AfterShot Pro Update

[tomsi42]

It will be sooner than I fear, but later than I wish.

Is there a beta program I can sin up too, by the way?

[cwebster]

Awesome! Thank you for being as forthcoming as you can Rick! Some communication is better than none and late is better than never. I just wish I'd heard something sooner. I just bought a new Dell computer and added Adobe PS Elements and Premier Elements to go with it. As I always do, I immediately wipe the disk and install Linux (CentOS 6 this time), then relegate MS Windows to a virtual machine. I only work in MS Windows if I have to. If I see an update to ASP I'll gladly install and test it on my Linux system.

[Raw Support]
As with most other members here, my first priority would be raw support for my D600. I'm still using ASP but before I can do anything I have to first use "exiftool" to change the camera model to the supported "NIKON D800" to get them to download and display. When I'm done processing I have to again run exiftool to change the model back to "NIKON D600" on the jpegs. I'm not sure that the resulting images are as good as they can be because there are some very important differences between the full frame image sensors on the D600 and D800. To begin with, the D800 has more photo-receptors crammed into the same space so any calculations for the D800 would be off for the D600. I'm not sure what ASP does with the raw image data so I can't be sure how much this affects the final image quality.

[Bug Fixes]
I assume the "Bug Monkey" is the "Bugs & Suggestions" forum at http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewforum.php?f=94. Looking at the bug monkey, I see you've got your hands full so I'll wait and see what gets fixed in your first real update to v1.1. I would only ask that you get someone who knows how to use the Red Hat Package Manager to do your next release. I could not "upgrade" the last RPM because the release and version were each set to "0.0". I had to first uninstall the old release manually. It's important to package the software correctly so it installs and updates properly. I'd be happy to help if you have no RHCE's on staff. Just email me with the RPM spec file and installation details.

[Customer Relations]
If Corel can keep up with new camera bodies and lenses from the top companies (Nikon, Canon, etc.) and keep the communication channels open, I think they will enjoy a loyal following of customers from both hobbyist and professional communities.

Congratulations to Corel on their acquisition of BibblePro. I eagerly anticipate great things from AfterShot Pro.

Cal Webster

[Update - 20130605]

While modifying the EXIF data to fool ASP into accepting my raw files does allow me to process them, the resulting jpegs are of inferior in terms of Image Quality (IQ). I pixel-peeped one of my images processed from raw in ASP and compared it to the same image SOOC. I had set the D600 to produce RAW+JPEG. The camera jpeg was an order of magnitude higher IQ than the one produced by ASP. The focus was more crisp, bokeh significantly more smooth, and there was zero noise in the camera produced image.

I believe this drop in IQ can be attributed to the difference in how ASP maps pixels from the different sensors in the D600 and D800, as I indicated above in [Raw Support]. I'm hoping for a beta release I can test here real soon.

[Trucks]

Hi,

i`ve forgotten my number 4). HL Recovery.

Thanks

Trucks

[halaszvarig]

Is there a beta program I can sin up too, by the way?

A beta program would be great! I would participate in it also.

[Amamba]

I switched from ASP to LR, after months trying to make ASP work for me. My biggest problems with ASP:

- White Balance pick tool. In LR, I can get good results after just a few clicks. In ASP, it's a tedious manuals adjustment process, especially for skin tones and blue skies.

- Sharpening and Noise Reduction. Again, in LR I can typically get better results more quickly, while using just 3 sliders, while ASP tends to take much more work getting acceptable results.

- Highlight recovery works much better in LR

- Blown skies... In LR a lot of times all I have to do is pull the Blue luminosity slider down a bit, and now I have some color in the sky. In ASP, I need to mess with layers, brushes and masks.

I still think ASP has much better interface and better tools - but not the ease of producing quality output, sadly.

[sbattaio]

Thank you for the update. Since I shoot a Fujifilm HS30EXR camera it sure would be great to get support for .RAF raw files. I can open them in PSP X5, but ASP can't handle them. I am forced to use RawTherapee instead of ASP. Fuji EXR camera owners have been waiting a very long time for .RAF file support from Corel. Thanks!

[Moldmaker]

Using the Nikon D600, I am forced to either convert to TIFF using Nikon's ViewNX2 or to modify the relevant EXIF value to D800 or D7000 before being able to open the pictures with ASP. Would be great if support fpr D600 RAW files is included in the near future.

Mm.

[kumsa]

Terrific news.

In order of priority (assuming no loss of features, and preserving the multi-platform support):

- new camera profiles - I have been using a 6D for over six months and I'm processing RAW in DPP.
- Lens additions - wow. there are lots of lenses to be included (esp. something like the popular Samyang 14mm).
- HDR ? That would be pretty useful.

Thanks !

[gareth]

pink highlights..... pink highlights .... pink highlights ...............

[kross]

Tethered shooting on Linux, or at the very least, watched folders. Watched folders would allow me to capture tethered either from the command line, or from another GUI program (such as RawStudio), to a folder that ASP will monitor, and hopefully ASP will advance to the next photo automatically when a new photo arrives in the folder.

[garibaldi]

Thank you for the update Rick. I am an ASP user on Linux, and I'd like to emphasize that continued support of the Linux platform is a very important feature for a lot of us. I really like ASP - the workflow is perfect for my setup - and look forward to future updates with more features and bugfixes.

[ZenOslo]

It would nice to have some kind of roadmap for the updates. What camera models will you support? I recently bought a Pentax MX-1 where the raw files are DNG. Any chance that DNG will find it's way into ASP? If not I might have to abandon ASP as many others seems to be doing.

[SteveCase]

It would nice to have some kind of roadmap for the updates. What camera models will you support? I recently bought a Pentax MX-1 where the raw files are DNG. Any chance that DNG will find it's way into ASP? If not I might have to abandon ASP as many others seems to be doing.

Send them some samples from the camera.
They just posted a list of cameras to be added and mentioned lack of samples from cameras they wanted to support.

[Guy Smith]

Hello Rick

I am working at Kodak on a software product for pro labs called DP2. It uses Bibble RAW libraries. We are looking for some camera updates. I have been out of contact with Jeff Stephens for over a year now and my prior info on him no longer seems valid. So I was happy to find this forum post where you mentioned you are working with Jeff on new cameras. Would there be anyway that you or he could contact me outside this forum. (to other readers: sorry that I have jumped into this discussion with a thread that's really not relevant to you all, but I couldn't find any other route.)

[Moldmaker]

I think no one here is bothered at all. Au contraire, if I hear that Kodak is working on a software that uses Bibble libs, does it mean to me that ASP will hopefully be supported in the future, too.

Mm.