AfterShot Pro V2 is finally out . . .

[GBarrington]

But I can't get too impressed. . .

I took a look at the Olympus, Panasonic, and Fuji cameras supported. Sheesh!

Olympus
E-1, E-3, E-5, E-10, E-20, E-30, E-300, E-400, E-410, E-420, E-450, E-500, E-510, E-520, E-600, E-620, E-P1, E-P2, E-P3, E-PL1, E-PL1s, E-PL2, E-PL3, E-PM1 C5050z, C5060wz, C7070wz, C8080wz, OM-D E-M5, SP-310, SP-320, SP-350, SP-500uz, SP-510uz, SP-550uz, XZ-1, E-M1, PEN E-P5, Stylus 1

That's IT! mostly OLD cameras! Do you see the E-M5 or the E-M10? What is crazy is that PSP X6 raw lab supports both the E-M5 and the E-M10.

Panasonic
FZ100, FZ150, FZ18, FZ28, FZ30, FZ35, FZ38, FZ40, FZ45, FZ50, FZ8, G1, G2, G3, G10, GF1, GF2, GH1, GH2, GX1, L1, L10, LX1, LX2, LX3, LX5, DMC-GX7, DMC-GM1, LF1. (I don't know enough about Panasonic to comment )

Fuji
X100 That's IT! Not the X100s, not the X20, not the X Pro 1, not the X-M1, or the X-E1 or the X-E2. These are NOT new cameras that caught Corel by surprise. They've been around a while.

Sounds like the same old batsh-t crazy Corel foolishness to me. And I bet we have to wait a year or more before we get a camera support upgrade to get a FEW of these cameras supported. I like PSP X6, but they'll have to prove their reliability to me regarding ASP V2 without me spending any money for a while. (It's like all they care about is PSP)

Edit: Here is the Link - http://www.aftershotpro.com/en/products/aftershot-pro/default.html

 

[heli-mech]

Umm, better read that list again, E-M5 and E-M1 are there just not the E-M10.

 

[walter_j]

slim features list for upgrade. I wonder if my nostalgia filters will work with version 2. No Linux HDR til fall too. Anyone using the other add-on tools?

 

[pdk42]

Yea, I used Bibble/ASP for years and really liked it before lack of new camera support and general disinterest from Corel pushed me to Lightroom. There are still things it does that LR doesn't.

I'll take a look at the new version though, but I cant't see me going back now that I've mastered LR.

Finally, as HeliMech says, the camera support only seems to exclude the E-M10 from the current Oly cameras. The E-M5 and E-M1 are there (in fact, the E -M5 was supported in the last version I used a year ago).

 

[pdk42]

The lack of Fuji x-trans support is not surprising given the complete weirdness of the pixel layout. Even Adobe haven't got it right yet. It's one reason why I've not been particularly keen to dip into Fuji waters.

 

[OzRay]

I always thought Corel bought out Paint Shop Pro in order to turn a respected piece of software into junk like all of its other stuff. That's what it seemed to me after I bought the first version of its renamed PSP and gave up on the crap that followed. Corel forced me to buy Photoshop.

 

[chipbutty]

Just tried it for an hour or so with my X100 and EM5 Raws. It's very competent and blazingly fast on my 2009 iMac. Faster than any other Raw converter I've tried (the only one I haven't tried is Aperture) to render slider changes. No idea how it compared to ASP1 as I only used that very briefly nearly two years ago.

It's a breeze to use. I actually found the colours far more pleasing and accurate than Lightroom in my brief test. One reason why I moved to Capture One Pro 7 from Lr. I did notice some ugly colour bleeding when increasing Vibrance and saturation. I think many people would be better off with something like ASP2 if they don't have a state of the art computer and want to better the output from the camera JPEGs.

 

[pdk42]

It's not a bad product. I used it for a couple of years before it was acquired by Corel (when it was called Bibble). It's got a fantastic plug-in capability (and library of really useful plug-ins), handles layers, is much faster than LR and has an easier to use UI too. I'd still be using it if they'd kept up to date with new cameras. This had already become an issue in the latter days of Bibble, but Corel completely screwed it up when they fired the entire development team in Austin, TX! For almost a year there was no updates at all and they lost a lot of loyal users. I think this v.2 is probably too little, too late. Pity, I hate to see Adobe succeed really!

 

[chipbutty]

Yes this has always been the problem with Corel. They had a great chance to do something decent when they acquired Bibble and failed with far too few updates and camera support. I agree probably too little too late. Though maybe they will acquire new users with no prior knowledge of the backstory.

It's not a bad product. I used it for a couple of years before it was acquired by Corel (when it was called Bibble). It's got a fantastic plug-in capability (and library of really useful plug-ins), handles layers, is much faster than LR and has an easier to use UI too. I'd still be using it if they'd kept up to date with new cameras. This had already become an issue in the latter days of Bibble, but Corel completely screwed it up when they fired the entire development team in Austin, TX! For almost a year there was no updates at all and they lost a lot of loyal users. I think this v.2 is probably too little, too late. Pity, I hate to see Adobe succeed really!

 

[ivoire]

Looks decent but no Sigma x3f support. I might have purchased it just for that. Lightroom for general use seems like the better alternative

 

[GBarrington]

I always thought Corel bought out Paint Shop Pro in order to turn a respected piece of software into junk like all of its other stuff. That's what it seemed to me after I bought the first version of its renamed PSP and gave up on the crap that followed. Corel forced me to buy Photoshop.

