Probably going to scrap Lightroom for ON1

[tursiops 77]

I've pretty much had it with Lightroom, I think. Subscriptions irritate me...they are a nice money grab for Adobe, Working in the cloud is useless if you do a lot of travel to faraway locations; sufficient bandwidth for simple emails is often challenging.

 

I'm looking at the new ON1 RAW. Any experience or opinions?

[diver dave1 23]

Right there with you on being forced to the subscription on Lightroom. I was thinking of Exposure X3.

The free trial looks appealing.

[E_viking 30]

Fully agreeing. I for sure do not like the subscription.

The worrying issue is what will happen with the Classic Version.

Will it disappear in a few years?

[bvanant 133]

You might take a look at MacPhun which is quite nice or Darkroom which is free and also quite user friendly

Bill

[troporobo 167]

I feel the same, but what do you do with your years of edited images? Yeah, you can export them as full resolution JPG etc, but seriously who is going to do that with thousands of images? It was so painful going from Aperture to Lightroom that I just cannot imagine another migration. If there was a way to preserve nondestructive edits, I'd look at switching too.

[tursiops 77]

I feel the same, but what do you do with your years of edited images? Yeah, you can export them as full resolution JPG etc, but seriously who is going to do that with thousands of images? It was so painful going from Aperture to Lightroom that I just cannot imagine another migration. If there was a way to preserve nondestructive edits, I'd look at switching too.

I don 't know. Valid point. I guess there is a market for someone to convert a LR Catalog to some other format.

I've played with Macphun (the product is called Luminar). it does not have the importing/cataloging/sorting/organizational aspect of LR.

I'm going to play with ON1 (my first few tries crashed...bad karma), Exposure X3 and Darkroom, too.But Darkroom looks to be optimized for businesses, and not my kind of workflow and needs. So far Exposure X3 looks sweet, but it is $149 so costs more than LR! The question is, do i need a new copy each year?

 

Right now I'd say the contest is between Exposure X3 and LR; ON1 may be in the game if I can get it working.

Edited December 3, 2017 by tursiops

[Aotus 9]

i've been using on1 for about a week now. i'm a novice, but found it easier to get around than my trial version of lightroom, and the many many youtube video tutorials have been a gold mine for me. that said, on1 is a little buggy. there are times when i'm adjusting a slider and my image goes purple or something, and there is one image that almost always shows a weirdly inverted filter in the preview, though that goes away when i open the image. i am hoping that all these quirks get worked out as the 2018 version matures, and i guess i'm willing to cope with them in light of the LR CC going subscription-based and the very high price of capture one.

[tursiops 77]

I've tried several alternatives. I've decided to stick with LR 6.14 (non-subscription) until either (a) I can't use it anymore, or (b) something better comes along. Option (a) could be (i) new camera, new RAW converter needed, or (ii) new computer with new OS, current LR will not load.

 

I'm heavily weighted on this decision by not being able to convert all my LR catalog edits, and by not wanting to go through another learning curve.

[sunnyboy010101 10]

I've tried several alternatives. I've decided to stick with LR 6.14 (non-subscription) until either (a) I can't use it anymore, or (b) something better comes along. Option (a) could be (i) new camera, new RAW converter needed, or (ii) new computer with new OS, current LR will not load.

 

I'm heavily weighted on this decision by not being able to convert all my LR catalog edits, and by not wanting to go through another learning curve.

Interesting. I'm on LR 5.7 (non subscription as well) but never received notice of a new version. When I check I get "you are up to date". You'd think Adobe would want to tell us when new versions come out just to get more money, but I guess non-subscription folks aren't in the loop.

[ChrisRoss 119]

Interesting. I'm on LR 5.7 (non subscription as well) but never received notice of a new version. When I check I get "you are up to date". You'd think Adobe would want to tell us when new versions come out just to get more money, but I guess non-subscription folks aren't in the loop.

That is by design, as there's no new updates for LR 5 and they don't want you to do a paid upgrade to version 6. You can still buy upgrade or buy an outright LR6 now but that could soon disappear. Adobe make it quite convoluted to find the page where you can purchase an outright version and keeps steering you to the CC subscription page. I went looking and only found through a google search, couldn't find a link anywhere from their website that took me to the right page. The upgrade is half the price of the full version, in Australia that's $114. To get LR CC you are looking at $14.29/month photo plan or $171 per year. If all you want is LR then it makes sense to get V6 while you can.

[sunnyboy010101 10]

It's worse for me as I qualify for the academic version. Of course that is now gone and only the academic subscription now exists. Sorry, Adobe, but this is coming out of my pocket, so I have no desire to pay monthly forever for your stuff - even at academic prices.

 

At least with my copy of LR5, it should continue to work until I finally retire Win7 (approx. when hell freezes over).

[divegypsy 20]

Dissatisfaction with Adobe greed seems rampant. I am also using a purchased LR 6.14. When Adobe went subscription on Photoshop and the other CS6 applications, they lured a lot of people into Lightroom by saying Lightroom would always be an application you could purchase rather than subscribe to. And typical of Adobe, they lied. I wonder if this opens Adobe to a class action suit on the basis of intentional deception. Could legal action force Adobe to make Lightroom an application we can purchase outright again? Or might Adobe have to repay the money spent by Lightroom purchasers? Is there any interest out there in pursuing this kind of legal option? I would join it.

 

Fred

[troporobo 167]

I've just had a very unpleasant surprise. I've got the last stand-alone release of LR 6. I had to replace my iMac, but no complaints, the previous once lived nearly 10 years in the tropics. However, when I restored all my files and software from a Time Machine backup, LR no longer recognizes my account or sign-in credentials. No amount of fiddling with the program or correspondence with Adobe (ha!) will change it. I've lost access to a library that goes back 20 years and 15,000 edited images until I subscribe to LR CC.

