Nik 4 is on sale at half-price during the US Black Friday sale (and perhaps also outside the US. I don’t know) and I thought about upgrading considering how inexpensive it is right now.
I don’t generally use Nik much except for the HDR module which I use frequently, and I have always thought that PhotoLab took care of my needs well enough without Nik. I do have the Nik 2 collection but don’t know what might be new in Nik 4. Normally I would just download the trial and give it a test but I can’t find a trial download for Nik on the Dxo website so I thought I would ask:
What is new in Nik 4? Have they move the control line and luma/chroma adjustments into the modules?
Perhaps I don’t understand. Are the Viveza and Silver Efex Pro modules in the Nik 4 collection version 3? And if so, are any of the modules in Nik 4 actually version 4?
So the Nik 4 collection only has one actual version 4 module, and that was in the version 3 collection. I have the Nik 3 collection and it has only 2 version 3 modules, the sharpening stuff and that did puzzle me when I saw it, but I guess that is how Dxo handles the Nik Collection. The numbering just seems odd to me.
One question. What is the Perspective Efex module? The ViewPoint stuff? Or is it different?
Perspective Efex is identical to the Viewpoint 3 standalone version but does not include a license for for the embedded Viewpoint features in PhotoLab.
I finally found a trial version link for the Nik 4 collection and downloaded it to try it out. I don’t do black and white photos much so the only modules that interest me are the Viveza and HDR and, perhaps, the Color Efex. A couple of things I noticed.
The masking in Viveza is still only the old control points. No control line, but there did add the luma and chroma adjustments, which makes it considerably better, at least for me.
They have added the ability to continue editing an image after saving it, allowing you to continue adjusting the control points you may have previously added, and that seems helpful.
And, as mentioned above, the Nik Perspective functionality is really only ViewPoint 3 added as a plugin. Doesn’t help me because I already have VP3 and most of the VP functionality has already been moved into PL, but that would be helpful if and when I am editing in Photoshop. But then again VP was already available as a plugin for PS.
Does anyone know if the Black Friday price lasts past today? I did not see any date listed as to when it applies.
Be careful. DxO takes away the licenses for the earlier version when one upgrades. I have not upgraded to Nik v4 due to all the issues reported. I’ll probably sit this one out and hope v5 will be a significant improvement making some of the pain of the upgrade worthwhile. I can’t believe DxO decided to cut off host compatibility rather than expand it.
Not sure I’m a fan of having the control point sliders brought into a conventional side panel interface. Again, perhaps by v5 the payoff for moving control point sliders to the side panel will have worthwhile.
Normally I support every DxO upgrade but this one doesn’t seem to be fully hatched. Nik v2 was no great shakes either. Real improvements came with v3.
I had Nik 2 on my system and when I installed v 4 it removed all of the previous version. I did not worry about that because I had the v2 installer and just assumed I could reinstall v2 if I did not like v4. Well, v4 was OK but I don’t really use any of it much except the HDR module and that was the same as in v2 so I uninstalled v4 and ran the v2 installer. Or at least I tried to run the v2 installer.
A couple of weeks ago I upgraded to Monterey and now I find that the v2 installer will not work on Monterey so I am effectively without Nik. I can either buy v4, do without Nik or restore a backup system and I am trying to figure out which is the best option.
You are absolutely correct to warn people to be careful.
If Nik v3 will install, that’s the version to use. All the inter-application plumbing works fairly well, some of the tools work in Retina properly. I’m quite pleased with Nik v3 which is why I did want to upgrade. Fortunately this time I was slow off the mark.
It seems a bit odd to me. I actually thought I had upgraded the last time the collection was on sale and was sure I had Nik 3, not Nik 2. I certainly had version 3 of some of the modules, but when I log into my Dxo account it only shows me Nik 2 as having been purchased so now I am not sure.
I suppose I should contact Nik support and ask about the Nik 3 installer but the cost of Nik 4 is really pretty low during this Black Friday sale so I just might take a deep breath and upgrade. Still, wasting $40 does seem like a silly thing to do.
Mike, if you don’t have v3, you should probably upgrade to v4 and then go through with the dance for a working license code for v3. If DxO ever get v4 sorted (I doubt it, I don’t think we’ll see a better Nik than v3 until v5 or v6), you’ll be able to use v4 too.
I just went hunting through my backups and came across the dmg for Nik 3. Dxo tells me that I only have a license for v2 so perhaps the v3 installer is for a trial - I don’t really know. But when I tried to install it under Monterey it would not install, telling me like the v2 version did that it can not run under this OS. If it was an early trial version that might explain why it does not run under Monterey.
While I don’t really use most of the Nik modules much I do use the HDR module very frequently so I will probably just pay up and remind myself about the perils of upgrading the OS.
NIK 4 has great features. I use professionally - you can see some of the uses on my social sites / websites - for work that has exhibited and for my editorial work.
well worth it for the price - and - if you use it correctly you’ll find amazing results - tons of features - more than anyone can tell you!
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