As a hobbyist using CO for 5 years on perpetual licenses I firmly believe a subscription is just an excuse to reduce innovation and trap users. If you can’t come up with some great features for an upgrade that people will buy then why would I pay for a subscription? At least in the end I get to keep using it with a perpetual license but a subscription leaves me with zilch when I quit subscribing.

I upgraded on Black Friday and feel right now quite tricked. Your video brings it right to the point. Btw, this is not the first time that they screwed their customer/partners. About a year ago they stopped all their partnerships with capture one mentors and KZfaqrs. People that created for years amazing content for capture one where just dropped in a single day.

As a hobbyist, I will continue to use CO23 until it breaks. However many years that is. I too did not want to pay each month to Adobe. Don't like the subscription model. Never had, never will.

If you use a perpetual license of Capture One 23 and the functionality of the version suits you, then you can use it for many years and simply not update. No need to pay for Capture One and then it is more profitable than a subscription. Let Capture One look for those who are willing to sit on their expensive subscription. I am sure that they will soon feel a decrease in sales. Usually only financial losses force something to rethink and change approaches. Imho. 😉✌

Totally agree with you., Gavin. I have a perpetual license and C1 22. I did not get C1 23 because of the reasons you stated. I was not really excited by the upgrade. My thought was to wait for C1 24 and see what it had to offer. Now if you have a perpetual license and don't go subscription you're screwed because essentially there will no longer be any perpetual licenses. I like the levels tool in C1 and use it a lot. But Lr CC is what I use as my DAM and initial editing. I just wish Adobe would come out with a Levels tool. Unless there is something in Lr's develop module I am missing. So for me it looks like C1 22 is my last involvement with C1. I will use it until is becomes obsolete butC1 is not geting any of my hard earned money in the future..

I haven't upgraded capture one since version 21. The 22-release added HDR/panorama merging. This was very late to the game, and I have other applications (ON1 Photo Raw is my current preference) that do this. Also, the implementations that Capture one made were very minimal. It wasn't work the update cost of $179, When version 23 came out, it again didn't add anything of value, so I skipped it. Upgrades ended in January and now it is $299. I completely feel abended/punished by Capture one. The only real advantage I had wit Capture One was tethering. I am looking at other options.

I have used C1 21 so far because I owned Fujifilm cameras XT2 and XT3. Because my XT3 was stolen quite recently, I bought the XT5. However, when I tried to upload the raw files to Capture 1 21, the program didn't upload them, just the jpg. Does anyone know if C1 23 is capable of working the heavier XT5 raw files?

Gavin, I am considering moving back to LR. Seems to be an easier workflow when having to composite and blend images when using PS for real estate and automobile shoots. As a fuji user (X-mount), I moved to C1 after initially using LR . I was curious if you have a recommendation of moving files from C1 catalog back to LR? Thank you!

Wow! I had no idea. I just bought a fuji camera and my old stand alone perpetual LR6 can't recognize the raw files. So I've been tinkering with the free Capture One for fuji and actually was about to buy a perpetual license when I saw this video. Now I'm reconsidering the LR subscription service as I am already familiar with the workflow and controls. Fornow it's just the free version of Capture One while I figure out if I want to do subscriptions with Adobe or buy a non-updated Capture One.

is (Smart Shooter 5) from tethered tools a solution for us we bought in capture one for its tethered capabilities????

When I bought my Fuji Xt the salesperson suggested using Capture One. So I got into using it, albeit totally unsuccessfully. I feel disappointed with the complexity of instructions on how to use it and will likely go other places to edit and process my work. So sad. I'm perseverant, though, to a point. Is Adobe LR as complicated to use?

I was also pondering buying a new license over Black Friday, I am glad I didn’t now. If I want a subscription based product I may as well stick with LR.

As a subscriber to full Adobe products, I'm always looking to up my game. When Capture One originally came out for my Hasselblad, it appeared to be an interesting software but just for medium format. Fast forward, I decided to take another look. When I saw that they had gone to subscription, I knew that the jig was up. I don't have a problem with subscription software, as long as the updates are free and frequent but not in your face ripoffs. This has now happened to Portrait Pro as well. Although they are not subscription (yet), they still have these annual upgrades that provide little to no creative updates worth paying for. This was the problem with Windows platforms for decades. They would fall short on a fix for software that THEY created, then charged for an update that should have been free. As a Mac user we never pay for upgrades, just hardware. I know it's expensive but at least they are consistent with fixes. Capture One could learn a thing or two from Apple. Charge a fair premium price, with FREE updates.