 

I think they have made the decision for me. I will subscribe for a month or two, long enough to my entire library as JPGs while I research then install an alternative. The only question is which alternative will be around in the long run?

[TimG 62]

I've just had a very unpleasant surprise. I've got the last stand-alone release of LR 6. I had to replace my iMac, but no complaints, the previous once lived nearly 10 years in the tropics. However, when I restored all my files and software from a Time Machine backup, LR no longer recognizes my account or sign-in credentials. No amount of fiddling with the program or correspondence with Adobe (ha!) will change it. I've lost access to a library that goes back 20 years and 15,000 edited images until I subscribe to LR CC.

 

I think they have made the decision for me. I will subscribe for a month or two, long enough to my entire library as JPGs while I research then install an alternative. The only question is which alternative will be around in the long run?

 

WOW! Really sorry to hear that Robert - that'd be devastating. And really annoying. I've been a subscriber to the Adobe photo package almost since it started and, have to admit, I really like it. But I can understand how you feel for sure. I hope you can get everything back online.

[Lionfi2s 44]

Any other alternatives to On1, bought it but not happy with it. I can easily edit and grade 4K video clips on my iMAC but On1 is really slow and crashing all the time. Looking for a good alternative before i decide to pay adobe

[aviator8 6]

Any other alternatives to On1, bought it but not happy with it. I can easily edit and grade 4K video clips on my iMAC but On1 is really slow and crashing all the time. Looking for a good alternative before i decide to pay adobe

How do you like it for photo only editing?

[davehicks 12]

I've just had a very unpleasant surprise. I've got the last stand-alone release of LR 6. I had to replace my iMac, but no complaints, the previous once lived nearly 10 years in the tropics. However, when I restored all my files and software from a Time Machine backup, LR no longer recognizes my account or sign-in credentials. No amount of fiddling with the program or correspondence with Adobe (ha!) will change it. I've lost access to a library that goes back 20 years and 15,000 edited images until I subscribe to LR CC.

 

I think they have made the decision for me. I will subscribe for a month or two, long enough to my entire library as JPGs while I research then install an alternative. The only question is which alternative will be around in the long run?

 

You can still use Lightroom and the CC suite as a Free Trial for one month. It is the fully functional apps with just a timeout as the only limitation. You should sign up for a trial subscription if you need temporary access to LR for a while to consider paying or getting off board.

 

If you have done a trial before on the Same computer it may not allow this. You can create use a different PC or even a VM if you have to work around that.

 

Personally I find the $100 per year fee for the LR / PS photographer suite to be a fair deal. The apps are updated and improved every couple of months for bugs, new cameras, and useful features. While not perfect Adobe does a good job to making these reliable, innovative, and high quality products. The old model of buy it and use it forever is pretty much dead now. The Software+Services model is what literally every tech company is using nowadays, or soon will be.

[troporobo 167]

It's not so much the cost that I object to, I can easily afford the subscription and would agree it's not a bad price. The fact that Adobe has us by the short and curlies via the subscription model is what bothers me. What happens when they decide it should be $20 per month (which they did recently then rolled it back) or $40 or however high they think they can get away with? What happens in my scenario when the software can't recognize my account correctly? What happens if they go out of business? If it can happen to Kodak and Nokia, it can happen to Adobe.

 

I'll get all of my edited images converted to full res JPGs, and of course I have all the RAW files anyway. I'll have to rebuild my library but that part is not so hard. Then I'm out if I can find a good alternative.

[davehicks 12]

That's a lot of IF's. Should any of those things come to pass you will have plenty of opportunity to jump ship. Why jump out of a perfectly good boat unless you have a safer and better place to land?

 

You can always set Lightroom to create XMP sidecars with all your raw files. I export most of my keeper images to JPG as well and strore them locally and cloud storage.

[Chris Kippax 30]

What does the subscription option offer that version 6 does not?

[Lionfi2s 44]

How do you like it for photo only editing?

I only use it for photo editing but like i said i dont like it. On of that you have to pay to update the software to the newer version even if you only had it for few months.

[hyp 15]

I only use it for photo editing but like i said i dont like it. On of that you have to pay to update the software to the newer version even if you only had it for few months.

 

Well, you can't have your cake and eat it. The argument for the subscription is that you always get all upgrades and on a yearly upgrade cycle you come out roughly even compared to buying every update. Affinity Photo is the only product that I can think of that truly is a one time payment. The thing is, with the classic buy and pay for updates structure you can choose to skip upgrades to save money.

[Lionfi2s 44]

 

Well, you can't have your cake and eat it. The argument for the subscription is that you always get all upgrades and on a yearly upgrade cycle you come out roughly even compared to buying every update. Affinity Photo is the only product that I can think of that truly is a one time payment. The thing is, with the classic buy and pay for updates structure you can choose to skip upgrades to save money.

You can...have a look at Davinci Resolve and FCPX video editing sofware. One time payment, free upgrades. Resolve has even a free version of it which is 80% of the paid version.

Anyway i dont mind paying for something that works... ON1 doesnt

Edited July 8 by Lionfi2s

[troporobo 167]

That's a lot of IF's. Should any of those things come to pass you will have plenty of opportunity to jump ship. Why jump out of a perfectly good boat unless you have a safer and better place to land?

 

Except only one of those scenarios has to happen, and in my case, one did. I changed computers, and zap, no more access. I didn't jump out of the boat, I was pushed.

[davehicks 12]

That's a hassle. I'd get on the phone and actually talk to someone and send an email to the CEO of Adobe if you are not satisfied. You'd be surprised how often this sort of escalation actually works if you are not getting what you need in terms of customer service. You are likely one password reset away from getting back into business.