Why is Capture One Express being deprecated?
We have made the decision to focus our efforts on our core products, such as Capture One Pro and mobile apps.
Can I still access Capture One Express, and will my license still work?
All Capture One Express license keys will be disabled after February 12, 2024. To continue using Capture One, you'll need a license key for a current product, such as Capture One Pro.
I purchased Capture One Express with my camera. How is it possible for you to deactivate my license?
While Capture One Express may have been bundled with certain cameras, it has always been available as a free software. The license provided with the camera purchase does not entail a monetary transaction for the software itself.
Can I run Capture One Express on an old computer?
No, all Capture One Express license keys will be disabled and will not be valid, regardless of the hardware used.
Is there an alternative free app available for use?
Yes, with this exclusive Capture One x Fujifilm trial, you can get three months of All in One for free: captureone.com/en/leaflet-fujifilm
What can I do with my pictures now that I don’t have access to my catalog?
After Capture One Express has been deprecated on February 12, you can still access your images, but not within the Capture One application. See How to access your Catalog images outside of Capture One. Alternatively, consider a free 30-day trial of Capture One Pro for continued catalog access and image export options.
How can I ensure this won’t happen to my other Capture One products?
Refer to our End User License Agreement (EULA) that applies to paid products: Capture One EULA.
How do I remove myself from your customer database if I don’t want to take advantage of any offers?
Contact us by clicking the Request Support button in the header of support.captureone.com.
How is it possible for you to deactivate my perpetual license?
For legal concerns, contact our legal team at legal@captureone.com for more in-depth answers.
Comments
27 comments
It is absolutely okay to focus on your core product and to stop any other development of the Express version. That's fine, maybe not very clever, but fine.
But it is a big fat slap in the face of all the other users of C1Express who can't use their old software anymore after Jan 30. Thats the wrong decision. C1 is not a trustworthy company.
Capture One is a fantastic software that I've used for many years and happily paid for, but deactivating older software is a terrible decision. Safe to say that this year is the last year I pay for your program.
A free version for hobbyist is an excellent way to get new paying customers (like me)! It's a shame you're valuing short term quarterly gains over long term relationships with your customers.
when i bought a sony camera i thought "nice i get good software as addition to my camera"... then capture one screwed me.
now they take away express too and want me to pay way too much for "the real deal".
nah.. i if i have to pay a subscription i am switching to adobe. that is for sure.
nobody can beat photoshop for editing and lightroom is the superior DAM solution.
this will not have a positiv outcome for capture one.
all you do is destroying goodwill of the photog community.
farewell....
Does this affect Capture One for Nikon?
That is a very bad decision.
Hi!
Ever since I received your communication about the disposal of Capture One Express, I have been thinking about the absurdity of your decision.
Besides that, the easiest way to promote your photography software is to bundle it with cameras, and producing a feature-reduced version is the technically simplest thing to do, so I really can't agree with your decision!
This move is on the same level of assholery as Adobe. I still hate Adobe slightly more than this, but deactivating old software is peak horrible behavior. Enshittification seems to be the order of the day.
What guarantee is there that you won't disable one of your perpetual licenses if I buy it? You have proved yourself an untrustworthy company. Stopping all support is one thing, but going out of your way to disable a product - leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.
Also, the product prices are very high for us from the third world.
What a way to alienate people and push them towards using alternative software (or resorting to pirating ours).
It's a flimsy excuse to claim that you are now "focusing your efforts on the core product, like the Pro and mobile variants", especially when functional Express versions exist.
Instead of simply discontinuing support for this version, it's a blatant decision that speaks volumes about what you think of your users and customers.
I am seriously disappointed with Capture One as a business. I am not a professional, and the bulk of my photos are vacations, travel, birthdays, personal events and so on. I would have **never** even looked at capture one if it were not recommended by Fuji when I bought my camera. The express version was fine - and I would have even considered a splurge to a full perpetual license on occasion once I had mastered the express version. At least I would have.
The audacity of deactivating licensing on existing software is atrocious, and I don't care what sort of legal nonsense you want to throw at me. You have VIOLATED my faith in you as a business, legally or otherwise. How am I to trust what you do with my privacy information? What if I buy a perpetual license.. will you deactivate that if your balance sheet dictates? What if that software has a severe vulnerability in it? You don't do "updates" unless it is a subscription? As a business owner, I would **never** do business with an organization such as this. Ever.
Why would I do so privately?
I have worked in this industry, likely longer than most of you have. I can understand the allure of recurring revenue and how investors like what it looks like. What you seem to have failed to grasp is that needs the support of a devoted client base. One you have egregiously spit in the face of. I understand there is now some sort of Fujifilm Raw Converter, but you have made that impossible to find, locate and lawfully use. You have made your intentions clear, and I am disappointed completely with all of you.