As a Hobbyist, I think that the one time payment is a great way to sale a product. If Adobe did a model like that people would buy the one time purchase before spending on a subscription... I would as a designer/photo hobbyist...

I agree with you completely. I bought the version 23 upgrade and I regret it.

I've just bought v23, having been tempted by the discount. I'll wait to see what C1 does to answer the criticisms over the next few months, but I'm actively looking for a replacement (that isn't Adobe :-)).

I was so annoyed. I upgraded before Black Friday 5 weeks prior when they let the 22 ones update for a special intro price. I ended up paying more that Black Friday price for my loyalty. Had upgraded from 20 to 21 to 22 more so to support an alternative to LR. Also, before I complained about that I went ahead and bought all their styles to show my support and after that said look already bought your styles to at Black Friday 50% off but not happy that you charged me more as a loyal customer just 5 weeks ago and now Black Friday is much cheaper. Their response was a terrible “boiler plate” we can’t offer prices to everyone otherwise we’d be discounting all the time for everyone. Oh god… what a way to keep a very loyal customer and someone who doesn’t need upgrades but does it to support you happy. I am annoyed!!!!!

For me it would be okay to buy the perpetual license for $299 and use it for five years without any feature updates. The problem through are the camera and lens profiles. What if my new camera or lens does not have a profile included in my perpetual license? Will there be an option to get those profiles without having to pay another $299?

I've been using C1 for 5+ years.. I just switched from Nikon to Sony and am confused by what I need to do in order to get the Sony license key.. My (Nikon) subscription just renewed this past week ($103) for another year. Do I now need to purchase an annual subscription at $176/yr?!

I took a break form photgraphy for 12 years, now got back into it. (Bought a X-T5 and sone accessories). I'm looking for some good software and capture one was on the list but thanks to their "customer care" and videos like yours I'm out. I don't like subscription models at all. Are there any other alternatives? I'm using darktable at the moment. Thanks the video.

Avid has done a similar thing a few years ago with their perpetual license model but in a different way. I have a perpetual Pro Tools Studio license, which costs €595, and that license comes with a 1 year update and support plan and a free plug-in pack. So during that year I get all the new features and bug fixes, no matter to which version they go. After that year I have the choice, I either renew my update and support plan for one year which costs €209, that's 35% of the perpetual license which is fair in my book. If I don't renew, i still have a 2 months grace period where in can renew for €209. If I want to get updates and support and the plug-in pack after that grace period I will need to buy a reinstatement instead of a renewal which costs €299 which is about 50% of the perpetual license and you can at least skip 2 years and probably even more since the reinstatement is also valid for Pro Tools 12 which was released back in 2015. Now, if Capture One was to come up with a similar way of doing their perpetual license going into the future, I think that would be a better move than to cut off updates to new features each X.X version release. Doing this, the Avid way, on a per year basis with a renewal and past a year with some sort of reinstatement fee would make way more sense and they would be able to sell this license model much better IMHO. That being said, I'm curious as what will be in their statement in February 2023 regarding the loyalty scheme they mentioned. But, it was dumb of them not to include this information in their initial statement because that is the exact info all perpetual license owners are missing and it would have made world of difference if they just had included it. I think this can mean two things. Either they will be gauging user's responses and base a plan of of that to somehow try to salvage as much of this pickle as possible or the loyalty scheme pricing will be ludicrous that they would actually still be forcing everybody towards the subscription model. Only time will tell but I do hope that they turn this around and somehow take the route Avid did, I think would be a good solution to the problem.

You nailed exactly my sentiment. I bought the one-off license for C1 in 2020 after having switched to Fujifilm. I am a hobby photographer and had been using Lightroom 5 for a long time and like it a lot, but was baulking at the Adobe subscription price/model. Even after 2.5 years of C1 I have not warmed up to it and now that they are starting to effectively push their customers also to a subscription model, I might as well return to Lightroom.

Does Lightroom offer anything such as EIP? Just curious! I have been trying to figure it out.

