Sony IDC vs DxO Optics Pro 10 - is there any benefit to changing Raw converters?

[erotavlas]

I'm getting mixed messages about whether or not there is a better Raw converter out there.

Really I've just been using Sony Image Data Converter since over 4 years now. Actually I relied mainly on Adobe Photoshop 9 Elements at first to open Raw files. Then I later started using IDC to tweak the details more when taking High ISO images at night.

My question is, basically will I even benefit to purchasing DxO Optics Pro 10 (I'm leaning to this because its on sale right now)? I tried it out and the noise reduction looks pretty good as well as the color correction.

But some are saying that the images direct from Sony IDC are better than all the other converters out there. So maybe Sony IDC can interpret the Raw file best, but can it do tweaking of the image as good as the other software? Can I still get comparable noise reduction and other image manipulation like chromatic aberration control from IDC? I don't see anything that can fix chromatic aberrations, and the noise reduction I've used seemed to be ok)

PS. I don't care about cataloguing or buying a monthly license (so not interested in Lightroom - thanks)

Background and equipment -
Camera - Sony NEX 5N
Subjects - Mostly landscape, night photography - like astrophotography and other long exposure stuff
Main Photo Editor - Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 (came free with my Wacom tablet)

I am mainly interested in these features
- High ISO Noise reduction (for those long exposure astrophotos)
- chromatic aberration reduction
- white balance correction
- perhaps dust removal for scanned images (I find Adobe Dust removal tool pretty good for this case - with some tweaking or manual work)