Are you sure C1 Express was free? Didn't Sony, Fuji or Nikon pay for the ability to add it to their cameras? I would understand keeping the owners version and not updating. Shame on Capture One.Back in 2023 summer I bought my first pro-camera, the Fuji X-T5. I didn't knew there was this cool software that came with it, so I was surprised and lucky. Okey, I didn't bought the camera with the idea of having additional bonus of software like this within the price of the camera, or manufacturer compensating for you because you bought an very expensive camera, so I can't say anything bad.
BUT... I disagree with this decision on the moral fact that REMOVING/DISABLING the software altogether, instead of stopping its support or limiting its capabilities down to few basics for decent editing options like levels, brightness, contrast, white and black, and exposure, is a very bad strategy. Maybe I am wrong, maybe you guys have quite some talented marketing team and finance managers that will work wonders in long term survivability.
Three months trial is not enough as well, since when I cam back from my trip of Montenegro back in September 2023, I had over 2k photos taken, and it took me about 4-5 months of editing (not all days, not in all my after-work hours), ending up with almost 1,8k images that were edited. This part is something that has been bothering me forever with three months of trial for various image/video editing softwares, as it never made sense, I just never bothered to care that much until I am finally started doing pro-photography myself and actually needing time to edit, as it is not my job to sit for a whole day to finish editing for a client.
This makes me think that most companies are trying to justify piracy. Of course these changes wont affect big time revenues, but this will be quite some setback, as I am not willing to pay hundreds for a software, neither subscriptions for such amounts when I am in an amateur level of photography, and I don't think it will become my full-time job either to charge such amounts to afford hundreds of Eur/$ worth software.
I have pro, then i am not affected.
Who need free version, use Darktable - GNU SW - similar that Lightroom and C1 - something between, C1 is maybe best in result, but Darktable is perfect - btw it is not easy SW, is needed learn, like Lightroom.
For FUJIFILM exist LUT as film simulation - UTFG - i know from is exprted - google it - next hint is go to RAWTherapee documentation about LUT and colors, here is one very old pack of LUT's (~1GB) - from one old GNU SW, that is ended and now is only commercial,. but LUT's is free - btw RawTherappe is not good SW is very slow, special with GFX 100mpx files - Darktable is very very good - everybody have choice:
Affinity Photo can import RAW, Luminar support RAW
Darktable support all RAW and is free - for me it is bigest concurrent for C1 - but don't have AI
Or pay C1 - one of best or LihgtRoom - as pack with 1y fee or permanent license
You can advertise all these more or less useful raw converters. But nevertheless, it won't bother CO. I assume that they expected such a "feedback" and the loss of a certain percentage of CO Express users. That's part of their calculation. And let us be honest: How many CO Express users had upgraded or would have upgraded to Pro? Probably not enough. CO Express and its user community was of no use and value for CO.
When I first read about the decision to kill CO Express, I were disappointed. But in my eyes CO is the best raw converter and thus I got my perpetual license of Pro. Okay, I got it for less money. that was another reason for me why I updated. Great programm. I am with it.
I did write this in your surveys and I'm going to repeat it here.
Professional photographers make money from photography and they edit raws every day and process thousands of pictures so your subscription plan makes sense for them.
But there are lots of hobby photographers who need to use it just a couple times a month and for non-commercial use.
For us the subscription price you offer is a deal breaker.
Does removal of Express version pushes me towards buying Pro? Of course not.
I just cannot afford paying dozens of euro every month just to edit ten raw pictures of my cat.
Please reconsider your pricing policy
But isn't it clear that CO wants to focus on professionals (or on those) who can afford paying that much money for a subscription plan or for the perpetual license?
If you are a hobbyist then there are many other cheap or even free options out there. But at this point all the frustrations and losses of users of CO Express will certainly not lead to a change of the pricing policy.
"But at this point all the frustrations and losses of users of CO Express will certainly not lead to a change of the pricing policy."
That's not the gripe I have - and while my use for CO is a bit more than 10 cat pictures a month, my issue is the egregious way in which they eliminated use of the express version. If they had said express is valid up to version 20 but no further... Sure, understandable and if support is now gone for all express... I get it. The economy sucks, I understand how it works.
My issue is with Trust. I am not going to enter into monetary agreement with a company that feels they can reserve the right to behave in such a way. My investment is not just paying for their software, there is a time investment to learn it and so on.
A business that behaves that way is risky for me to invest in. I did manage to finally sort out the raw converter - which was likely the result of some licensing between fuji and CO.. but it's completely gutted and not real valuable.