Learning and using Capture One has gone on hold with me (I am not a professional photographer but have CO 23) until the future price/value impacts become clearer. I like the interface especially more than any other program I have used but the price has always been problematic.

Im just curious Is there any open source software to compete

I was already pissed at C1 even before this. Years ago I bought C1 because I didn't like the SAS model Adobe uses. But I kind of got screwed, bought it right before the cutoff for the upgrade to the new version. After that I paid for a couple new versions despite very few features. I also started having some issues. I keep my RAW images on my NAS, I thought the whole point of C1's database was that you could edit your files from your locally stored database. But whenever I open my catalog of 6000+ images it would take 30 minutes to generate the thumbnails every single time (because it was looking at the files on the NAS instead of the ones in the local cache folder) Contacted support who told me to try a couple things (I had told them i'd already tried) then pretty much ignored me. Then I upgraded my camera from a Sony A7III to A7IV and the RAW files wouldn't open. I don't think it's too much to ask to have a modular patch you can apply to previous versions to support a new camera. Especially when I saw people who said if you edit the EXIF data so it thinks its an A7III the files opened with no issues. I didn't really want to go that route. But now they want another $200 for minimal new features just so I can open files from a new camera. I'd already paid hundreds for minimum new features just to stay current. Did the math and it would have been cheaper for me to just go with an Adobe subscription even skipping a year or 2 of upgrades. $200/year for C1 with crappy support, broken features vs $120 a year for Lightroom which also comes with Photoshop, a great mobile version of LR (I think I've heard C1 is releasing an app - iOS only, and making you pay for that separately) and 20GB of cloud storage. Generally I like to support companies that offer perpetual licenses, I have a Davinci Resolve Studio license (even though I probably could make due with the free one) and I have Affinity Photo which is also a great app. They both seem to have really customer friendly licensing terms and are great non SAS options. But I'll happily subscribe to the Adobe photo plan over buying C1, whose 'perpetual' license seem to be in name only to lure people in then price gouge them worse than Adobe.

I primarily use Lightroom and bought Capture One licenses largely because I shoot Fuji XT series cameras and I wanted to have that option for tricky photos. Silly me I purchased the early bird upgrade and now they decide to change game to my detriment. Needless to say, I am done with Capture One.

Thanks for the video... well said. I cannot agree more. I now have huge regret for switching to Capture One 4 years ago.

I bought a perpetual licence for C1 22. Still hacks me off that I have to validate the install every so often as I may not always be working online. I'm not interested in new features but would like to get profiles for new lenses and bodies. Will this be possible with a legacy perpetual licence? If not I'm ditching C1 and writing off the previous losses on the (effectively) useless perpetual licence.

Been with Capture One since 2016 but last year when they announced their new subscription/upgrade model I was like damn it's time to switch. When I've got software like Davinci Resolve Studio where I only pay once and the Affinity products where you only pay for a major upgrade once ever 4 to 5 years the Capture One model just look flat out greedy to me. As a creator there are so many products you have to use depending on, in your workflow and the thought of having to pay a monthly or yearly subscription for all of them is just insane to me.

Very valuable thread. Was a convert from Canon to Fuji, so grabbed the free C1 version. Then bit on the black Friday deal and signed up for the subscription. Here's the thing, I'm newly returning to photography and editing is new ground. I wanted to avoid Adobe for many "historic" reasons, but mainly because I hate subscription models (and I worked in the software industry). So, now, with all the good feedback on this video, the question begs should I pay for a LR/PS monthly subscription and learn the tools that appear to be a standard? Or keep learning C1 and see what they do in February? Side note, I use FastRaw Viewer for culling, which I like. Thanks! Newbie Steve

You are totally right. I have been a Capture One owner way back - and tried again a couple of years ago - for a short time. The product is constantly suffering from bugs and bad solutions and the support is not listening. This software was originally developed by dedicated nerds from Copenhagen, who just wanted to create the best, and I was proud of the results for a while. That's in the past. The current management and development feels and looks as if it is executed by gold diggers from the Tel Aviv office. Copenhagen is just a nice European brand. Respect and dialog has become unimportant for this new Capture One management. 'We know better' is the mantra, while time passes without real improvements, and still - Capture One now need our regular payments. Must be frustrating for the fan boys, but can't come as a surprise considering that Capture One for too long has fooled its customers with 'exciting new features' that are everything but exciting or new.

