Perpetual and subscription
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Robert Aeberhard:
Maybe it's their plan to focus on fashion & studio photographers
Are there any signs that this is going to get even worse than it already is?
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Are there any signs that this is going to get even worse than it already is?
It's the only area in which Capture One is clearly superior to Lightroom, in my opinion. These users are also less price sensitive. Thus it could make sense to stay (or get niche), high priced and focus on that crowd.
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It's possible, though right away I would imagine that they would prefer to keep as many customers as possible. We'll see.
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I would imagine that they would prefer to keep as many customers as possible.
But then I don't understand their pricing, nor the push to subscription.
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Their subscription model costs 75euro extra/year compared to Adobe, so that's not such a big deal. I switched to Adobe last month (I already had this subscription for PS), but I can't get my fingers right ;) with LrC/PS, so I decided to keep on working for the time being with C1 23 until it ends on 30 sept this year and evaluate the situation.
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I assume what they've come up with is based on a calculation of all the factors involved, including the number of customers they're losing as a consequence of the obvious push towards subscription.
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Speculation.... C1 focusses on faster workflow, saving time = saving money as you definitely know
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Their subscription model costs 75euro extra/year compared to Adobe, so that's not such a big deal.
But that's without Capture One for iPad. And you still don't get Photoshop, nor storage.
I switched to Adobe last month (I already had this subscription for PS), but I can't get my fingers right ;)
It's quite a bit of a learning curve, both ways. I really like CO. It's just a shame that they try to squeeze customers that way.
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For me, I don't use cloud storage and iPad so that's not a matter of concern, and when my Adobe subscription ends in June I wil try Affinity photo2 as a pixel editor
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Of course it matters what your needs are. I could just imagine a lot of users coming from Lightroom might either go back or move on.
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Initially my biggest fear was that I shouldn't be able to access my photo's after the subscription ended (like Adobe does) and that I had to convert all selected and processed images to Tiff or Psd, but that's luckily not the case
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How does that differ from Adobe? As far as I know, in Lightroom you can still access your images but the development module is disabled.
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You cannot access your images in C1 after subscription ended, unless you'd buy a perpetual license (for a discount, as recently announced,or for free after 5 years of subscription).
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Exactly
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Over seven weeks ago I purchased a perpetual license. I never received a license key and five weeks ago my trial expired. I have reached out to customer service at least 10 times with no response. Two weeks ago I finally got a wholly inadequate response from JACK WILLIAMS on this forum. I immediately responded but have yet to hear back anything.
I believe the customer service for this product is so bad (e.g. they don't give a flying fuck about you as a customer) that any benefits that may come from the product itself is far outweighed by the shitty attitude of the company and its "staff."
I've had to resort to filing a fraud complaint with Visa.
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@...
Yes, that's my understanding from what I've read in the forums,
A quick search reveals:
After a deactivation date, you lose access to the software itself. You can get back to your workflow only if you obtain a new license (perpetual, subscription or a free trial).
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Really sad they don’t consider hobbyist’s that use C1 for casual holidays, occational streetphotos, family events etc. does really not plan to spend the monthly fee which will be required if any newer cameras is considered.
I have been a loyal customer since v6, and was actually considering purchasing v23 until I realized that they don’t even support Ricoh GrIIIx
I really hove you consider that not all your customers are professionnals, some of us just know and love the product but it’s not worth the cost if we cannot skip the occational upgrade!
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Except the fact that its not really a perpetual license if you don’t buy the all upgrades!
Meaning you cannot skip any versions, if you skip two versions and wan’t to upgrde you have to purchase both!
That to me is really the reason I’m jumping ship on C1
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Yes, after two years of not upgrading and not paying them a high price for mostly uninspiring new features you're treated as a new customer because you did not prove loyalty, shame on you!
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Since version 8 Pro I have upgraded once in a while, sometimes it was really worth the money, sometimes just because it was not such pricey (in the past it wasn't) and I wanted to stay up to date, and also because I wanted to support a competitor of Adobe. And support a company with a decent perpetual license model.
I sang the song of C1 because I was convinced it is a great and in some ways better product, and a good company.
But since a couple of years the company made a few bad moves, imo, they significantly increased the price, they introduced camera brand specific versions to about the same price as the pro version before (more or less, if I remember right), probably to not offend at least those people who have one of those camera brands only, and then they removed the brand specific versions so that we are left with the pro version only, and now they are targetting (negatively affecting) the perpetual license buyers which is about half of their existing customers, still.
That's not what I would call client-centric. And it smells like a plan. And in a declining photography market (which I believe we're in) you need to value your customers. My sympathy's gone.
And the software progression of their core software is slow. Ok, Apple silicon probably took a lot of ressources away, and their additional offerings too (which I have no interest in), but fact is that the core product is a slow-mover. And it is not because there is a lack of feature requests.
They could have invested more in development rather than in marketing and strategy and they would have been better off in the past, and would be, in the upcoming years.
I don't blame the company's employees though.
I will not subscribe. Will I update in the future? Not sure anymore, but certainly with a much slower pace. And I am already and will be looking to alternatives more than previously.
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