Where's The Next Version? What's In It?

[GoremanX]

Still waiting on the fix for K-5 white balance...

Still waiting on the fix that allows D800E .nef files to be opened without having to edit the EXIF data of each and every file...

Will these issues be resolved in the upcoming version? When will that be? Why aren't we informed with status updates?

I'm really getting sick and tired of this broken workflow. I'm not even looking for new features, I just want FIXES for what's BROKEN!!!! I've been learning Lightroom 4.1 on my laptop, and am getting increasingly more comfortable with it. I still can't use it to do everything I do in ASP, but it's only a matter of time before I figure out how.

This Corel acquisition has been the worst thing ever so far...

Cue afx and the token irrational defense:

[KeithR]

I just want FIXES for what's BROKEN!!!!

Actually fixing what's broken has never been on Bibble/ASP devs' radar - see my sig.

It's much more likely that show-stopping problems will again be swept under the carpet in favour of new bells and whistles intended to con more people who currently know no better, into buying ASP - once they've got our money, we no longer matter, do we? So you'll probably see loads of new features before you see solutions to basic, long-standing issues.

Cue afx and the token irrational defense:

Well we can rely on that, at least... I wonder if the board admins who decided to make him a mod (and therefore an unofficial "official voice" of ASP) realise how much reputational damage he does to the product and the company? Making a beligerent, intolerant fanboy into a moderator and de facto spokesman for the software is not how to win the hearts and minds of disillusioned customers...

Seriously, stick with Lightroom - it's literally in another league in IQ terms.

[tomsi42]

Seriously, stick with Lightroom - it's literally in another league in IQ terms.

If it had been that easy.

I have now been trying to use LR during this summer since everyone is championing that piece of SW. But it is not a solution for me.

1. IQ - I do not get any better results in LR compared to ASP when developing my Olympus (E-30, E-P1) or Panasonic (GF1, GF2, GH2) files. ASP does a horrible mess of the OM-D E-M5 files, though. And no support for Sigma DP2 or Fuji X10 ... So IQ differences is a

2. Catalog. The LR catalog system is such a pig and it is enforced down our throats. I just hate that I have to use it. Period.

3. User interface. I must laugh when people say that the Bible 5/ASP UI is a horrible mess and LR has got it right. Don't believe it. They are just different; for me the ASP layout makes much more sense; for others, the LR interface makes more sense.

4. Linux support. No such thing for LR.

5. Hardware requirements. APS is usable on small weak laptops - LR isn't. Why? Because that's what one has that is suitable for light travel and there not a budget (or need) for something more powerful.

I do agree that Corel need to get their act together and fix the remaining issues in ASP. If they don't do it in the next release, I will jump ship. But I am reasonably sure it won't be LR.

[GoremanX]

1. IQ - I do not get any better results in LR compared to ASP when developing my Olympus (E-30, E-P1) or Panasonic (GF1, GF2, GH2) files. ASP does a horrible mess of the OM-D E-M5 files, though. And no support for Sigma DP2 or Fuji X10 ... So IQ differences is a

IQ-wise, I find LR and ASP to be about equivalent for my K-5. Especially with regard to noise control. But the white balance thing with my K-5 is really driving me nuts. Unless I get the white balance perfect when I take the picture, adjusting it in ASP is nearly impossible.

2. Catalog. The LR catalog system is such a pig and it is enforced down our throats. I just hate that I have to use it. Period.

Agreed, I hate the catalog, and I hate that I'm forced to use it in LR. It's an extra step to slow me down. I already manage my collection through another software anyways.

3. User interface. I must laugh when people say that the Bible 5/ASP UI is a horrible mess and LR has got it right. Don't believe it. They are just different; for me the ASP layout makes much more sense; for others, the LR interface makes more sense.

I LOVE the ASP interface, but I don't know if it's because I've become used to it over time. It just makes sense to me. Using the mousewheel on a slider brings that slider up by a certain amount, clicking to the right or left of the slider adjusts by a greater amount, etc. That's one aspect of LR that I'm having a hard time getting used to. I like to see incremental changes in a picture, it makes it easier to judge if I'm going in the right direction.

4. Linux support. No such thing for LR.

ugh... this is why I'm learning LR on my Windows laptop and not my Linux desktop. Again, totally agree with you there.

5. Hardware requirements. APS is usable on small weak laptops - LR isn't. Why? Because that's what one has that is suitable for light travel and there not a budget (or need) for something more powerful.

I run Win32 ASP and LR on the same 17" laptop, and I find performance to be comparable on the same identical hardware. If anything, LR 4.1 has a slight edge in speed. But then the whole catalog thing flushes that down the toilet... having to import into a catalog every time I go on a shoot wastes a lot of time.

I do agree that Corel need to get their act together and fix the remaining issues in ASP. If they don't do it in the next release, I will jump ship. But I am reasonably sure it won't be LR.

