Corel AfterShot Pro (ASP)

[kaymann]

OK so Corel AfterShot Pro is finally out and is takes direct aim at LightRoom. I think it delivers a devestating blow. Two things:

1) Lets get a seperate group for this excellent software.
2) Get a copy while the price is still incrediably low.

Imagine you are in a light room checking out a days shooting, unrolling your silver negatives. You want to be efficient you have a hundred or more photos. You take all of your similar subject photos together and stack them in a pile - best on top. You take all of your HDR photos and stack them in piles of exposures. You take a photo and duplicate it a couple of times because you want to change makes changes, but leave the original in tact because you want to compare (and your orginals never ever get touched). You shift the piles best to over here and bad to over there - but you hang on to the bad in case there is no other with that composition, others are just flat out rejected...

Corel Aftershot Pro lets you do this with your eletronic negatives.

You then want to label (tag) and sub tag them. You remember you have some similar photos and you need to find them or you decide you want the look of previous photo - how did you do that. You search all or some of your photos based on exposure setting/tags/white balance/date/whatever you find the perfect recipe and save and use it on your other photos. You find a photo and you can not believe what you did to it but it has been a month can I get rid of those changes (all the changes are logged select the changes to get rid of). Want to make some changes that only PSPX4 can handle and want to do a smooth hand off.

Corel Aftershot Pro lets you do this.

Absolutely want to ensure any of your changes are cataloged and not destructive in anyaway using either a catalog or rail cars YOUR CHOICE (no hidden files to loose).

Corel Aftershot Pro does this.

Now that is a pro program for the pro market aimed directly at LightRoom 3.

[MarkZ]

I received an email from Corel with an offer for ASP of $50 Cdn, half price - I think this is an excellent deal.

Also today I see an announcement in dpreview for "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Public Beta hands-on preview" - the wars are on. Lightroom 3 is listed at $300. I expect the announcement in dpreveiw about ASP in the next day or so.

I've been involved in the beta for ASP and think it is an excellent product. It answers major criticism that I had of PSP4. It has become my default tool for organizing my photos and the editing features are powerful. It is extremely fast in everything it does. I would like to see some improvements in the way the catalogs are presented and hope development continues.

Mark

[brucet]

I took up Corels offer for ASP. It was A$19.90. I have been a Bibble user for sometime as well as PSP user. This merger suits me just fine.

[Ken Berry]

Bruce -- did the email direct you to a general Corel website with the offer on it? If so, can you copy the URL here please?

I ask because, though a Site Admin, all this came as a surprise to me. I did not even know it was being beta tested. And I have just gone through all my recent emails from Corel, including those in the bin, and have found no reference to AfterShot...

[brucet]

Hi Ken.

I received two emails from Bibble Labs. (Both the same!) Not from Corel. Told how Bibble had worked with Corel over the past few months. At the bottom of the email was a link to this address http://aftershotpro.com/preferred_pricing.html
I live in Australia so I clicked on that link.

I did have to call Corel in Australia to confirm some 'Unlock' details. The Corel opperator didn't even know of the program and had to go off and get me the details from somewhere.

I'm curious as to why such a differnce between the cost for some users. A$19.99 is about US$19.00. So why the high cost in Canada?

Bruce

[Lamar]

I received two emails from Bibble Labs. (Both the same!) Not from Corel. Told how Bibble had worked with Corel over the past few months. At the bottom of the email was a link to this address http://aftershotpro.com/preferred_pricing.html
{snip}
Bruce

This link indicates the purchase is for an upgrade. Is that correct or is it the complete ASP product?

Lamar

[brucet]

I followed the link. I paid the money and downloaded ASP.
I have now installed ASP on my 2 computers. (Allowed under old agreements. One work desktop and the other a travel laptop).
In both case I have a fully working application that is in no way a simple upgrade of my Bibble 5.

I think Bibble Labs are looking after existing customers. Those customers who purchased in the last 120 day are being offered a complete ASP package at no charge. Other Bibble 5 users are being offered the $19.99 offer. Remember this is a Bibble deal and not a Corel deal.

It's a good deal and a good way to deal with loyal users. I hope Corel can keep up Bibble Labs reputation.

Now we have to wait and see how Corel markets ASP. I hope ASP is kept seperate from PSPx4. It would be a shame to see them intergrated into one large cumbersome, expensive package. ASP is a good RAW program. I would reccommend anyone interested in a RAW program have a hard look at ASP. I haven't had time to give it a good workout yet but at first glance the out put is improved. UI is tweeked a bit. You can open PSPx4 from ASP to continue editing the file you are working on. So far so good.

Bruce

[Ken Berry]

Well, that was a a rather "tee hee" situation! It turns out that I got it for NZ$19.99, and the NZ$ is worth 25% less than an Australian dollar and 20% less than a US dollar. So I am laughing!! Already downloaded, installed and registered.

