New Luminar update is coming soon
Next week, we plan to launch a new Luminar update.
We had initially planned to release it on February 12, but our team discovered some critical issues last week and was fixing them over the weekend.
As of today, we’ve fixed three out of the four issues we discovered. But we’ve decided to take a few extra days to fix the remaining problem and double-check everything. So there’s a slight delay with the update, but we aim to deliver it to you by the end of next week.
I wanted to send you this personal note and apologize for the delay.
The new version of Luminar brings many essential performance improvements. Our team is working hard to deliver a quality result, and I believe you won’t be disappointed.
When the new version ships, we’ll send a separate email and share the news via Skylum social channels.
We have more Luminar, Aurora HDR, and Photolemur updates scheduled for spring. So make sure you follow Skylum on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.
I wish you a fantastic day.
As always, reach out to us if you have any questions.
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@Leila, you have not answered the question. I am not talking about making a backup, I am asking about restoring a previously taken backup to a disc other than that from which it was originally taken (restoring to a different hard drive after a failure). Will L3 continue to work with the catalogue?
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@christopher barkey You say, that you are developer. Then you should know, that you will not release a new program until you are shure, that all errors and bugs have been resolved as far as possible. I think, that many users have the impression, that Skylum released an unfinished software and therefore the users feel like guinea pigs...
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@Ralf Wangemann
Well, theory and practice unfortunately look totally different in reality. A company can develop, test and publish software with a clear conscience and then the disaster comes and for many it doesn't work. The systems of the users are SO different, something certainly goes wrong. Apparently the product is still relatively new on Windows systems. Sure, this can be tough for for devs as there is missing experience, so Skylum can definitely be accused of having sold the product as a final. Maybe they should have thought about an early access phase, but I am not sure with that as the software isn't in THAT bad shape.
I can see both sides. Devs and Users. As I get over-protective when there are many against few it can happen that I'm a little blinded and enthusiastic and jump into the breach for the developers. :P
I am sure both, Users and Devs, want the software to great. -
I agree with you there Colin, that was also something that was crossing my mind. I'm not a developer, but I am aware that Apple has very strict developer rules, and there are basic standards in place for programming. Hardware is all known, unlike a Windows machine that can vary wildly, they use specific parts in a given machine, and they only vary according to known limits of 'build to order' options.
This is actually some of the least stable software I have ever come across (in 35 years of using computers).
However, I would also like to make it clear that I am with others in this thread, in that I have enjoyed MacPhun, and now Skylum software for many years, I like what Luminar can do with regards to editing. My criticisms are meant as feedback, as I really want them to be successful and produce better products that we can use, enjoy, and that stands up well with their competitors
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Great points @Colin and @Andrew. I think most of us on these threads want Skylum to succeed and deliver us a good product. It just gets really difficult when we are continually let down by them. MacPhun was always dependable but they lost their way when they changed their name, focussed too much on AI and stretched themselves too much by trying to support two platforms. As a Mac user, seeing a company that was always great at delivering solid innovative products struggle like this is hard to watch.
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@Anastasia - you are still not answering the question. I know I can restore from a backup but what happens if I restore to a different hard drive. The scenario is my hard drive breaks and I have to replace it. This I do and then I restore my backup to the new hard drive, which of course will have a different identifier to the old. Will L3 be able to access that catalogue and work as expected with no loss of data whatsoever?
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@Andy, I agree entirely. But I really, really do question Skylum's ethics when they are still actively promoting a highly buggy product. That suggests marketing will always take precedence over quality and that is probably directly connected to the company not having some form of structured finance behinds it (I seem to recall them boasting about this - something about boot strapping!).
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@Colin, their marketing tactics are also one of my doubts about them as a company too.
Not just the fact they are promoting a product that's not really working well at the moment, but other factors too. Such as the way they bang on about you only paying once, but 'enjoy' forever. Yet the next year they change the product version number and charge again for it, or even cease development altogether, as they did with the Creative Kit products.
I don't have an objection to the buy a product - get a few bug 'updates' for free - pay for an 'upgrade' to the next full version cycle. But that's not what they imply when you buy a product, I'm expecting to buy Aurora, or Luminar, and not have to pay again for as long as I want to use that product - calling it Aurora 2019, or Luminar 2018 and adding a few new features isn't really playing by the rules IMHO. It's certainly not helping with my trust and respect for Skylum.
