Film Pack 3

Hi - I have been using Film Pack 3 for several years, right up to my most recent install of DXO PL5 elitr, and found it very satisfactory for my uses. It was originally a free gift from DXO. However after a drive failure I’ve had to reinstall everything, and “My Software” on the website does not show Film Pack 3. I’ve found the installer file, and it runs OK, however when I enter my activation code, I get a message “connection to our server failed”, which does not happen with the other packages. Please can someone advise how I can successfully reinstall and reactivate my Film Pack 3? Many thanks

The latest version is FilmPack 6, so you haven’t upgraded for 3 versions and will find that DxO, in common with many other software houses, only support the current version and its precedent.

You would be far better off upgrading to the latest version but, unfortunately, it would mean paying the full price as I believe FP3 is no longer listed as supported and may not even be compatible with PL5. However, you haven’t paid for the upgrades to intermediate versions, so that will help offset the cost.

Don’t forget, FilmPack isn’t just about the presets, there are also extra tools available that get integrated into PhotoLab.

It certainly is compatible with PL5, as I have been using it - and would like to continue.

It may be something to do with a revamp of customer accounts in early 2021.

@Marie is this something you can help with?

I had the “Free Gift” version of FP3. It was my first brush with DXO. It was the “Essential” version, not “Elite” and was not eligible for upgrade pricing. It had only film emulations and none of the other addons that @Joanna mentions. I used it with Optics Pro v8-v11. It was very nice and I was impressed with DXO’s quality.

I even continued to use it for a while when I upgraded finally to PL3 Elite. It still worked fine, but I made the “mistake” of trialing FP5 Elite when I upgraded to PL3 Elite and found out what I had been missing(all that extra functionality mentioned by Joanna). After the trial I went back to FP3 for a while before upgrading(at full price but on sale) to FP5 Elite. I found that PL3 was not the same program without the extra functionality of the Elite version of FP.

I don’t have FP3 any more as I too had a disc crash and didn’t bother recovering FP3 because I now had FP5 Elite. Have you ever trialed the Elite version of any of the FP versions 3-6? If not, why not trial FP6 Elite? It has all of the emulations included in FP3 Essential and much, much more.

Nevertheless, a gift is still a gift and should still continue to work if there are no compatibility issues. I would contact DXO support and see if there is any way FP3 could be reactivated. Please remember though that FP3 is a very old program and was created by the “old” DXO company. The company has changed hands since and the “modern” DXO company has no obligation to support software created before they came into existence, even if the name is the same.

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On my account I still have download availability for PhotoLab 2 Essential which at the time was bundled at no charge with an earlier version of the Nik Collection. I never downloaded or used that version of PhotoLab since I was already a user of the Elite version of PL3 at the time, but I still see that it is available for download.

FilmPack 3 was released in July 2011 and was replaced by FilmPack 4 in 2013. Perhaps DxO limits the number of years that downloads of previous versions of their software remain available. None of the software vendors with which I am familiar give users the ability to download earlier versions of their software into perpetuity. In my experience many vendors even limit how long you can continue to download the most current version of their software after purchase and previous versions are usually no longer available for download at all. DxO’s current policy seems generous in this regard.

Mark . .

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In my previous post I was referring to the split of DXO(software and camera/lens testing) into DXO Mark(camera/lens testing) and DXO Labs(software) which I believe happened in about 2017.

All Photolab versions have been produced by the “new” DXO Labs company. Optics Pro(all versions) and Filmpack versions 3 and 4 were produced by the “old” DXO company. I’m not sure about FP5.

At any rate, IMO, I certainly think the “new” DXO Labs company should support the perpetual licenses for the products that they have produced(as long as there are no incompatibility issues with hardware) for OS’s that are still supported.

However IMO, they should not be expected to support products produced by the “old” DXO company.

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Mark,

I don’t disagree. As I mentioned, in my experience the number of companies that provide perpetual downloads of all their licensed software versions, both current and older versions, are very few and far between.

Mark

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Mark,

I realized that. :smiley: I was just clarifying my previous post for other readers as apparently it was unclear. I probably should have just replied to the thread instead of to your post. No problem. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Does anyone have an update on whether I can still install/register/use my copy of FP3? I can live without the “advanced features” in FP6, especially at what for me is a very high retail price, even in the sale (£129/£99 sale price). I did use the emulations in FP3, though they were limited in number they were quite effective. I think my older images with .dop files that were based on using FP3 will now be defunct of course, unless I had already exported them to tiff, which is a shame and I will miss that. However I now do most of my serious B&W conversion in ACR.

Still I am disappointed about this.

Have you tried contacting DXO to see if FP3 can be re-activated?

Hello @nputtick ,

you should contact support for that issue.

Regards,
Marie