Thanks for the link, Bruce!! I am not sure about it being exclusively a Bibble offer, though you may be correct. However, at the same time, the link you provided leads to what is ostensibly a Corel page.

With regard to the question above about it being an upgrade version, if you look at the Corel website -- where it is advertised for $129 -- the upgrade price ($99) is for anyone who has a previous version of Bibble or of PSP from version X2 onwards. So that is why just about everyone on this forum qualifies. But I don't know if the installation process checks to see if that earlier version of either program is actually installed.

[brucet]

Ken I'm sure, that during installation, the program never looked for any Bibble information.
registartion numbers etc are all different.

[AbeakerZ]

I played with Bibble as a trial some years ago. I liked it but was rather new to raw so I never purchased it. I am a registered PSP user and that link installed the full program for me. It unlocked with the serial number they gave me. $20 for this is a sweet deal. They'll probably spot the difference between the $80 price on the main Aftershot page so I would grab it quick if this is something you want.

Now I will no longer have to do DNG conversions because my CS version is too old to read my current camrea raw files. PSP has tried adding in raw editing but they were clearly out of their element, this is a win for me. Now I won't have to look at Lightroom that insists on everything belonging to a catalog. My first computer was a TRS-80. I know how to create file structuires and I can find anything I want in short order. This allows you to just browse directories. That was the main sticking point with me and Lightroom, well that and $300.

[OldRadioGuy]

Bibble was developed by a small software firm, Bibble Labs, here in Austin, Texas. Corel acquired Bibble Labs late last month, but apparently plans had been in the works for a long time for the official purchase and release of Bibble as Corel AfterShot Pro.

Here's part of what Bibble Labs executive Jeff Stevens posted on the Bibble Forum a few days before the official announcement at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas:

Corel bought us for a couple of reasons. First, they were looking for a top-of-the-line technology to complement PaintShop Pro, their flagship photo editing solution. They were blown away by the speed of Bibble’s technology and saw the opportunity to invest even more in development and in bringing our technology to even more users- something that Bibble Labs simply couldn’t afford to do on our own. We’ve been working with the Corel team for the past few months and it’s clear they’re committed. They are excited about our technology and processing power, and the opportunities we see to take the product forward. They recently released PaintShop Pro to very strong user and industry reviews, and are now keen to offer photographers a powerful workflow and management solution. Corel knew there was no better match for them than Bibble.

All of us at Bibble have joined the Corel team. We're keeping Mac and Linux support and we’re staying in Austin. I’m now running product development for Corel’s new photo workflow solution that is based on the core Bibble technology. What’s even better is that I now have access to dedicated user interface and graphic designers who are helping to improve usability and make the product even better looking. I also now have a full QA team dedicated to product testing, along with documentation and localization teams, marketing and sales teams, and a huge, international distribution system to help get our technology the notice it deserves. We also have access to a customer support team to help provide the personal attention I had always wanted to provide, but couldn’t do on my own. Not only does this mean that many more folks are working on this product than ever have before, but it also means that all of us at the Labs can focus 100% on the core technology and the product.

I’ll be sending out a newsletter via email early next week with additional details from our announcement at CES, but I first wanted to share this great news with you!

As we gear up for CES and the launch of our new Corel-branded photo workflow and management solution, we’ll no longer be selling Bibble 5. The update we just posted for Bibble 5.2.3 is the last planned release of Bibble 5, and we’ll be in touch in the next few days with details about our new release, special offers and how you can take it for a test drive.

We’re excited about 2012 and introducing you to our extended team at Corel. It’s a great group of people who, like me and all of you, are avid photographers. Enjoy Bibble 5.2.3, and get ready for what we believe is our best release yet!

The full text of Jeff's statement is in the forum at http://support.bibblelabs.com/forums/vi ... 99&t=19655

Corel has an introductory video up at http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... APxTUl9Vqo#!

There's also a webinar that's scheduled later this month after the introductory price offer expires. I think I saw it as I was checking out, because I couldn't find the link on the main Corel AfterShot Pro pages when I went back to look.

Bibble has several short tutorials about the Bibble version at their website, http://bibblelabs.com/products/bibble5/ ... index.html.

Bob

[OldRadioGuy]

And here's what appears to be the official announcement from Corel:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2012/01/10 ... tPro/print

Bob

[JStanley]

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[WilsonC]

(Moderator: Being that this is actually a separate Corel program, shouldn't this be either in a different forum or a sub-forum to PSP, i.e PSP>AfterShot?)

I agree. Ideally, there would be a separate forum just for AfterShot. Also some of the members at the "Bibble" forum are not too happy about being limited to selecting Windows as the operating system when joining here. Perhaps other options could be added?

[JStanley]

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