I am so glad I didn't upgrade during black Friday. I have a C1 22 pro (p.license). I felt Sony didn’t offer much in C1 23. Wow, you can now change the dates (pff). I’ll only update if they do A. I like Lightroom. But with Sony’s new move, I may leave.

Thanks!! Was trying to decide which way to go... just decided!! Lr and Ps it is!!

You are spot on unfortunately. Like many others I just got Capture One, for the reason that I despise the abbonement model that Adobe is running and to support some competition and now I have the same shit here even worse.

Yes, you will need capture one 23 if you just bought a camera body that was just newly released. Maybe Capture one has predicted that there would be a boom in new camera models end of last year and this year....that is why capture one 23's upgrading is so incremental

I’m also worried if I stop paying capture one if they will disable my program somehow so I can’t get into my photos anymore. I do know if you have more than one computer if you upgrade one to the newest version it disables your other ones.

I’m seriously thinking of switching back to Lightroom. Years ago, I told them how screwed up their crop tool was and they basically just told me I was using it wrong. I shouldn’t have to click the hand icon every time I want to straighten or crop an image. To make it take effect. And every time I watermark an image, the move watermark hand tool is always turned off. It should default on. Simple usability items that don’t work are just infuriating.

Very Interesting IM NOT A GREAT TECH PERSON, i used lightroom for developing pictures from my fuji cameras and I used to be annoyed at the worms on the raw files so I got capture one which did give better results, After seeing your video I will have to take a closer look before I pay the 2023 subscription to capture one , Thank you

I have Capture One 21. Not only are there no updates, but it ceased working after I updated my Mac. Capture One won’t support any Mac updates if you don’t but their subscription. So if you pay $300 for their “perpetual” license, you can never update your Mac.

I am disappointed that Capture One is messing around with Perpetual License holders. I switch from Lightroom to CO to move away from Creative Cloud and Subscription and now after supporting Capture One for V20, V21, and V22, I feel very betrayed by Capture One. We'll see what they "loyalty scheme" is in February, but I have doubts that it's anything to be excited about. V23 is a very lacklustre upgrade from V22.

Could you discuss Photolab 7?

I am very very near to junking it myself after a good 10 year plus

It's like the child who asks for his allowance on Monday and by Wednesday their asking again.

i bought captureone 22 pro, no need to upgrade to 23 pro. I don't want to subscribe. But lightroom is really amazing.

As a Sony user I basicly lost my perpetual version of Capture One unless I switch to a new perpetual version that per customer service person R. will not support Sony in RAW conversion. Fuji only seems to be the (new?) strategy. Perpetual is the key word here. What is going on?

Nice move waiting till after C1 23 is released getting in that early adoption revenue, then dropping the blackmail note, I don't feel cheated at all

I bought Capture One perpetual license this Black Friday and it has since been upgraded. I got the upgrade at no additional cost I love Capture One and its layers. Had Lightroom and Photoshop before they went to subscription BTW, Adobe subscription for LR + PS is now $20/month - not $10/month. Maybe your rant was legit for a year ago, but I much prefer Capture One and it's pricing.

Yeah, I'm struggling with this right now. I took a break from photography for a few years (life happens) - a small part of that was my absolute frustration with Adobe subscriptions demanding the ability to leech onto my bank account and hold my work for ransom. I was using an old version of Capture One - and at the time, it was great with raw files, but overall processing - just didn't compare to Lightroom. Still, I had the license, so I made it work and just stuck with my CS6 version of Photoshop since I own it. Fast forward to now. My ancient Apple is dying, and with it, my access to CS6 and my ancient version of Lightroom. No choice left - have to pick one. So Adobe, who I despise for popularizing this "You don't OWN anything and if you can't pay up - screw yourself and your images" Or - $300 bucks for a Capture One license with nothing but the discount on the next huge payout that still doesn't match the subscription price and gets you less. Or - You don't OWN anything, and if you can't pay up - screw yourself and your images. Sounds vaguely familiar. Clearly - they want the Perpetual license gone. They want that predictable monthly cash flow - I get it. But If they're not going to differentiate on price & features, and they're going to make a perpetual license cost more than a subscription - why would anyone give up on Adobe for less of the same at a higher price.