Oh, and I WAS one of those guys who would have considered buying a full license, this nonsense or otherwise. So I got the message that my business is unimportant to them.
Unfortuntely Capture One showed again that they are untrutworthy company. I started with Sony Express version, then I paid for CO12 Pro. CO12 Pro was discontinued and couldn't be downloaded anymore, so I had to go to CO 21 Express (fortuntely most of my pictures was from Sony), but now I can't even open my catalog with the version I have installed on my computer. Sorry, but this is a form of extortion. I rarely take pictures now and when I wanted to work with my old photos I found out that it's impossible. And paying 200+ EUR for processing few hundred photos per year is nonsense. And even if I went back to professional photography after this experience I couldn't trust you with my photos.
If you let the old version run in parallel with the new versions, I'm sure there would be plenty of users who would upgrade to the paid version over time, either for the new features or to support their new camera. I understand that a company needs to have a profitable product, but what you did erodes all trust, which is the most valuable asset in business.
hey Pavel Klein you can download previous versions of Capture One at https://www.captureone.com/en/account/download#previous
After a few stressful months I at least found some time to take some pictures and all that, to write a comment, under a FAQ, at 10:30pm, because your software-door-bouncer didn’t let me in… now I know why.
Finding that way out, that Express is canceled, is just very unpleasant – at least for me and some others here.
This doesn’t seem serious to me. I can’t remember any prior information on that.
So, thank you for ruining my evening, now spending it with finding a nice alternative to CO, instead of editing my pictures.
U guys really know how to win costumers.
It's really kind of Denis Huk to provide links to the previous versions of Capture One right after he informed us that all the license keys had been disabled. I'm certain that his information does not entirely miss the point.
Since this discussion is currently one-sided, I recommend expressing your feelings to the developer on their Instagram page. It would be preferable to comment on Posts by C1 (https://www.instagram.com/captureone/?img_index=3).
This way, more people will see and understand why we are disappointed by C1. Please remember to remain objective and calm in your communication. After all, we are all individuals with feelings.
"It's really kind of Denis Huk to provide links to the previous versions of Capture One right after he informed us that all the license keys had been disabled."
Seriously...
Either he is just a chatbot here to entertain the people griping about the change or an admin with the same level of concern. Either way, it doesn't improve my perceptions of their company. To be clear: I was one of those who has the disposable income to easily afford a license had I become proficient and dependent on the tools. However, I have no trust they will use that dependency to fleece me and that is unacceptable.
I get economies and difficult decisions - but they could have EASILY done an unsupported version of the express version for Sony, Fuji, etc.. that capped out at version 16 for example. There would have been complaints, but rational people could at least understand.
Denis Huk that`s nice that I can use a version which doesn't support my camera 😆
Look, I understand you need paying customers, but when you disable functionality of existing product and make my photos inaccessible, technically making my photos hostage to your new licensing policy, it totally breaks the trust between me as a potentional paying client and your company. How can I be sure I'll invest 350€ and you disable functionality the same way in the future or require other upgrade payments? I do 2-5 photo shoots a year and from that point of view the Pro version is overkill. I wouldn`t mind to pay 50-100€ per year for Express version though. I think most of the people would gladly pay some lower fee for the Express version...
too expensive, it was bundled with a Fujifilm camera I bough, after 6 months I cannot use the software anymore, congrats on your decissions and farwell!
Much too expensive. I bougth version 9 and just 6 month later i got a new camera, a7m3, wasn´t supported and so the versoin was senseless. Such a waste of money. Thats why i used the free version. And even with old cameras i can´t use version 9, so i have to assume that i have to pay these 350€ every year?!
At least let users use older versions of C1. I have Fuji XE-2 and spent around 150€ on C1 filters alone. You guys just made more lightroom customers with this decision.
I started my journey with the Express version and liked it enough to purchase the Capture One Nikon 20 Perpetual License. Worked great with the D850 and D5 files, then I acquired a Z body and found it's files were not supported unless I upgraded the software to the latest version.
The reason I tried C1 in the first place was because it wasn't a subscription only platform like Adobe had switched to, and at that time I quit using their software. I did not know at the time of the C1 Perpetual License purchase that the only free updates to the software would be due to bugs and the likes during the year. That's all fine but no support for new camera bodies, WOW!!
After my purchase of the Z body and lack of support for it gave me a good indication as to where the company as a whole was headed. Needless to say I did not upgrade to the latest offering nor will I bow to a subscription model just to receive the latest update for said current release.
I will however get the latest updates from the software companies I use till the next major release is made available and they also support camera bodies well after the fact. In a nutshell I made a decision to leave C1 as my go to and glad I did. Who knows maybe they'll deactivate my Perpetual License at some point... lol !!!
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