[rcheshire (Rowland)]

In this version, significant changes.

The manual has been overhauled and should be easier to follow.

The defect map process has been redesigned

Noise reduction may be applied to the final image

The intent has been to find authentic methods of noise reduction which may be applied non-destructively during image preprocessing

I have tested the new processes over and again. The original binarized defect map is still the default. The better (IMHO), mean-shift method, is activated by setting a 'Noise - radius' - '7' is adequate and a 'Noise - amount' - 0.1% at most.

1 or more dark frames may be used to create the defect map; which is really a master dark with considerable noise reduction, leaving the white and black pixels intact. A median dark is a fair substitute.

With mean-shift noise reduction of the final image, combined with polynomial stacking, the statistical handling of data appears authentic and visually non-destructive - pixels retain their shape and there is no evidence of smearing, unless the 'Noise - amount' operator is overdone - 0.1 - 0.25% is adequate.