories) if you point a web browser to www.tiffen.com. But Tiffen also has another product category that should be of great interest to those in post-production at www.tiffensoftware.com. There you’ll find a number of software products, including standalone applications, NLE plug-ins and iPhone and iPad apps. For this review I'm looking at Tiffen Dfx Video/Film Plug-in.

The Dfx line, now at version 3, is an in-software simulation of some “2,000+ popular award-winning Tiffen glass filters, specialized lenses, optical lab processes, film grain, extracting color correction, plus natural light and photographic effects.” That’s quite a lot to achieve in software but they do so by providing seven groups of effects broken down into easy-to-understand categories, with a special nod to those with experience behind the camera. If you're a DP using Tiffen Dfx effects for the first time, you’ll instantly clue in to terms like Pro-Mist, Smoque and Glimmerglass. Tiffen used its popular filters as starting points for this entire package in software. Will slapping the 812 Warming filter on a piece of footage yield the same results as using the original Tiffen filter on a camera during a shoot? Probably not, but it will at least get you closer to your goal during post.

Tiffen offers the software for multiple NLE hosts at one price, something I've noticed more plug-in makers doing these days. In this case, there's a hefty pricetag of $600, but a single purchase will get you an installer that includes Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut and Motion and Avid. One limitation to using it across NLEs: all of your software must be installed on the same machine. I have different boot partitions for Media Composer and Final Cut Pro/Premiere Pro, and it’s running on both partitions.

Check out these items featured in this post and available now at Videoguys.com.
	Tiffen Dfx Video/Film Plug-in for Premiere, After Effects, Avid & FinalCut $499.95			Tiffen Dfx 3 Bundle with both Video & Photo Plug-ins $599.00			Tiffen Dfx Photo Plug-in ESD for Photoshop, Lighroom & Aperture $199.95