Capture One - Raising the Rates Again
The upgrade on the pro Product will cost an astronomical $199 going forward according to an email I just recieved.
I wonder if Capture One has been reading the commentary that started heavily with the release of C1 20 that the upgrade price was far to high for the minimal improvements. This ramped up even more with the release of 21 from what I saw.
I'd be curious to know if the rate hike effectivly is becuase they didn't get enough users to upgrade....when I'm quite confident more would have upgraded with a more reasonable price.
For $199 anyone can fully buy into any of the other options (and in most cases more than one) on the market.
Granted I think Capture One is the best RAW processing program on the market, but I really think they are going to see people wait even longer to upgrade with this new pricing strategy which is likley the opposite of what they need for increased revenue.
Anyone else not upgrade from 20 to 21 based on the cost?
I'm also hearing that new users get even fewer activations, so that also makes the product less attractive as the average person now has more computers than ever before.
-
I have also just received this mail, which is quite badly done (looks like a real rush job) and translated. It announces a price increase on 11th January. With the great words that they would like to inform me as a long-time customer "in good time", I am of course urged to change to a subscription now before the increase. In my case, the upgrade price of the perpetual licence shall raise from € 169 to € 219! And this for a buggy version with useless new features ....
I have stayed out of all the regarding discussions since weeks, wanted to keep my actual version 20 and wait calmly for the further development of C1, but this is an impertinence that has to be called like that.
The new owner, Axcel, is obviously driving C1 visibly against the wall. From online articles that I recently researched, there were at least indications that Axcel wants to make (a lot of) money out of C1. In an interview with Computerworld DK, the then managing director Peter Colsted said that Axcel expects a tripling of turnover in order to be able to sell C1 profitably again. And that seems to be the only thing Axcel is concerned with, in contrast to the previous owner Silver Fleet, they seem to be only interested in making a quick profit and don't seem to care about the C1 product.
Peter Colsted has only been managing director since March 2020 and, incidentally, was already dismissed again in December because Axcel is not satisfied with the figures. Make up your own minds about this development.8 -
Capture One continues to shoot itself in the foot with this stupid strategy they have taken.
They deliver nothing new, but still want to increase the price of the product. What a stupid strategy.
I received that email too and I can say that I won't be upgrading. There is good other products for less money on the market.9 -
I'm going to be honest - when I saw the title of the email "Our Prices Are Changing"
I was expecting to see a rate reduction instead of an increase as this is what both the user base has been asking as well as clearly what the overall market is demanding.
I was pleased to see the inclusion of Nikon under the umbrella this year, which I'd hope would get more users on board. We have seen new features in 20 and 21 that were primarily available also in the "Express/Free" versions, while that is great it also means the Pro users are paying for those features...and for some reason the Pro users also have a higher upgrade cost than the camera specific versions despite the fact they include the exact same feature set.
The buy in to Pro should of course be higher, but there is no reason the upgrade costs should be this high. The focus has clearly been on getting new users (all the LR transition and "help" features) yet the upgrade costs for existing users are paying for all of it.
Thanks for the insight @Okular I had no idea about the change in ownership.
8 -
I thought also - when I saw the title of the email - that now Capture One came to senses and is going to lower the price of the upgrade but what did I know...
...Capture One did exactly opposite and is increasing the price. Well I can say that this strategy won't bring them more money. They just drive existing users away and I bet it is hard to attract new users.
8 -
As for C1 to being the best RAW processing program on the market, I have used extensively really quite a lot of them and judged by the image quality alone, Raw Therapee is IMHO still the best. Mind you, it is just a raw processor, nothing else.
2 -
I have no intention of upgrading until there is more to the upgrade than what is on offer this time. I saw a recent webinar about C21and the presenter seemed to be having difficulty trying to justify the new features.
5 -
I've used RAW Therapee, the interface is abysmal compared to C1, and isn't anywhere as responsive. It can produce fine results but takes far longer and is more frustrating to get there. I'm not sure I'd agree it produces better results or has the best feature set for RAW processing (the advanced color editor and skin tab and not easily matched for example), and the layers function is light years beyond what I recall from RT, which has a dramatic impact on RAW development.
C1 is in a different league in terms of usablility in a professional workflow. RT is fine for very experienced hobbiest that have all day to make adjustments.
1 -
Marketing at its best. I even don't want to complain another time. So I am planing to keep 20 until find better alternative. Everything changes
PS thank you development team, I love what you do, it helps me a lot now and in the past. You still the best to me.
1 -
I am a subscriber to the Nikon version. I was going to buy the license when my sub expired. But no more and no more sub. It's back to FOSS for me, namely Nikon's Capture and Darktable. Though I really love C1 for intuitive interface. Such foolishness! I paid $25 for my Affinity perpetual license.
4 -
Yes Affinity cut the price in half when the 1st wave hit the world, I wonder maybe they are making more money than C1...
3 -
Well, recieved info too and am prety unpleasantly surprised. Still haven´t plan to upgrade to v21 right now, the introduced features are quite a joke, so told to myself to wait until summer and will see, maybe next version...
But after today´s mail - will stay on my 20 probably forever. They can improve what ever they want, but me...sorry management team.
Personaly guess, year or two and only subcription plan will play a game. Think C1 is, disgarding raw engine, at a stage like LR6 was at that time. Simply there something has to be done to increase regular income.
PS: All these SW companies "tricks" are more and more convincing me, that all that workflow being centralized around whatever convertor with DAM features is just a dead end. Today just exported all my 15 years old archive maintained with LR (forgot to do it a year ago when switching to C1) to JPGs and astalavista Adobe forever.For next, C1 will be only a simple convertor with DAM handover to Imatch, PS or Photomechanic.
