Topaz Studio 2

[mcasan]

Topaz has been redesigning their product Topaz Studio. Their working name was Art Studio. But that name evidently did not fly well with some of the customer base. So the latest name is Studio 2. It is supposed to launch on the 25th. Topaz said they will have a website where you can check if you get a few upgrade to Studio 2 based on how much you have spent on Topaz products in the past. So far, no such website.


Topaz Studio 2 – Topaz Labs

 

[mcasan]

Topaz started the rollout of Studio 2 tonight via emails to existing customers. I guess they will have product webpages tomorrow (25th).

 

[JLGF1]

They are giving store-credit at list price, not paid (ie sale) price, so it's fairly easy to qualify for a free upgrade. I already got the upgrade email, but I'm treading cautiously to make sure the concurrent Studio-1/Studio-2 installation doesn't step on each other (as a recent update supposedly fixed). S-2 has only been in open beta for around a week so I don't expect it to be entirely smooth sailing.

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[mcasan]

S2 crashed on me last night when I tried to save the edited image back to Lr Classic. Crash report submitted to Topaz.

I like S2's UI much better than S1.

 

[agentlossing]

The official rollout is live, looks like if you're a non Topaz user you can get the whole deal for $79.99 for limited time. Pretty good price compared to their previous parceled out costs. I'm correct that it's still not a RAW converter, right? Just an all-in-one plugin setup.

 

[JLGF1]

I'm correct that it's still not a RAW converter, right?

TS-2 can read Raw files (as could TS-1), but my guess is you won't be impressed with the results. I would suggest using a well-established Raw processor and inputting an exported Tiff to TS-2.

Be advised that this is really a v1.0 type release and is still buggy at present. Make sure to test drive any potential purchase under the no-cost trial (11 days left on intro pricing). Note that TS-2 is really not designed as a robust general purpose editor and they openly state as much. eg there currently is no crop tool, though one is on the to-do list, etc. The concept is a new non-destructive layer-based UI that meshes all their current products so that you can stack them at will and does away with the former ala-carte pricing (excluding the stand-alone AI products). A re-write of this magnitude is bound to have some growing pains and probably should have been released under a unique (ie new) name, in my opinion. Having said that, I expect them to be releasing updates at a rapid pace (one came out today).

 

[mcasan]

Russel, Topaz VP, has published a brief roadmap. I imagine we will see many updates by the end of the year.

 

[JLGF1]

Yes, some of the first category are slated for inclusion by mid-August.

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[PhillyBill]

When I choose to check for updates, I am told my 2.0.0 is the latest available.

 

[JLGF1]

When I choose to check for updates, I am told my 2.0.0 is the latest available.

That appears to be an intermittent bug they are working on. The only work-around I know of is to go back to the web site and re-download.

 

[JLGF1]

The official rollout is live, looks like if you're a non Topaz user you can get the whole deal for $79.99 for limited time.

Additional 20% off of the intro price (ie $64) for a limited time. Use coupon: Hazelweb719

 

[mcasan]

S2.0.3 should fix the problem with Mac version not seeing updates available on the Topaz servers. By the end of next week Topaz should release at least one more dot release which will have some major features in it. That should start to bring S2 close to feature parity to S1. Working with Topaz is refreshing compared to at least one of their competitors. Topaz folks don't just say "soon" when asked about a correction or new feature......and nothing happens for weeks to months.

 

[mcasan]

The Mac version of S2.0.3 did indeed see S2.0.4 on their server at launch. So that bug is killed.

 

[JLGF1]

When I choose to check for updates, I am told my 2.0.0 is the latest available.

According to various reports, this bug should be squashed; current version v2.0.5.

 

[JLGF1]

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[JLGF1]

Studio-2 Running change log here .

Also see: Menu->Help->Change Log

 

[mcasan]

Yesterday Topaz updated all the AI standalone products to fix a problem of them crashing when they exit. Topaz said they were also updated Studio 2 with the same correction. But they did not release a 2.0.6 last night. Don't know if they will release anything over the weekend. I think we can expect several updates next week that will be corrections plus new features.

 

[OldRadioGuy]

Yesterday's updates were for all of the Topaz AI standalones/plugins to eliminate crashes that were occurring when saving to TIFs. I had an open bug report on this problem in Adjust AI. I received notification confirming all of the AI products were being updated and that an updated version of Topaz Studio 2 would be released in a "few hours" later in the day (Friday). However, still no update tonight (Saturday). My guess is this will be coming Monday.

Studio 2 is a much more efficient than the first version of Topaz Studio. When they finish adding the promised features it looks promising as an editor. As mentioned earlier, it is not the product to use for RAW files. Obviously, an omission by design.

 

[Growltiger]

Studio 2 is a much more efficient than the first version of Topaz Studio. When they finish adding the promised features it looks promising as an editor. As mentioned earlier, it is not the product to use for RAW files. Obviously, an omission by design.

You can use it as a giant plugin to Photoshop. Then it doesn't need the raw development as you have done that already in ACR.

 

[mcasan]

It has a raw developer. You can open a raw image directly in it without using Lr/Acr to generate a TIFF first. But that raw developer does not have the ability to create or use custom camera profiles.