Photolab 4 not enough of an upgrade not worth £70

Yeah.
Complainers, haters, …
Maybe best thing is not to “feed them” anymore because if they really want a tool they love they should be participating as beta tester or at least understand before complaining.

And beta testers too and also common users who help with a smile.
Congratulations to everybody making this new PL version and bringing our tool forward, slowly, but forward.

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I am not a hater or complainer I just think £70 for an upgrade is not worth it for whats on offer.
I do like Photolab but if want to do meta data titles keywords etc I have to use Lightroom if want to do a Panorama I have to use Lightroom or Affinity photo.

If I want to do HDR merge I have to use Lightroom if I want to use Focus stacking I have to use Affinity photo.

If I want to clone out subjects I have to use Affinity photo.

Some people here might think its great having to use different programes for simple tasks I don’t.

With the amount of money DXO Photolab charges for Upgrades I would expect all those things available in Photolab 4.

Affinty photo has got all those things costing less than an upgrade of Photolab 4.

I hate to use Affinty photo that supports ( upsplash) giving pictures away for free, I hate to use Adobe who also support the parasite and cancer ( micostock) giving pictures away for 25 cents each and who also give pictures away for free.

I would just love to use Photolab instead of using these other softwares who undermine photographers trying to sell their images for sensible prices not giving them away.

Dear Peter,
I don’t know if I will be amused or distraughted.
Sometimes it’s better to walk in time and with future and like Bob Dylan said " the times they are a changin "
DPL will and can not be a software with all functions, and if it must be 3 to 5 times more expansive as it is at the moment.
Some features we can put to an wishlist and I also have had some requests that are not fulfilled, but I decided to update for some minor changes. But I still use the free Nik Collection because the price of the NIK 3 it’s too high for me to buy, because I don’t need it.
And all the other stuff you qoute like microstock and free pictures is a sign of time like digital photography instead of analog, e-cars instead of diesel cars and so on.
So let us put realistic request to the feature list to feed the developers.
I hope my english was good enough (with the help of google translator I can’t use 10 years ago :smiley:) to explain what I mean.
In german we have the word “Eierlegenden Wollmilchsau” which is a synonym for an animal that includes Chicken, Sheep, Cow and Pig…which is not possible at the moment…but the time will come.

Always good light and stay healthy and optimistic

Best regards

Guenter

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And i would not be complaining so if DXO allowed you to skip upgrades like for example go from Photolab 3 to Photolab 7 and only charge for the cost of an upgrade.

And still put new Camera profiles in old software without having to Upgrade everything you buy a new Camera.

If Photolab did this no complaints from me.

As a consumer i think most are every 2 years inclined to upgrade unless there new camera needs to be supported. as a company you could see it as a small investment.(unless your hardware is in need of replacement by that decision.)

Your specific types of tools are mostly “pixel” driven tools. bitmaps who you line out on top of each other and create layers where the specific parts of one image is “glued” into an other.

technical speaking they should create x amount of tiff files where demosiacing and deepprime is done keep those internally in the application and auto center those as a stack before it become a jpeg to export. AKA pixel editor part of development.

ofcoars there are “raw” engines who offers this kind of tools are they have the goody’s which DxO offers in deepprime and such? that’s the question.

Personally if i need such a tool it’s not very often and i don’t mind to have a different tool for this steps. (free and very old CombineZP does stil what it needs to to.
Helicon is not free but i heard it does it’s job well.

This is possible - look into your account. You can i.e upgrade vom DXO version 10 to DPL4 and pay only once.

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Peter,

I’ve explained above:

that it is possible from any previous Optics Pro or PhotoLab version.

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I think DxO have started to do this. The LUMIX S5 is not supported by PL3 but it is by PL4. I tried myself with PL3 (no success), but it is advertised as a feature for PL4.

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Affinity Photo, Adobe Photoshop and I believe Lightroom can do everything single thing you need. But apparently, you want to best for each function which means using all of them. If you also upgrade your camera and lenses often, that is an expensive hobby. So I would say pick one and stick with it.