Cheers
2 -
I'm also an Affinity user (own the suite of Apps), amazing value for the money. I know over a year ago they had over 2M paid users of some kind across the apps. They don't charge for updates, but I think they know how to get new customers with a great pricing model.
Phase One obviously entered the "unobtanium" market with Cameras only the uber rich can afford, but I think they need to re-think the software strategy side. They are no longer competing with Adobe's $2K Creative Suite. Photoshop and LR together costs $10 a month, and all of the other competetors cost far less than C1 in the buy it and you own it model, as well as the more reasonable upgrade costs.
The development team for C1 isn't creating earth shattering updates at this point, the product is already fantastic and the buy in price reflects that.
I don't know the financials but I do know they need a larger user base and that isn't easy to get when you price your self above top of market. I consistanly tell my friends about C1 and even those on the Adobe model view C1's pricing as a major turn off. I'm not sure I can reasonably convice others to swtich at this point unless I know that person is going to stick with the same camera for the next 10 years.
I don't really use the program as a DAM, so I could switch at any time if I chose to. I have to imagine that C1 assumes the customer base is stuck like glue becuase there is no way to switch all your "history" to a different system like they are attempting to do with LR users....that is the only thing I can imagine why they believe a $199 per year upgrade cost will work.
Lower the rate and see more revenue, that is the tactic I'd suggest. We can't offer word of mouth advertising for you if we know our friends and those we influence flat out can't afford the product and the cost to maintain it.
3 -
I believe with BIGGER prices they just increase promo spam and we should see a BIGGER SALE and personal prices at double rate.
1 -
Maby for this extra cash we finaly will get support for z6ii and z7ii + some kind of bonus like sky replacement :)))))))
1 -
I would pay even the high price - if I ever would get a (nearly) bug-free version for Windows. Needs not to have more features.
Yes, Capture One is the RAW converter with best output, but Capture One is indeed by far the most buggy one.
3 -
I still don't have the email on when my Nikon Z7 II is going to be supported. Meanwhile both Luminar and Adobe support it and have for awhile.
So ... Capture One has a specific Nikon version. Neither of the others do. Capture One's price is increasing and they still won't even give a roadmap to when the new cameras are being supported even though they have had specs and sample files for MONTHS.
C1 is my preferred RAW editor but they are going 180 degrees in the wrong direction.
4 -
I was also shocked when I saw the title of the email I thought it was going to be a price reduction, especially given the poor "updates" of 21, I thought maybe they had heard what the majority of people thought about the new version, I own my version of 20 and don't plan on moving to 21, I'm actually debating moving back to Adobe as it has features I really miss, like hdr merge and piano stitching, as I own my version of capture one I could always come back, but if paying a subscription I would should Adobe suite as I feel that's better value
5 -
@michael you might consider running a trial for Affinity Photo and then wait for it to go on sale again (which seems likley with the 1.9 launch that has been in beta for a few months).
You can develop the RAW in C1 then export as TIFF or JPEG and use Affinity for both HDR and PANOs. See if it is up to your standards and workflow. I'd expect a ~$35 sale price and you own it with free updates. It is $50 any day of the week.
0 -
I wonder how loyal one needs to be to get one of these emails?
I've been a customer since version 3.7 IIRC, and skipped only 12. I went from 11 to 20. Is that my crime?
1 -
The timing is bad to say the least. Many users have just declined v21 because they didn't need faster editing and didn't think Dehaze was worth $159. So now, that Dehaze tool costs $200.
It's a disheartening move and it's looking like this company is focusing exclusively on high volume 'pros' for the future. I'd like to continue to get bug fixes, improvements and useful new features from time to time, it's part of the fun. Maybe I need to think about moving on.4 -
David,
I skipped v12 too. maybe you did not get the mail but nonetheless you might be able to upgrade for the 2020 price if you log to manage licenses.
1 -
I'm highly disappointed too, latest C1 releases are very mild on new features, yet the upgrade price increase in latest years is very steep.
I'm C1 user since v5 and I always liked it. Since it was possible, I've used every Beta version. But there is lot of unfixed bugs over many versions and only 3 new features for 200€, that looks like bad marketing strategy to me....
Anyway, my next camera will be probably EOS R6, which is already supported in my current v20, so this version of C1 can serve me for many years and when the time come, I can switch to another RAW developer (maybe Affinity will enter this market) or maybe PhaseOne will just offer higher upgrade discounts :)4 -
Just upgraded from 10 to 21 Pro version and this. Next year price will be new, features will be added for xx.5 release...
As mentioned above, Affinity's Serif cut prices for professionals last year and its a great move (i have all 3 PC apps already). Adobe has much bigger user base for decades and still meaintain very low price for much useful combo subsciption (though i moved for most work to Affinity and never seriusly used lightroom).1 -
V21 is too underwhelming compared to 20, the response to user requests is almost absent, and there are way too many bugs (both old and new).
That's not a basis for hiking up prices yet again.
I won't upgrade to V21 and at this rate it seems very unlikely I'll ever upgrade again. I stopped recommending C1 to others, can't do it anymore with a good conscious. Too bad, there was so much potential in C1.
2 -
I took the early bird offer and upgraded from 20 to 21. I'll never do that again. In fact, I am annoyed by the small bugs in the Win version that have cost me hours. For example, after batch renaming, the files are no longer found because the file names in the catalogue were not updated. -> Re-import + re-adjust. Delete image wait 10 seconds. Support does not react at all. But that's how it is when a private equity buys in. I'm just glad I'm not a professional user who depends on the application,
0 -
Hi
Good news.
You might have noticed - the new Version 14.0.2 -
As far as I could test, my described problems are solved with this version.I can recommend the update.
0
Post is closed for comments.
Comments
26 comments