Looking forward to a video about the recent changes. I hated the ones talked about in this video but the one done today is far, far worse.

I think claiming that Capture One is "screwing over" perpetual licence holders is an exaggeration. In the future perpetual license holders will receive significantly fewer bug fixes -- which is a problem since bugs are not exactly a non-issue in C1 -- and updates will likely become more expensive. I reckon given how frequent major releases will be and how underwhelming new features have been for a while now, it will become difficult by demonstrating any "loyalty" that Capture One will reward with discounts. That's not good, but not exactly "screwing over" customers, AFAC. In my view, it is worse that Capture One has seemed to have lost the plot regarding product design. Not only are they not fixing longstanding bugs and are not listening to popular feature requests and are instead introducing extensions they believe will open up new customer markets, they actually made the UI worse a number of times. In one instance, the backlash by users was so intense that they back-pedalled and restored the previous design but the very fact that they implemented the worse version demonstrates that someone at Capture One does not know what they are doing. Sadly, the same mistake (modal dialogue) was repeated for the latest "culling feature". A lot of missed opportunities for Capture One which is a real shame because the software has a number of very nice features and was on a great trajectory around version C1 9. Somewhere around version C1 12, it all went downhill, AFAIC. Some glimpses of good feature additions / fixes since then but mostly changes / additions that either mean nothing for my style of photography or made using C1 worse. Unfortunately, in parallel, upgrade pricing became ridiculously expensive after a number of substantial price hikes to the upgrade prices.

I agree. Phase One's pricing has become so geared towards its professional main market that as a retiree I can no longer entertain upgrades. I skipped on V23 and I continue to enjoy using 22 which with its panorama inclusion meant I could ditch LR. I may well return to LR, especially since your video comments show that the gap has closed. I've been an amateur C1 customer since about 2007.

I've used C1 since Apple killed Aperture. I was forced to upgrade on Black Friday to get Sony A7RV support. My response to being subsequently screwed is twofold. I have abandoned all plans to ever buy any Phase One product. I am transitioning to Affinity. Phase One/Capture One will never see another penny from me. This as a textbook example of corporate idiocy, customer abuse, and greed.

This is the type of review i like. Lets celebrate the good, but work on the negative part. I am currently paying for LR+Photoshop, got the “perpetual license” for Luminar Neo w/ the add-ons subscription… purchased DaVinci Resolve Studio (the perpetual license) and I get every single (full) update from Blackmagic Design. I don’t need a hold back from a software, this is not a physical upgrade. Like i have to get the new iPhone every single year 🙃 I see myself as a hobbyist as well, looking fwd to make it my own income later on. But I can’t keep paying for more subscriptions. I change between LRC and Luminar Neo depending on what I am working on… and i can even use Luminar Neo as a plugging with LRC. The main reason i was about to checkout C1 is the whole tethering awesomeness people talk about. I rather get Cascable for my iPad and that’s it. I get good results for what I do with the softwares i have. You saved me that checkout. Does that mean that i own you a coffee? 😅

I agree completely, Capture One is ripping off its loyal customers! I have been using Capture One since about 2003 and have owned two Phase One digital backs and they have always been a bit of a rip off but this new subscription pricing is just plain greedy. Back in about 2009 I had my then P31 digital back serviced and it cost a whopping 3000 UK pounds! That was more than buying most decent DSLR's back then just for a checkover! Always been a rip off company.

The longer I have been on C1, the harder it is becoming for me to justify it, even though I am on a continued special reduction on $11/m (some Black Friday special). I use Affinity Photo as a PS replacement cause I own the software. I might start looking into Adobe/C1 alternatives. The other day it annoyed me with C1 that I had to re-link my account, it reminded me that if I don't pay C1, I can't use my images. C1 for what it offers, should be about two thirds the price of Adobes' LR & PS subscription.

I'm finding Capture One uses a LOT less system resources than Lr/LrC/Photoshop, and it's a LOT more stable. I've paired it with ON1 Photo Raw 2024

i just got C1 2023. i dont know if i should feel pissed or tricked because im still using LR 5.71. my wife and daughter have the 2 licenses for LR 6 but im trying to get my daughter to give hers back, just to see what's what. i dont like the subscription because in the long run it costs way more and if i dont pay, im out of luck. i guess im stuck using Canon's DPP. i dont like that either

Ah Capture one pulled a Filmora... Well we all know how that ended.....