I can't keep working around these bugs, especially the white balance issue. And I can't be kept in the dark about whether things are being fixed or not. With LR, we get public alphas and betas which let us know exactly what's being worked on. We get updates from developers so we know what's being focused on for the next release. And for the most part, professionals' needs are catered to by Adobe. With ASP, we're like a bunch of bleating sheep who already gave them our money and no longer matter. Being aware of upcoming fixes and features is some special privilege for a select few individuals who sign NDAs. Nobody cares about professionals' needs at all. If there was an alpha or beta I could test to find out if the K-5 white balance issue has been addressed, I could give real feedback. Instead, all I've got left to do is *** and whine in the forums about how crap this all is. And when the next release comes out and the issue hasn't been fixed right, I'll have nothing but more bitching and whining to do until the next release, which could be endless months from now.

Oh well, I guess the developers know better than everyone else.

[grahamh]

With LR, we get public alphas and betas which let us know exactly what's being worked on. We get updates from developers so we know what's being focused on for the next release. And for the most part, professionals' needs are catered to by Adobe. With ASP, we're like a bunch of bleating sheep who already gave them our money and no longer matter. Being aware of upcoming fixes and features is some special privilege for a select few individuals who sign NDAs. Nobody cares about professionals' needs at all. If there was an alpha or beta I could test to find out if the K-5 white balance issue has been addressed, I could give real feedback. Instead, all I've got left to do is *** and whine in the forums about how crap this all is. And when the next release comes out and the issue hasn't been fixed right, I'll have nothing but more bitching and whining to do until the next release, which could be endless months from now.

Totally agree with this view. Jeff Stephens and the other Bibble key players regularly used to contribute comments even if they were sparse. In contrast, with AS there is nothing, zero involvement and for all we know none of the 'team' are still on the payroll. Whilst I accept we/I have paid our money the lack of care and interest in the existing users is no excuse and actually sends warning shots to potential new buyers of AS who see and hear discontent, then look closer at the competition. For many years I have been a significant supporter of Bibble mainly becauseI like to support small companies who are able to make things happen, innovative and are usually very close to there customer base. I am now concerned that a large company such as Corel are living up to the reputation of many such empires. They have sales spurts initiating marketing hype and offers to promote new sales growth but basically have zero interest in the current customer base. I hope I am wrong but until actions become reality and recognition that there is a problem then AS will become like Bibble5 - great product with lots of potential let down by poor customer management and wither away.

[andersunz]

I'm still within my "30 day money back guarantee" window with ASP. I am evaluating it very closely. I really want to love ASP; I like being an early adopter of non-mainstream applications, and sharing those "finds" with others. I've already talked with a few friends, colleagues, and family members about ASP, but my conversations tend to lead back to "If you can spend the extra money, it seems LR is the way to go." I'm really trying to love you, ASP, but I have an unsettled feeling about you that I can't get past. I tried Lightroom for their 30 day spin and really liked it: it seemed elegant and more intuitive for me to use (perhaps a hold over from other Adobe products I use regularly); I felt like I could arrange and personalize the experience; and the support of all sorts of plugins was a huge plus for me. In ASP, I've installed all the standard plugins, found some nice presets, managed to make a few changes to the interface with some .ui tweaks posted here, installed a few hold-overs from Bibble, and now it seems like that's it. Oh, and the graduated filter...it's nice, and that's another $15 for full functionality I don't want to spend toward a poor investment...LR has the full functionality built in. I'm impressed with the results, but the process to get those results doesn't seem as fluid as I would hope.

Where is ASP headed? What is ASP doing that I can get excited about?

Also, thank you to those who described the difference between Lightroom and ASP. I bought ASP before finishing my 30 day trial period because I decided to jump in with both feet, but now both feet are turning to cold feet. With that said, what other distinctions would you point out? At the end of the day, would you recommend ASP to a friend or colleague? If so, why? If not, what are the reservations?

[a1photo]

Agree, agree. I'm still using 5.2.3 because of ASP: bad contrast, new color engine is too cold and clinical, can't translate old xmps, worse layout, perfectly clear is worse and whatever everyone else is complaining about. There is just as much support and info as there is for B5 so I don't see much reason to switch. Folks say just use it for new stuff but I'm not shooting much new and am working mostly on my 50,00 old pix.

I'm not liking the way we are treated so far. Typical large korporation attitude after swallowing your favourite whatever. New suckers only. They're having another ASP sale already - wonder why?

ASP is still B5, with only a new engine. If ALL lingering problems are not fixed before the next paid update then I'm gone. As much as I like the workflow and tools I can't work in B5 forever. I'm still using B4 for some things (old Puckett plugins). Stuff I've done in B5 and ASP always looks better in B5, to me anyway. If they bought it long ago and supposedly added programmers, then what the hell is taking so long? Aperture has already cut off support because I don't want to use Lion. Not even a single tenth of a digit upgrade - only hundredths.

