What are you switching to?

[brucet]

I've been a Corel/Jasc supporter for a long long time now. I believed in Corel. I spoke to one of their executives not long ago. I was promised 'action'. Even promised some 'communications' improvements. Told I would be a part of the 'loop'. Seems I was sold a lemon! Seems talk is cheaper than action. Sooner rather than later I intend pulling the trigger on a new camera. One that is not currently supported. So what do I do? I know I wont believe what anyone at Corel tells me from now on!

I'm now of the opinion that Corel is incompetent or has a marketing strategy that befuddles me. ASP, if not dead, is currently being measured for a coffin.

regards

[lundbech]

I've been a Corel/Jasc supporter for a long long time now. I believed in Corel. I spoke to one of their executives not long ago. I was promised 'action'. Even promised some 'communications' improvements. Told I would be a part of the 'loop'. Seems I was sold a lemon! Seems talk is cheaper than action. Sooner rather than later I intend pulling the trigger on a new camera. One that is not currently supported. So what do I do? I know I wont believe what anyone at Corel tells me from now on!

I'm now of the opinion that Corel is incompetent or has a marketing strategy that befuddles me. ASP, if not dead, is currently being measured for a coffin.

regards

Read what afx wrote above: "Well, it now sits in the same sub-organization as more prominent Corel products and it seems there is an eager product manager."

So wait and see ...

[brucet]

lundbech I'm aware of the 'new' product manager. I had a conversation with him approx 8 weeks ago at which time he assured me something would be happening in the near future. Well ok I accept that, but what is the 'near future'? I'm not sure that Corel grasps the need for communications. All the good intentions of one person in a corporate environment may not be enough. I hope it is. He sounded genuine and he has my full support. But!

I only hope he is working on communications as much as product updates.

regards

[mick232]

How hard can it be to make an official statement? It was announced here a couple of weeks ago by someone who claimed to be from Corel. It's not like we're asking for the exact release date of a new version. But some hints about the future of this product would be more than adequate by now. And this could be either "it is still undecided" or "we are planning to do X". So how hard can it be to state this?

[Denis de Gannes]

How hard can it be to make an official statement? It was announced here a couple of weeks ago by someone who claimed to be from Corel. It's not like we're asking for the exact release date of a new version. But some hints about the future of this product would be more than adequate by now. And this could be either "it is still undecided" or "we are planning to do X". So how hard can it be to state this?

It called competition, raw conversion software is still in a rapid phase of development, it will not make for good marketing if you provide support for new cameras if your product is not improved to at least match the other competitors in the market.

All the major providers of raw processing software have made significant improvements in quality and new features in the past year, Lightroom, DxO Optics, Capture One, Silky Pix and Photo Ninja a new player on the block. ASP has to do something more that new camera support, the quality has to be improved.

[marbly]

I heard that the free Lightzone will be out in a new version for Windows, Mac, and Linux soon. Anyone have any experience with it or thoughts? I found this website, but other than that not much info anywhere:

http://lightzoneproject.org/

[greerd]

I heard that the free Lightzone will be out in a new version for Windows, Mac, and Linux soon. Anyone have any experience with it or thoughts? I found this website, but other than that not much info anywhere:

http://lightzoneproject.org/

I'm one of the Linux beta testers for it. I only played with it before so am not and expert by any means. (not that I am with ASP) I find it fast and very usable, but keep in mind that this is the open source version of the last LightZone that hit the market 2 or 3 years ago (3.9.1 for the .deb package) so it doesn't have the highlight recovery of latest and greatest like Photo Ninja. I would say its similar to ASP in that respect. Doesn't have a DAM but a file browser. No plugin capability that I'm aware of, no lens adjustments including CA, distortion, or even rotate. ( I'm at work so going by memory)

Windows version is being beta tested too, but the Apple version needs some work before its ready to beta. Once the open source version is released, the developers will be free to look at improvements and more bells and whistles. I believe that the developers have the pre-release version 4 ( from lightCrafts) but have yet to go thru it, hopefully new features are in there somewhere.

They are always looking for volunteers!

Doug

[mick232]

I am not putting a lot of hope in LightZone, given the fact how long it takes them to even deliver an initial release.

[afx]

I am not putting a lot of hope in LightZone, given the fact how long it takes them to even deliver an initial release.

Well, how easy is it you think to replace proprietary libraries that they can no loner use in an open source version?
I only follow this from the sidelines, but it looks like they are in pretty good shape.

cheers
afx

[brucet]

I use some Topaz plugins. Excellent products and excellent customer communications.

photoFXlab!! http://www.topazlabs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=14913

A Raw converter from Topaz? Will be interesting.

regards

[FalCT60]

Hello,

After some investigation around there, I couldn't find any software that is as light-weighted, intuitive, flexible, and powerful as ASP.
Gimp, Phtoshop, Lightroom & other heavy-resource eaters are more than gas plants. They need death-killing (I wonder whether it is the correct term...) powerful machines with huge amount of memory and disk space that are as expensive as semi-pro - if not pro ones ! - cameras. No doubt that someone making money with photography won't hesitate. He sure will get his money back in no more than two months. But what for amateurs, people who just make photos for pleasure ?
There are a few software that are occasionnally pointed as possible challengers. Among those, I gave a try to Photivo and Darktable. But even these didn't seem as convenient as ASP.
I installed Photivo on a recent quad-core computer with 4 Gb RAM under XP at office. It takes twice as long as on my old Pentium IV with 2 Gb RAM. And I can't speak spanish. And it looks like a gas plant as well. And it doesn't seem intuitive at all. And I couldn't understand how it works. And, finally, I don't like it at all. Sorry.
Darktable... only runs under linux systems. No Windoze version. Not a problem : got a laptop at office and installed Ubuntu saucy, then Darktable itself. I must admit this one positivley impressed me. Not mentioning the fact that the systems starts almost three times faster than XP (on the same machine, from the time I power on until I cans start working), but it seems as intuitive and well organized as ASP. I was able to play with it in less than 10 minutes. I like the lighttable / darkromm concept and, last but not least, it even can drive a camera !
Unfortunately, printing is not possible at the moment (and, if I read correctly, not before a long time, due to the lack of human resource...) and none of my lenses appear to be calibrated. Though that should not be taht a difficult a problem, since there are a few methods to achieve lens calibration.
Anyway, I, just like other people, don't want to have to rework hundreds of photos "just for the fun". And I think that if it doesn't take too long to Corel to provide us with a new release, ASP will remain the leader in the domain. The best value for money.

Regards,

J.-L.