Is it worthwhile to persevere with AfterShot - or drop it?

[PeterM]

I have to say that I am quite frustrated with AfterShot.

With version 1 and 2 there has been this issue that after some time working, it crashes.

When I try to work on images over the network, it's extremely slow and sometimes crashes...

Recently I had a strange problem with JPG's "jumping" dark when certain sliders are touched - a member here helped me, switching OpenCL off solved the problem. But why isn't Corel telling their users that OpenCL may cause problems?

I find that, although Afershot *could* be a great product, is causes me a lot of frustration. You may pick up that I'm quite frustrated. I don't want to "fight" with my computer all the time, all I want is to process my image as quickly as possible...

What do people think - will Corel pull up their socks and finally give us a product that works?

Should i just forget about AfterShot and use Lightroom, like the rest of the world?

[afx]

Should i just forget about AfterShot and use Lightroom, like the rest of the world?

It all depends on you.
I use both. LR is limited to Windows/Mac, forces you to use a brain dead library and an inefficient modal UI that needs much more menus to accomplish simple tasks than AS. It can't even download file into my directory structure without me entering duplicate information. Even without OpenCL, AS is still much faster. And Adobe in their nationalist arrogance don't even have keyboard shortcuts that work on non US keyboards, let alone user adjustable keyboard shortcuts (Why the hell do I need 3 clicks and mouse movement for an export? In AS I need one hotkey!)

But, there are some types of images where LR gives me cleaner results and by now I am quite fond of the color adjustment tool for BW. And it has an auto healing brush that is miles ahead of AS.

cheers
afx

[kumsa]

Short answer is I'm really enjoying the latest release of ASP2.

There has been a discussion about ASP2 in Luminous Landscapes that prodded me to check whether or not the current version is doing a good job of RAW conversions (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum ... #msg750182)

I compared the CR2 conversion from my Canon 6D against Canon's DPP 4 (the most recent version of DPP) to ASP2.

My results were that ASP2 matches DPP, for what I examined.

No RAW image editor has every tool set (autohealing, HDR, focus bracketing, panorama, etc), but I'm really liking ASP2. My jpg editor is Gimp with G'MIC (really outstanding).

ASP2 is solid. Now time to get back to the work of producing great photos.

[awm03]

If it isn't working for you, then by all means, jump ship. There are a number of excellent RAW converters on the market. You'll find they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

But first, did you get the latest driver for your graphics card? I had terrible troubles with crashes & freezes until I updated my nVidea graphics card with the latest driver (also went from 4 gb to 8 gb RAM, but enough RAM isn't your problem, looks like). Haven't had any problems since. I keep OpenCL on but set to Low.

[PeterM]

If it isn't working for you, then by all means, jump ship. There are a number of excellent RAW converters on the market. You'll find they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

But first, did you get the latest driver for your graphics card? I had terrible troubles with crashes & freezes until I updated my nVidea graphics card with the latest driver (also went from 4 gb to 8 gb RAM, but enough RAM isn't your problem, looks like). Haven't had any problems since. I keep OpenCL on but set to Low.

Hi, thanks for the reply (and everyone else!)

I have my laptop set to check and notify when a new driver is out... I prefer to install manually, when it suits me. When you mention the driver, the problem started (or I first noticed) shortly after a driver update.

Well, 16 gig of RAM, I guess lack of RAM will not be my issue.

I wonder if this is maybe Windows 8.1? Would going back to Windows 7 help? I still have a spare license of Win 7 Pro.

[PeterM]

ASP2 is solid.

Well, I see you use Linux and maybe it is stable for you... but unfortunately for many it's not "solid" at all.

I like the concept and many features of AfterShot Pro... but as you: I like to get back to shooting!

[sauron]

Hi, thanks for the reply (and everyone else!)

I have my laptop set to check and notify when a new driver is out... I prefer to install manually, when it suits me. When you mention the driver, the problem started (or I first noticed) shortly after a driver update.

Well, 16 gig of RAM, I guess lack of RAM will not be my issue.

You seem to be using a 32 bit Windows, according to the metadata on your post. I don't bother keeping up with what different Windows releases do or don't support, but many versions appear to constrain you to 4Gb of addressable memory. Using more than 4GB on a 32 bit OS requires PAE and other such hackery, and a cursory reading of the Wikipedia article suggests that Microsoft has left it disabled, so you may not have nearly as much memory as you think you do. Also. as has been pointed out, OpenCL drivers for Windows are usually manufacturer provided, and may well have bugs. At the very least though, on a system with 16Gb of memory you should just move to a 64 bit operating system.