I decided to do little comparison between few tonemappers that i have, PTGui, Picturenaut, ArionFX and new kid on the block - CIE. I didn't take care to achieve results as close as possible, so the output is quite varying. Even exposure doesn't match. Please do not take this test too seriously, as i haven't skill and knowledge for such test. It was just fun exercise. I opted for global tonemapping since it's CIE's only option, except fot PTGui, which has only local tonemapping to offer.
ArionFX.+ excellent highlight recovery (rivals even local tonemapping), offers wide variety of tonemapping methods and other tools, tailored for CGI.
- small preview size, requires photoshop.
Picturenaut+ decent highlight recovery, several tonemapping methods, free to use.
- very small preview size, tends to crash.
CIE+ wide variety of additional tools, invaluable with cxr files, tailored for CGI, easy to use
- average highlight recovery
PTGui+ - very inconvenient to use, extremely small preview size, below average results.