Upgrading perpetual license - do I have to do it every year?
Dear all.
If I buy C1-21 now, do I have to buy an upgrade to every version or can I skip some to still be eligible for eg C1-24?
Thanks.
paul
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Whether you could skip as far ahead as Capture One 24 and still get an upgrade price, I don't know. Nevertheless, it is likely that if you bought version 21, then waited until getting 24 and had to pay full price you would spend less over time than if you subscribed for all that time. But you would miss out on whatever new features appeared over those three years.
I have always upgraded each year, so I have no first-hand experience of what happens if you skip a year. But I suspect that some other users who have done that will be able to add to the discussion. It's worth noting that there is generally a new version in November or December each year (if previous patterns are followed) so if that is still the case, we are just over half way through the life-cycle of version 21 at the moment. You might consider subscribing by the month until the next new version appears and then deciding whether to continue subscribing, or do an outright purchase at that point. (I mention that because I know that some users have felt unhappy that if they bought some while after a new version came out they didn't get a whole year's worth out of it. Not entirely true of course - you can continue to use it for as long as you have a computer that will run it, if you do outright purchase.)
Ian
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> NAMELESS: can I skip some to still be eligible for eg C1-24?
I will likely be able to answer at the end of 2023 when I expect the C1 v24 release, I skipped v21 and may skip v22 and v23...
If new C1 features do not justify an upgrade, a new(er) camera may require it.
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New version releases for existing licensees come at a reduced price (historically).
Nominally that is about 50% of the cost of a new license. So one might expect to pay more or less the full price if one updates on a 2 year cycle rather than an annual cycle. In other words, it does not make much difference over time in the medium term.
If you can wait several years (and releases) without any disadvantage to yourself and your photo editing experience, you might save a few units of currency. Perhaps enough to buy a couple of meals in a restaurant each year. Or perhaps a set of inks for a printer.
A 3 year or 4 year wait between versions could offer that benefit for the third and fourth year.
However, it does allow a user to control budgets a little or perhaps even decide not to up update for a while providing the hardware suppliers - both computer and camera - do not introduce their own limitations about what is supported when they release new versions of OS's (in the case of computers) or, in the case of camera manufacturers, "must have" new bodies or lenses that will only be supported well by new RAW conversion tool development.
That said I would question whether, across the entire Computer-based data processing and data storage industry, it is possible to take make a reasonably accurate prediction of how the economics of licenses or subscriptions will work in 3 or 4 years from now.
All of the major influencers in the market - Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. - seem to be intent on moving users to a rental (i.e. "Subscription") payment model while reducing the amount of "service" being offered either free or included in current price structures.
So it seems to be quite a challenge to plan long term and have a good chance of managing a "budget" against a renewal cost with any degree of accuracy.
There is always something to throw the plan off course. For example, when I decided it was time to update to a new notebook, the old one being 9 years of age and running an unsupported operating system, it had not occurred to me that the new OS version would not support my printer. But it doesn't.
Now, given that the inks for the printer are becoming more difficult to find (especially at discounted prices), it is probably time to change but the cost of doing so (to something the equivalent of what I have) is more than the cost of a C1 perpetual licence renewal. By the time I have added a set of inks (discarding the spare inks I already have for the current printer) it would end up at about 2 or 3 times the cost of the C1 version upgrade.
All for no real benefit to me.
It makes the C1 update costs, taken in isolation, look quite reasonable although from a personal perspective some years the changes available may have more perceived value than in other years. For example V21 is clearly an "Apple" year in terms of the greatest benefits being made available. So I could have deferred my Computer upgrade without affecting my ability to run C1. I didn't, mainly because there were other, non-C1 related considerations to take into account. But had I not found what I considered to be a good price for a specification that had some appeal to me, I would have waited.
I take the same position on software updates as well, unless forced to make a change for some sort of compatibility reason.
That, of course, is one of the concerns one could have about subscriptions. (Rental)
At some point a product may change to require new hardware (or an OS update on older hardware) as was the case with V21. If it is not convenient or not possible to update hardware or OS for any reason, one still has to pay the subscription to have continued rights to run the software but without the update.
This is not just a C1 issue. It applies to any subscription models whether for applications, services or storage.
When on-line storage and "software as a service via the internet" becomes the normal method of interacting with IT people may no longer expect to have full control over their own data and applications. At that point this discussion will come to an and.
If 90% of the market already uses Adobe (and presumably its subscription model) we may already be very close to the point of acceptance.
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One additional observation.
If one has a perpetual license but, for some reason needs more recently available functionality for a short time, one can always take out a monthly subscription.
Great!
But be aware that the terms of doing that using an existing account seem to mean that the Perpetual License is terminated.
All that I have read so far seem to suggest that there is no way to re-activate a terminated license.
Presumably the use of a separate account for any subscription activity would mean that the Perpetual License remains active.
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Wow, I was certainly not expecting so many thorough answers. Thanks!
OK, my bad, we cannot predict the future. But how is the current situation - is it possible to upgrade from versions older than 20? While the new client prices are public, the upgrade costs are hidden.
I'm contemplating jumping ship from Lightroom 6.14 as my new Fujifilm camera is not supported there with film simulations (while i'm doing everything I can to stick to fujis jpegs and not do any raw editing as a time saving measure - i.e. lightroom could still be a feasible option). I'm hopeful of a speedier experience compared to lightroom too but I've yet to verify that. C1 is currently 40% off as well.
Could you comment on this one:
"Capture One Pro (single-user)
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The license key for Capture One 21 - 2 activations"
Does that mean that I can activate the perpetual license 2 times in lifetime or are those concurrent installations?
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Does that mean that I can activate the perpetual license 2 times in lifetime or are those concurrent installations?
It means two concurrent installations. So for example if you have it installed on computer A and computer B, you could de-activate it from A and install and activate it on computer C instead.
Ian
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