Yeah Corel was 'dinking' around with PSP as late as X3, If you recall the rootkit issues on even the trial version. However X5 , and now X6 are VERY good, reliable, and a trustworthy product. X6 does things I'm sure you can do with the CC version of PS, but I bet it isn't any easier!

Maybe Corel will eventually settle down and start treating ASP as a photographic tool someday and not an opportunity to liberate money from our wallets with as little effort as possible.

It's like Corel has this split personality that is so frustrating! We never know which Corel we are dealing with.

 

[OzRay]

Yeah Corel was 'dinking' around with PSP as late as X3, If you recall the rootkit issues on even the trial version. However X5 , and now X6 are VERY good, reliable, and a trustworthy product. X6 does things I'm sure you can do with the CC version of PS, but I bet it isn't any easier!

Maybe Corel will eventually settle down and start treating ASP as a photographic tool someday and not an opportunity to liberate money from our wallets with as little effort as possible.

It's like Corel has this split personality that is so frustrating! We never know which Corel we are dealing with.

That's the problem, one moment they appear to be going fine and then they go backwards. I can't remember which version it was, but after around two from when PSP was acquired, I gave up. They simply don't appear to be professional about their approach.

 

[chipbutty]

I see highlight recovery is still spectacularly bad. This is nuts and bolts stuff.

Interesting post by the new bloke heading ASP http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=53624

 

[Ian.]

It's good that they are keeping this product going. Some had suggested it was unmaintained. And good that it runs on Linux where Lightroom fails.
I tried the trial version of Aftershot Pro. Which was fine, But seemed to offer much less functionality than Digikam regarding photo management. So I let the trial expire.

 

[GBarrington]

I see highlight recovery is still spectacularly bad. This is nuts and bolts stuff.

Interesting post by the new bloke heading ASP http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=53624

Yeah, I saw that post. I don't doubt the guy is sincere, but I do doubt that the corporate culture has changed enough to let him carry out his plans. If there hasn't been a new camera update by, say, October, I think we will know pretty much it was all wishful thinking on his part.

 

[chipbutty]

Yes time will tell. After Shot Pro was the first Raw processor I trialled a couple of years ago. I was very fond of the interface and speed on my aging iMac but as soon as I trialled Lightroom 4 Aftershot Pro was pretty much blown out of the water. It does seem to have huge potential. It's a shame Corel haven't picked up the baton from Bibble and polished it so it could at least compete with other Raw processors in terms of highlight recovery etc. And of course regular updates and bug fixing!

They seem to have a market all to themselves at this price point, cheaper than Lightroom, C1, DXO, Photo Ninja etc. They could really carve out a niche for themselves if they wanted to.

They already lost me as I moved on to Lightroom, C1, RPP and Irident. All of which are constantly being improved and supported with regular camera updates.

 

[tornado]

I finally stopped ASP use after getting the EM1...no converter. Forced me into LR...I'm still not comfortable with it and haven't been patient enough to sit through many hours of YouTube videos to learn it.

I will be giving ASP2 a trial run...I suppose there is no discount for existing ASP1 owners?

EDIT: Found there is an Upgrade path for existing owners...$20 discount.

Hot Tip to those willing to wait...ASP was usually heavily discounted on Black Friday sales (even though Corel is Canadian and we don't typically do Black Friday here...Thanksgiving Day is 1 month earlier than in the USA). ASP2 may be significantly lower priced (~$30 total for ASP1 last year) in November.

 

[GBarrington]

I finally stopped ASP use after getting the EM1...no converter. Forced me into LR...I'm still not comfortable with it and haven't been patient enough to sit through many hours of YouTube videos to learn it.

I will be giving ASP2 a trial run...I suppose there is no discount for existing ASP1 owners?

EDIT: Found there is an Upgrade path for existing owners...$20 discount.

Hot Tip to those willing to wait...ASP was usually heavily discounted on Black Friday sales (even though Corel is Canadian and we don't typically do Black Friday here...Thanksgiving Day is 1 month earlier than in the USA). ASP2 may be significantly lower priced (~$30 total for ASP1 last year) in November.

Contadorfan, a user over on DPR reports that a camera support update has been released for ASP 2 that includes E-M10. So for longtime ASP users, it might be worth looking into to see if E-M1 support has been added. She also reports that this is a camera support update only, no fixes have been applied.

If you aren't happy with Lightroom, I would suggest trying out ACDSee Pro. I've found after testing that the results I get in ACDSee and CaptureOne are quite similar. And I like the ACDSee user interface better.

 

[tornado]

E-M1 is in the ASP2 original release.
The trial seems to be working well for me...though the 64-bit version means my complete set of previously purchased plugins no longer work until the developers release 64-bit versions. But, the 32-bit trial ASP2 does support my existing plugins so I can use that for a while I suppose.

Contadorfan, a user over on DPR reports that a camera support update has been released for ASP 2 that includes E-M10. So for longtime ASP users, it might be worth looking into to see if E-M1 support has been added. She also reports that this is a camera support update only, no fixes have been applied.

If you aren't happy with Lightroom, I would suggest trying out ACDSee Pro. I've found after testing that the results I get in ACDSee and CaptureOne are quite similar. And I like the ACDSee user interface better.

 

[OzRay]

I just downloaded and installed the ACDsee pro trial and what a piece of crap. After finishing the install and trying to start the program, all I got was a system error, it simply would not start. So I did a system restore (I always create a restore point when trialling software) and got rid of it. There should be no reason for software to fail like this anymore, especially something that's been out so long.

So if LR goes to the Cloud Fairies, I'll be buying Capture One. At least Capture One is a tried and proven system, not too dissimilar to LR, though slower to implement new cameras.