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I've been using Lightroom for post processing my scanned 35mm and MF B&W images. But Lightroom is starting to look like a dead end with Adobe migrating everything to the Creative Cloud, a business model I'd rather avoid. Aperture was a viable alternative but it's going away and I'm not optimistic about its replacement. My wife uses Capture One for her Fuji X images and loves it. I'm sure I could get used to C1 but it doesn't work with greyscale images and MF RGB scans in particular are enormous. Not a whole lot of good choices from my perspective. Any thoughts?

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Lightroom is not a dead end, it is the product that Adobe have committed to developing and maintaining as a stand alone programme! It is CS6 that is no longer being developed (other than new cameras being added in ACR) and where any updates only appear on CC.

 

Steve

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You are free to do as you wish, but I am tired of the continued rants against Adobe all over the web. I needed to update my Microsoft Office Suite when I upgraded my computer. I am now on a subscription model. That's the way of the world. $120 or so dollars a year is not too much to spend for a quality piece of software that I use daily.

 

One of the gripes about Aperture was that there were no new features. It costs money to improve products. I am more than happy to fund the work necessary to create Focus Mask or improve content-aware fill, which are just two of the new features in Photoshop.

 

It is time that people recognize that companies are entitled to make a profit. You want to use a five-year old piece of software: That's your right, but Adobe has the right to change its licensing model. They have been more than fair to photographers about it.

 

I might add, because I bought a medium format digital back, I have been "forced" to use CaptureOne for certain tasks. It is garbage software. There are those who seem to like its profiles better. They may be right, but the mechanics and layout are terrible. I suspect that in large part is due to the fact that CaptureOne does not have anywhere near the installed base than Adobe has, which means the development team is much smaller.

Edited by sanyasi
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Tom Hogarty, who is the Lightroom Product Manager has explicitly stated that LR will continue as a stand-alone product. Now corporates change their minds, but really I wouldn't try to get out guess which way this will go. It's just as possible that whatever you chose to replace LR will be discontinued/move to the cloud or whatever as it is that LR will cease to be available stand alone.

 

Sandy

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You are free to do as you wish, but I am tired of the continued rants against Adobe all over the web. I needed to update my Microsoft Office Suite when I upgraded my computer. I am now on a subscription model. That's the way of the world. $120 or so dollars a year is not too much to spend for a quality piece of software that I use daily.

 

One of the gripes about Aperture was that there were no new features. It costs money to improve products. I am more than happy to fund the work necessary to create Focus Mask or improve content-aware fill, which are just two of the new features in Photoshop.

 

It is time that people recognize that companies are entitled to make a profit. You want to use a five-year old piece of software: That's your right, but Adobe has the right to change its licensing model. They have been more than fair to photographers about it.

 

I might add, because I bought a medium format digital back, I have been "forced" to use CaptureOne for certain tasks. It is garbage software. There are those who seem to like its profiles better. They may be right, but the mechanics and layout are terrible. I suspect that in large part is due to the fact that CaptureOne does not have anywhere near the installed base than Adobe has, which means the development team is much smaller.

I agree completely except for your opinion that Capture One is Garbage. The one thing it excels in is is RAW development and I often go there just for that.

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But Lightroom is starting to look like a dead end with Adobe migrating everything to the Creative Cloud, a business model I'd rather avoid.

 

I would take another look at the Creative Cloud package. As I understand it, the program lives on your own computer and you do not have to be online all the time to use it. It checks the net only periodically.

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

.

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I would take another look at the Creative Cloud package. As I understand it, the program lives on your own computer and you do not have to be online all the time to use it. It checks the net only periodically.

 

Someone will correct me if I am wrong.

.

 

As I understand it via CC Lightroom doesn't last forever, it is on your PC, but if you don't pay up monthly it goes bye bye. On the other hand you can still buy a downloadable Lightroom that lasts forever and takes any upgrades Adobe do for it, even if at cost for major version changes, just like the old regime.

 

Steve

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Creative Cloud is on your computer. You download it. Every time you start the program, it checks a registration server. On my machine, if for some reason the Internet is down, it says something to the effect, "was unable to connect to the registration server. The program will work for 30 days without connecting to the registration server, but then you are out of luck." I am leaving for Europe tomorrow, so I logged on with my laptop, so that I would set the time limit anew, so that if I can't get Internet (highly unlikely), I can still use Photoshop CC while gone. This is not a big deal.

 

I have moved away from LR, but when the whole subscription service was instituted, Adobe announced that LR would still be a freestanding program that could be purchased rather than rented. It also comes with your CC Photography subscription.

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I am encouraged by the comments about LR continuing as a non-subscription application. I hope the Photos replacement for Aperture is enough of a competitor to hold them to that promise. I like working with LR.

... ... ... ... ... ... It is time that people recognize that companies are entitled to make a profit. You want to use a five-year old piece of software: That's your right, but Adobe has the right to change its licensing model. They have been more than fair to photographers about it. ... ... ... ... ... ...

I have no quarrel with Adobe or anyone else selling their software for whatever they can get. They owe that to their stockholders. When I own the software I can evaluate offered upgrades on a case by case basis, and look at competitive products, and if I decide to switch to another product I can continue running the existing software as long as I like for free until I complete the transition. I recently did this with a music application that I kept running without upgrades for almost five years.

 

What I don't like is Adobe's CC business model where they rent the software. If I rent the software they can charge me whatever they want when the annual contract runs out and I'm stuck paying it until I find an alternative and complete the transition. I have my scans archived, and I have the negatives, but having to migrate all of the editing and the keywords would be a huge issue.

 

I hope everyone here is right and LR continues as non subscription software. I also think it's smart to at least think about alternatives.

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It's worth mentioning that even with CS and stand-alone LR, you are not purchasing the software "forever", at least not any more than CC. What you are paying for is a perpetual license, which Adibe reserves the right to revoke any time they choose to do so. It's unlikely that Adobe would revoke a perpetual license, but they legally can.

The distinction between owning software and purchasing a perpetual license is subtle, but I think it's significant.

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