Lightroom v6.7 perpetual - where to go from here (don’t want subscription Adobe CC)

[rob_w]

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So far so good with ON1 RAW 2020.  I am easing into it nicely.  Some things are different but no major disappointments so far.  If it holds up over the next month or two I will start on the big migration.

In some ways there is no hurry.  Catalina has such poor press I have no appetite to update MacOS for the time being.

[SrMi]

The only mandatory 'cloud' aspect of Creative Cloud is to have an internet connection so that your subscription can be verified (every 30 day at least?). You pay $10 monthly for Lightroom and Photoshop, updated regularly to the latest features and support for latest OS. The most popular alternative is Capture One, where you also pay regularly for updates, if you want/need to.

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[Alberti]

On 12/16/2019 at 4:03 AM, Exodies said:

I keep banging on about this but never mind. Adobe can’t just leave it well enough alone. Perpetually working software is an illusion. The hardware breaks, the os changes. Software needs constant tinkering to keep it running. Nobody will do that for free.

But LR still works on Catalina (as long as it was installed, it is 64bits, only the installer is 32). So that did not cost them any effort. They did a marvelous job. No continual tinkering, not more than 1 FTE I guess.

But look at the following business plan: 500.000 LR classic users upgrade their perpetual license every 4 years, @ 60 each, well you can afford quite a staff for that for a few months when the software is basically there. That will up the P/E even more. Come on stockholders, demand that Adobe moves . . .    But wait a moment     that will cannibalise on the real free money of the subscriptions.

[pegelli]

On 12/12/2019 at 9:41 AM, menos I M6 said:

Please discuss 😉 I am curious what you guys are doing who were / are in the same situation.

I'm still on perpetual version (6.14 on Windows). It does everything I need and still supports all the cameras I have. I've been with LR since the Beta test versions, so alo a long history with the tool

Even when I get an "unsupported" camera in the future I can get the latest and free DNG converter. My old LR perpetual licence will still open these newer camera DNG files. Just one extra step in the workflow. I know I'm foregoing some improvements in later Lightroom CC classic versions but so be it.

For me it's not so much the ongoing subscription money (that's not significantly different from buying perpetual upgrades in the past), it's the "end play" when you stop the subscription that bothers me. When you stop the subscription the develop module gets disabled so basically you're stuck with the library and rudimentary library develop tools. However you can still import new files into the library. What I think would be a much more sensible "end play" is keep the develop module active (so you can still work on all the files you took/imported during the subscription) but disable the import module so no new files can be added after stopping the subscription. In case that would happen I would be seriously considering the subscription, but until then it's a no go zone for me.

I also use C1 (version 10), but only for development of certain shots, Lightroom is my workhorse raw developer as well as it contains all the digital images in its database that I have ever made (film scans and digital captures)

Edited February 2, 2020 by pegelli

[Exodies]

6 hours ago, pegelli said:

<snip>
For me it's not so much the ongoing subscription money (that's not significantly different from buying perpetual upgrades in the past), it's the "end play" when you stop the subscription that bothers me. When you stop the subscription the develop module gets disabled so basically you're stuck with the library and rudimentary library develop tools. However you can still import new files into the library. What I think would be a much more sensible "end play" is keep the develop module active (so you can still work on all the files you took/imported during the subscription) but disable the import module so no new files can be added after stopping the subscription. In case that would happen I would be seriously considering the subscription, but until then it's a no go zone for me.
<snip>

Your end play wouldn’t be the end at all. You could carry on using LR with new photographs just by renaming them as ones already in the catalogue.

[pegelli]

51 minutes ago, Exodies said:

Your end play wouldn’t be the end at all. You could carry on using LR with new photographs just by renaming them as ones already in the catalogue.

I'm sure Adobe is smart enough and build something in to prevent this, and secondly even in the unlikely case it would work it's not an attractive hack since it totally messes up the database of existing images.

But it's all dreaming anyway, I don't see Adobe changing their strategy for the "end play" anyway.