I'm sick of being in a vacuum. They really ought take a look at the way Graphic Converter is run. A smaller company than even B5 was but he manages to update and fix enormous amounts of stuff really quickly. And Corel really ought to look at the incredible amount of parameters, settings and info GC offers. He even answers problems personally as he did with me, in real time from Germany (1 a.m. my time).

It seems most of the other photo softwares have a thriving interchange with their users. And audio programs even more so. You can even get someone on the phone. They'd be hated right quick if they treated their users like this. I understand why they don't want to talk to us because there's nothing but complaints but this just means they are doing a crappy job. They wouldn't even have to if things were great.

I want everything fixed before a single new feature is added. Except you could buy gradfilter and put it in. As much as I need it and want to give him $15, I only paid $20 for ASP and won't pay another penny until it works the way it was promised four years ago. Highest priorities: white balance (including non-raw), image IQ, memory hogging, non-clunky layers, auto CA correction and get rid of the world's worst keyword system.

I'll post a fix list on the bug board.

[delange]

Oh my God... reading these posts scare me a bit. I’m running an evaluation version of ASP and up to now I was really liking it. Didn’t know that the support side is a bit on the low side. From what I understand from these posts is that the future of ASP is not all that clear. Maybe I should be looking at LR as well? Trouble with that is that I’ll need to buy a new computer as well. I’m still running a 5 year old laptop (ASP runs fine on it). LR requires Vista or Windows 7; my laptop has Win XP...
Any thoughts?

[bananahead]

Oh my God...

It's the internet. A few people complain (and it really is just a few) but a lot of people like it and don't feel the need to make a fuss about it.

If you like it then buy it.

[madsec]

I like it too! Some things are not optimal, the slow adaption of new cameras for example. But if I see the pour performants of Lightroom when it comes to processing Fuji X-Pro1 RAWs, then I hope the ASP team takes more time to give us a better support for this camera...

[darKing]

Oh my God... reading these posts scare me a bit. I’m running an evaluation version of ASP and up to now I was really liking it.

You're saying you're evaluating ASP and you like it. So what? There always will be people who won't like this and that and will complain about it, but most of the guys who use ASP won't come here and praise it (there's no reason for it, because it just works).
I won't say all the complainers are morons or something like that. Yeah maybe the IQ and the new Color Engine is awful for <camera maker and model>. Maybe for some, every picture in B5 looks better than in ASP. Maybe that's true for them. For me the new Color Engine works great. I photograph /w a Canon 40D and a 1D MK3 and I lust love the outcome. I also did some parallel ASP & B5 editing at first and guess what. I liked ASP more. Once I adjusted to the way ASP works (the lack of picture styles for example), I thought my ASP pics looked better than the B5 Versions.

Yeah ASP is a bit on the slow side with new Camera Updates, I also get al lot of crashes when working with layers (sometimes it works flawlessly, sometimes it crashes every second click on a layer adjustmest). To me the CR Correctin is... non-existant. But guess what. LR ain't Gods gift to photographers either. Every sofware has its flaws. Just find the one that suits you best.

[pgman]

Cue afx and the token irrational defense:

Well we can rely on that, at least... I wonder if the board admins who decided to make him a mod (and therefore an unofficial "official voice" of ASP) realise how much reputational damage he does to the product and the company? Making a beligerent, intolerant fanboy into a moderator and de facto spokesman for the software is not how to win the hearts and minds of disillusioned customers...

Seriously, stick with Lightroom - it's literally in another league in IQ terms.

If you are pissed off at Corel-ASP or Bibble, that's fine, I have no problem with that, but starting to insult people because you disagree with them, you are crossing the line, especially somebody that has spent countless of hours helping people like me.

BTW, I use both Lightroom and ASP and when I went to the arctic for a month, I took ASP and not Lightroom with me. Lightroom is not perfect either and it has its share of problems.

Thanks

[ormdig]

If you are pissed off at Corel-ASP or Bibble, that's fine, I have no problem with that, but starting to insult people because you disagree with them, you are crossing the line, especially somebody that has spent countless of hours helping people like me.

+1

[Ianr]

+1 ( probably many ) I am so bored with the same old constant negativity. it's like the classic example of the expression "broken record". There seems a "notice me, notice I am here !!!" theme to posts. Get over it and spend time on your web board of your referred software, singing it's praises. Or here is a thought .. go take some more photographs Ianr

[GoremanX]

I am so bored with the same old constant negativity. it's like the classic example of the expression "broken record". There seems a "notice me, notice I am here !!!" theme to posts.

You misunderstand. This isn't a "hey look at me complain!" thing, this is more like "Hey, my workflow is broken due to a bug in ASP and it's making my job harder, when will it be fixed?"

Note that this is a serious bug that I reported months ago, and I never got any feedback about it.

Belittling other people's concerns just because they don't affect you personally is kinda lame. I'm overjoyed to know that pictures from your particular camera model are unaffected.