I am at the cusp of being a professional. In 2021 when I bought the perpetual license it was because of the price, and the perpetual license. If I had an option to upgrade to 22 perpetual 'at a decent price', I would have. But the price just seemed to be prohibitive. Subscription would cost the same for the year. And therefore, I skipped 22 and bought 23 at a discounted price. At that point, 23 was cheaper than what 22 had been. And now the 24 subscription is comparable to the 21 subscription. It is a bit more expensive, but marginally. The only reason I stuck with CO is because I have got used to the workflow and editing. It is a bit like whether you would buy a Toyota or a Honda. None is better than the other, I guess. If the Capture One cost had still been prohibitive, I would have switched to Adobe.

I understand when a company needs new strategies but I don't agree when that harm customers. Current users with perpetual licenses should be able to purchase upgrades and offer just subscription for future users.

I agree with you that the upgrades of a year should be included in the in the first year of one perpetual license. The cost of a raw converter as working photographer is peanuts compared to all the other costs and I can't complain on that, maybe for hobby its a lot with 200-400 per year on software. Do you guys remember in the past what we had to pay for Adobe PS 500-700 usd for just that itteration. The whole Adobe suite for 2500usd. It's a lot easier these days. I think if I was a hobbyist I would get C1 one perpetual license and use it for 2-3 years. Version 23 is very good for years to come pair it with PS or Affinity or some other AI post work suite, What's there to miss, really.

Agree with you completely. I recently bought into the fuji system which I love and moved from Adobe to Capture One. I'll give C1 until Feb to see what they have to offer with their loyalty scheme but I envisage I'll be switching back to Adobe. While C1 undoubtedly handles RAF files better than LR, I don't find the 'worming' issue in Lr to be too bad.

So the only option left is acdsee

Is there any open source that remotely compares?

I run perpetual licensing on c1. I hate adobe’s business model and it’s a terrible company. I work in IT and they’re HORRIBLE to deal with. I just don’t upgrade every year. I’ve had C1 20 Fuji only license for like 3 years and I might upgrade next year. So I’ve paid something like 4-5 dollars a month by the time I upgrade. No big deal. I think my output is worthy of charging for considering what I do with it. Overall decently happy that I’m not giving Adobe any more money at the moment.

You are right I think. Some years ago, I bought the expensive Adobe CS5.5 suite, around 18 months later they announced their subscription only model, which I was (& still am) determined not to sign up to. I continued to use CS5.5 for as long as possible, but a new camera purchase resulted in files not opening in my old CS5.5 version of PS (I subsequent found a work around), and I switched to C1 (perpetual) for the majority of my photo editing (onky going into my old PS to do things I can’t do in C1). The thing that has made me unhappy with C1 has been when more recent newer versions have arrived that as an existing owner/user, I got a discount to upgrade to lates version, but this discount over the years has been watered down so much to the point where special offers for new users have even been cheaper (I think I may even have upgraded that way once, essentially buying a totally new second version). Frankly, it’s an insult to existing loyal customers. There have been odd years where the upgrade has been minimal in terms of new features, or, at least, I’ve not felt I wanted or needed them. When they introduced layers for the first time, that was a biggie for me, and, from memory, when they subsequently added luminosity masks (I think those two were introduced separately), both were no brainers for me to upgrade to. More recently, they introduced panorama stitching, so I upgraded to that….but here’s the thing, when I tried it, my results were poor, I got much better from my old version of PS….granted, maybe I’ve missed a setting or something in the tool, which then failed to make certain corrections to the image, but the results were not good (I should go back and investigate further sometime). So, now I hear that ‘23 doesn’t add anything worth while over ‘22, & from memory, they want £180 from me to upgrade to it, AND now they are screwing folk who prefer perpetual licenses. I can see that they may well lose me as a customer, I’m not going back to Adobe, out of principle, & once I leave C1, I will probably feel the same way about them too, I won’t go back once I feel a company has done the dirty on me. So, maybe now is the time for me to start looking at cheaper (or even free) alternatives to the big two, while I have the time to and am not painted into a corner. The writing feels like it’s on the wall now….