Since Affinity Photo is dirt cheap and doesn’t require any updates for cameras and lenses… you can just buy it once on offer and keep updating your PhotoLab license and most of your problems are solved.

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I think that Affinity Photo is amazing value and I will continue to support the company but as far as raw processing is concerned, PhotoLab is in a different league. DxO usually gets me nearer to a good looking image with less effort from the outset.

I just upgraded to PL4 (for £55, I think, not £70). As well as the new DeepPRIME feature, which I think will encourage me to do more high ISO shooting, the new eyedropper tool in HSL is something I’ve been waiting for for a while. Other new features are handy: the edit history and new UI in particular. I may well not upgrade next time round given that I have now a product that does pretty much all I want. If anyone feels that PL3 does all they need already, that is fine. Having hesitated a bit before upgrading this time, I don’t regret it at all.

For me one bonus feature of both DxO and Affinity is that neither softwares use the subscription model.

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If £70 was overpriced, we should expect to see DxO expanding, or retiring with their millions.

It’s expensive but I do not think overpriced for what is a major feature release. It’s a sad fact that beginning with the Apple App Store, the price consumers expect to pay for software has plummeted but I don’t believe the cost of producing it has because software is people and people are wages and wages pay for goods that are subject to inflation.

I remember when a “simple utility” would be shareware and the cost of that would be USD$30 and plenty of people were perfectly happy to pay for it. Apple’s Aperture 1.0 was USD$499. Version 2.0 dropped to USD$199. By the time version 3.0 was released in 2010, they dropped the price to $80 and everyone in enthusiast circles thought it was an absolute steal. In today’s money that’s $95.

I think Affinity’s business model is to sell for bottom dollar a REALLY polished product and make it up on volume. But… while their basic functions are excellent, they’ve barely phoned it in on RAW conversion. In fact, Affinity Photo is not a standalone product, it was designed and built to be part of a suite.

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Oh well I am sorry this phrase popped into your thread here. Its more a global situation here every year, just have a look around and you will see that at every release it is the same ritual. One start to complain and others come to add more oil on the fire. Do not take my comment personally. You have the right to complain, politely of course, it is the mood of the forum that goes down (at least) once a year that I (we) do not like.

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Photolab + Affinity Photo is a killer combination.

No subscription nonsense with either product into the bargain.

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Wait for Black Friday deal when there will be more complains that its even 10$(US) cheaper than the released date. :stuck_out_tongue:

So true - I am already waiting for this to happen on the forum here. Groundhog Day is coming!

Correct. For me the .33 cents I spent to use DeepPrime for a month was worth the $10 I might save waiting for Black Friday. Thanks I’ll take the software please. DxO has made everyday with my body and lenses better. Will say once again to the DxO team. >>Thank you guys!

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Oh, bummer, thanks for the tip :crazy_face:
Well, I will just go and work my photography until the new beta round starts. No more time to try to convinced people that are not asking to be convinced. Everybody’s freeee :musical_note:

…sound advice…

Goes for everyday life too, except for things that really need to change :speak_no_evil:

Well, in this case we need to do the stuff and be an example to convince by our actions :man_shrugging:t4:
“It is always easier to criticize than to do the work” said one of my bosses one day.

There was time when I thought DxO was going under, and I thought “Crap, now what will I use?”!. So while I own Affinity, Luminar, and Aurora HDR, and like them all for some things, I really use DxO Photolab as my main tool, starting point, and often only tool. I tried CaptureOne and was not crazy about it. I tried Topaz Denoise and found weird artifacts at the extremes. I have no interest in an Adobe subscription (but I love their stock!).

So then I realized I was happy to keep supporting the development of Photolab.

Would I like it if they added an HDR and Pano module? Yes. I’m not sure those fall under “pixel editor”, anyways what is the healing tool if not a pixel editing tool??? PL is obviously way more than “raw developer” as it stands, not sure why the arbitrary swim lane definitions.

My one wish is that they would support Galaxy phones! At least loading of the DNG files! It’s a raw deal that iPhones get support and Galaxy doesn’t. So many good photos coming from phones theses days…

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