> And approx. 70 € for the PL1 to PL2 upgrade isn’t not worth it.
Personally I did not think that the latest upgrade offer was worth the cost either. There was very little additional functionality and nothing that I needed, so I just let it pass by. As to where PL is going in the future, I do not know, but I have always considered it a good alternative to both Lightroom and CaptureOne, even with the functionality it has now. The only piece missing that I need is the ability to “round trip” images to external editors like Photoshop and be able to continue editing them when they are returned.
I have no idea what new functionality PhotoLab will add in the future, or in what direction they are headed, but there are some things I would like to see: better integration of the Nik functionality into the product itself, a better color editor and, of course, a functional round-trip ability. Beyond that I suspect that many of the changes Dxo will make involve creating a DAM and I personally do not need that.
Isn’t that a little like arguing that once you’ve paid for a new car, you should continue to send monthly payments to the manufacturer whether there have been upgrades or not? Sorry, if that were the case why not just go back to Adobe and pay them monthly payments? I switched to DXO to get away from “rental fees”…now you are suggesting I should continue to make “rental payments” after I’ve bought and paid for? I don’t think so.
I completely agree with your comment… I was surprised that DxO didn’t anything trying to integrate Nik software plugins in their PL2 solution ? On one side they try to compete with LR and on the other side they encourage the use of Adobe’s solution.
I guess without any risk to make a mistake that DxO is in a diificult financial phase, even if it’s better now, fortunately, than some months ago…?
No, not you, Mike. I must have hit the wrong “respond” spot…my comment was more generally aimed at those suggesting we should be happy to pay over $100 for some software then start paying what seems to be an exorbitant update price by rationalizing as a monthly maintenance fee. Sorry for any misunderstanding.
Well, I thought that the price for upgrading to PL2 given the lack of useful added features was excessive. Nevertheless, I reluctantly decided to upgrade to support DxO further develop the software. Today I hear the upgrade is now being sold at a 50% discount rather than the 20% I purchased it for as an early adopter just three weeks ago.
I was not entirely happy with the price I paid then but now definitely feel I have been well and truly shafted. Well done DxO! You need to get your pricing policy sorted out as this does seriously piss your existing customers off.
Sometimes software companies will give a price-match guarantee for 30 days after purchase so you might want to check with customer support to see if they will refund the difference. I do not know if they will or not but it might be worth checking.
If they do not offer a price-match they might offer a refund, and you could then get your money back. I think it might be worth checking.
Original email as per the first post in this thread – I noted that upgrade was $49.99 but the link showed $69.99. That was because I had Elite. Email said upgrade “starting at $49.99.” Ok, whatever …
Now along comes the Black Friday special and the Online Store has $89.99 crossed out with a Black Friday 50% off special of $44.99.
So where did $89.99 come from? That’s the number I get when I log into the store. Why wouldn’t the 50% discount apply to the $69.99?
I like PL and have really moved into it nicely. I’ve pretty much hit its edges of capability, and am looking for other tools to extend those edges. I don’t want to drop PL for another tool and learn everything all over again. I also don’t want to quibble over matters such as this, but the whole upgrade pricing scheme for PL2 has been really confusing.
The $69.99 cost was a special for early adapters of the upgrade. The regular upgrade price was $89.99 and that is what the 50% discount was based on.
If you checked carefully last week you would have seen that the special upgrade price was supposed to be something like a 20% discount off of the regular price, and the Black Friday price is supposed to be a 50% discount off of the regular price. Dxo is using the most advantageous figures in their discount advertising, like everyone else.
Personally I was going to skip this upgrade because I saw nothing worth paying $90 for, or even the discounted $70 for, but I may upgrade now because I expect that the developers will actually fix an issue I filed as a bug 5 years ago.
Yes I suppose that is the key phrase here. Personally I was going to skip this round too, but got worried that a future PL might actually cost more to upgrade, and the Black Friday offer kind of roped me in. So, to summarise –
PL 2 was issued, $49/$69 to upgrade Essential/Elite, special offer for early actors
most black fridays offers are if you watch price for a month are turned upwards before they give you “discount”. so you end up with almost the same price as “normal lowest price”
So at least it’s a honest discount…
Now that Black Friday offer of 45 $ is much more reasonable. I’m actually considering upgrading to PL 2 despite the lack of new features. I’m definitely willing to support DxO but the initial offer was just too much for too little.
Yes. I agree and expect to upgrade. I was not planning to do so since there was not any real new functionality that affected me but at this price I will probably do so.
Same here! Was set on not upgrading from PhotoLab 1.2, but for this price I’ll do so and wait for improvements to trickle in through updates. (Fear of missing out? ) I’m also buying FilmPack 5 Elite.
A bit of feedback for DxO: I think you could be doing a lot more to promote the benefits of FilmPack 5 Elite (and other Elite products) over the Essentials edition! I’ve had a free license for Essentials, which has prevented me from trying out Elite with PhotoLab. Your edition comparison charts don’t say much. To really see what I gain by upgrading, I had to track down a couple of very long, drawn-out demo videos on YouTube that are clearly promotional but aren’t linked to in your store, as far as I can tell.
sigh… As I said, “Your edition comparison charts don’t say much.” They give the different numbers of components, but no description of them or how they would be used. It’s important to see these things from the point-of-view of customers who are learning photography.
I have never used, or even downloaded the trial for, the FilmPack releases and have always assumed they just try to duplicate the look of older film cameras. If that is what they do, then I have no interest in them as I do not try to do art or imitate old film photos. If it does something else then I guess I have missed out.
As a general comment I do believe that Dxo really does not advertise enough to the general public. I get the feeling that they are more interested in the targeted audience of camera pros and do not much care about the general group of photo enthusiasts who are interested in doing the best they can with the cameras they have, but have no interest in publishing. Perhaps I am wrong about that, but it has always seemed that way to me.
Thanks, Mike - that supports my point quite well. FilmPack is targeted toward those who want to emulate analog film media, but in fact contributes a sizeable set of creative tools like vignetting, blurring, split toning, grain, textures, fine-tuning of contrast and microcontrast, filters, etc. that can be used any way one desires. In my opinion, these tools complete and enhance some of PhotoLab’s core offerings like Clearview, Smart Lighting, selective tone adjustments, etc. which are nice but can be very hard to tame on their own. In fact, Clearview/Clearview Plus and Smart Lighting don’t play well together at all, opening the door wide to other tools that can fine tune what each of these does.
) I’m also buying FilmPack 5 Elite.