Lightroom classic makes me want to tear my hair out every single time I use it, downloaded c1 trial the other day to test it but it seems like it’s not worth it. Hate that LrC will save to the wrong drive randomly, terrible search features, laggy af, bad ui. Wish Lr would add the calibration panel from LrC cuz then it would be fully featured

I “needed” 23 because I skipped 22 and my 21 was apparently not new enough to be compatible with the r5c raw files EXCEPT if you changed the metadata to read R5 instead of r5c because they’re the same damned files… I thought it was adorable that my special upgrade cost they offered for being a loyal customer was MORE than the brand new price when it went on sale…. still leaving a bad taste in my mouth and it’s the last version of their software I’ll ever buy

The real comparison to me is Affinity Suite which you can also get for about $180 and that is for Mac, Windows and iPad! I wanted to stick with Capture One but Affinity Photo is the more important tool so until they make some MAJOR changes to the licensing and features before the 2024 version I am sadly going to have to leave it behind. It just isn't as important as Affinity.

They are not getting rid of perpetual users but they have been placed near a funnel. I was starting to think the same should I go sub it's cheaper but then the same amount of sub gets me Lightroom and photoshop.

I don’t see myself renting software forever

Why is a perpetual license $25 per month? It’s perpetual, so doesn’t it become cheaper per month as you keep using it, if you don’t feel like upgrading? You said it would continue to receive bug updates. Unless you’re a pro do you need all the latest features?

The greed of Phase One knows no bounds. I used C1 for years, and was fairly satisfied, but now I'm out. I'll never pay them another penny. I know the cost of living in Copenhagen is very high, but their program is not worth $100s of dollars; it's barely worth $50. Wait, I think I've got it: their cameras cost $25,000, so the software to use with them should cost $500-1000. What a deal! I use Luminar Neo, Affinity Photo, Photomatix Pro, and Graphic Converter - all great products for the price!

Although it all sounds overly complicated to me, C1 have said nothing about getting rid of perpetual licenses (at least not for now), and they have said that for those who want to continue with perpetual licenses there will be no increase in costs over the current perpetual license cost. The "annual" new versions will be dropped so no more year based naming system, and they will revert back to version numbers (currently release 16). Throughout the life of a version, perpetual license holders will get bug fixes but no new features added, Subscribers will get bug fixes and new features. When the next version is released (release 17) perpetual license holders will be able to update to release 17, and get all the new features that were added during the life of V16. If you have perpetual license bought before February 2023 (V23/release 16) you will get all the new features until end of September 2023. These new versions won't be tied to an annual cycle. Currently if you miss two version upgrades you will need to pay the full price again, but with this new scheme it looks as if missing a single upgrade will force you into paying full price again. I am guessing the announced "loyalty" programme, will be some sort of lower cost option if you agree to upgrade at every release. Unfortunately, its even more complicated than the above and it looks as if, while displeasing many, they are actually "trying" to please everyone. They have a support page about the licensing which is being regularly updated, and for those concerned it's worth checking out. support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/7998068628637?page=9#comments

I don't get those fanboys enjoying getting screwed. But can't win over unreasonable ppl anyway. I have to use LR and CO together, so I appreciate all this info for me to make right decisions for my business.

As a CaptureOne 22 user I agree that 23 has no features I want EXCEPT support for the Sony A7RV. They won't even update camera support on older versions so I basically would have to pay $199 just to be able to view/edit files for my new camera.

Not a little bit of a problem. They have turned off a large part of their customer base.

The price now for me is $420 less 20% and its a joke. B+H had it for half the price until C1 called B+H to up the price. The perp plan is a way to get people frustrated and hope they go sub. You are right Adobe is cheaper and includes PS. For a C1 perp user this discount is a joke with real no innovation. C1 has really pissed of its users. So I now plan to continue using C1 16.2 while I trial other software and decide what to do. However as a perp user I always upgraded C1 for many years. C1 is punishing its perp users. Then other thing is if you go sub you lose your perp license! Sub users are flying first class but at a high price while the rest of us are in cargo being jerked around and punished. IMO in time they will kill the perp license.

Kinda explains why they can offer a 50% discount for black friday. Non-updating otp is almost as bad as subscription based services

They are now deprecating all versions of express. I'll pack my things and move softwares

5:55 What do you mean the perpetual license is $300 a year? The definition of perpetual is that it doesnt end. It says it's a one time payment.

Wow, a lot of melodrama in this video (sorry, but you asked us what we think). I find the word "punished" more than a tad extreme. Though they've done something cheeky here, here's the hot tip: they still have a "buy and it's yours" version -- Adobe don't. Adobe screwed us so much more harder with their move to a rental model years ago. C1's model isn't perfect, but still way better than Adobe. I will *never* pay to rent software.. I refuse to. I bought something at a version, it's mine. If a company cannot fund/run themselves on that model, they need a rethink. So what if their bundle comes with PS? In my 30+ years of shooting, I've never needed it. My firm belief is that if you as a photographer need LR *and* PS, you're shooting wrong. This strong opinion comes from the days of film, where this was a hard and fast rule -- get your shots as right as possible, in-camera. LR on your phone? 🤣 Having been a long-time user of LR, coming to C1 the last few years has been amazing. I find it superior. This is of course personal opinion, but it's mixed in a little with experience back to a time when your "Photoshopping" was done under an enlarger, your hands stank of developer and fixer, and you had to learn to love red light. You also usually only had 24 or 36 goes at it, and each go cost real money.

I contacted Capture One for clarity on the loyalty programme. After I checked out the link they sent back, this was the rest of the convo: Me: Thanks. So, if I'm reading this correctly, and Capture One want to release features multiple times a year, rather than one big annual release, my upgrade will cost £179 every single time - if I want to stay up-to-date - So, say £719 per year if you do 4 feature updates? Am I understanding this correctly? Capture One: Yes, if you own a perpetual license, each feature release will require to buy a new one.

So both companies treat their customers like crap

\🌚/ it's called 'Old Wine In New Bags'.

user since C1 v7 Express whiuch introduced me to the program, To say I'm pissed is an understatement. I'm seriously considering an Intel based MAC so that I can use my legacy copies of LR6/PS6 even though I have maxed out MAC Mini M1, iPad Pro and Macbook AIR M1 just because of C1's screwing it's dedicated users as well as Adobe's Ransomware ...C1 can FOAD as far as I'm concerned...

Talked me out of buying C1. The subscription model does not suit my usage.

It’s one of the most poorly conceived and poorly communicated ideas in product history.

Anyone interested in a class action fraud suit? Please let me know if you need a joiner to the suit.

I have 22 and i can't use r6 mk2 on it. i'd pay for that camera support only like dunno...maximum 50 euro, I really don't care about anything else ( I never use tethering) my version is what I need. i have to buy another license to just use a new body, it is ridiculous........and extremely expensive. I'll resort to unofficial version so I can have the new camera supported, sorry.

"and introducing changes to the way licensing works." They kind of just slipped that in at the end, sneaky like. Hope no one notices.

Glad i read this. I won't do subscriptions. But capture one has gone too far. I am using open source rawtherapee 5.9 but it has problems with canon cr3 file meta data. And it doesn't seem to have bugs fixed very often. Is darktable the way to go? I have no idea. Anyway i won't be wasting money on capture one. Thanks for the video.

I am a old C1 20 user and was thinking of upgrading to C1 23. But after I read that the news in C1 23 is not worth a upgrade. Then I'm a Sony A7R III user. After this video there will be no C1 23 but I will go back to LH, Why : A) Price 200$ for a upgrade from C1 - 20 to C1 - 23 crazy .... Specially if i won't be able to get new features and fix/bug for less then a year - No thanks Capture ONE We customers are not idiot's like you think Capture One.

I watch your videos and wonder how much Adobe pay you?

I am big sad. Wish I just went with adobe..

That's very lame, I was all set to jump on the C1 train. I can't support companies that do stuff like this, I don't really want to buy a Lightroom subscription either despite actually enjoying the software.

The frame rate from your video not that smooth whenever you keep moving

Guys it’s not a difficult concept: if you want to buy it once and use it forever you buy a perpetual license. You don’t get any updates (like when we used to buy software on CD) If you’re going to upgrade every year then you subscribe to the monthly model. That’s not punishment, that’s just what a perpetual license is.

I use to love Capture One, but there is sos many new photo editors with really good AI, you may not have full control of your editing, but AI makes it easier and way!!!! cheaper.