As I say, it not *what* they're doing here that bothers me, it *how* they're doing it.
When I look at everything in the cold light of day, the Adobe CC subscription plan for Lightroom Classic, Lightroom CC, Photoshop CC, BeHance and Portfolio (and a few other things too) is actually pretty good value. And at least you *know* that you'll be paying for the software and services, and why, and how much, and for stable products that get updated regularly and have reliable continuity since they were released from v1.0, with no promises of features or products that they haven't delivered on (as far as I can remember).
Even if we do get a working DAM eventually, I'm not actually sure I can trust Skylum anymore, how long will it work properly, how long will they continue developing Luminar before abandoning it, or changing to a 'new' different product.
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@Andrew. Good points. I’ve never agreed with the buy once enjoy it forever rationale either. ON1 do it too. Technically it’s true, but it assumes that the version you have remains compatible as operating systems evolve. Then the marketing team go into overdrive to tempt you to upgrade with new features. It would be interesting to know the the percentage of user base that upgrade to the latest and greatest (or latest and most problematic in the case of Luminar!)
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@Andrew @Andy, I gave up trusting Skylum when they became Skylum really. Buy once and use for ever is misleading and then we get all the buy for $40 worth $150 sort of thing, complete with freebies that are no more than free trials (SmugMug for instance). When did their stuff ever sell at those higher prices?
It all stems from the "we hate the Adobe subscription camp" and as you say Andrew the Adobe subscription offers excellent value for money. People just do not understand it, do not want to understand it or really believe you can get something for nothing (remember CK I say). There is all this stuff about losing your data should you leave the Adobe plan. Well when you leave you know what will happen and it can be easily managed. Cannot see that security of data has been or is a Skylum prerequisite.
I have been on Lr since V1 and I cannot see me leaving it behind and trusting Skylum with my data. Luminar is a plugin and that is all it will ever be. Have to admit that I played with ON1 2019.2 yesterday and was impressed. It is miles ahead of Luminar in just about everything but that is also subscription by stealth irrespective of how they sell it - the upgrades, ON Plus etc. At least Adobe is honest about the subscription and gives shed loads of quality free training that does not it seems rely on Ambassadors or Associates, which is certainly a huge failing that Skylum have. -
I don’t have a problem with Adobe’s subscription model, or any other payment model come to think of it. As long as I’m getting value for money and a product that works. I haven’t ruled out returning to Adobe, but want to try something different. That different for me was either Luminar 3 or ON1 (having also tried Capture One and DxO). ON1 is without a doubt the best option of the two, it comprehensively out performs Luminar in almost every way. Considering Photo RAW and Luminar were released around the same time in 2016, where we stand now shows what ON1 are doing right and Skylum are doing wrong.
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@Colin. As soon as I got wind that the Luminar DAM was going to be nothing more than a fancy looking browser late last year and ON1 released a solid first iteration of Photo RAW 2019, my mind was made up. Luminar was never going to be anything more than an occasional editor for more creative edits. In my frustration with Skylum, I started to reacquaint myself with Topaz, having loved their plug-ins for Lr. I have to say their Studio product is very good - fast, stable and excellent use of AI - i.e pretty much everything that Luminar is not. The way ON1 have set up their DAM makes it super easy to hop over to Topaz, then export the file back. So for me it looks less and less likely I will ever use Luminar again if Skylums current trajectory continues.
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Will there be the option of just having a standalone photo editor? I bought Luminar 2018 for exactly that purpose and I use it everyday as such. I don't want the DAM. Luminar 3 has been a complete joke so far. Please tell me that if you're not going to support/update Luminar 2018, that you will give the option of not having to use the DAM features of Luminar 3?
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Never really got as far as using Luminar 3 Anna. You give up after 5 hours of waiting for it to load! I've been using Luminar 2018 since then, but I do have something that I will share with you that may be of use to your developers.
On Friday I installed a new SSD drive for my PC (I upgraded nothing else). Even Luminar 2018 had it's limitations, normally it would only let me edit around 5 to 6 RAW files before crashing. Since the install of my new SSD... that has not happened. I managed to edit 32 RAW files in a row without it crashing. Luminar and Win 10 are both installed on the SSD if that helps.
I will not be touching Luminar 3 until I hear it's working okay, in any event I will not be using the DAM features, but thanks for the tip.
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I have been a software developer my whole career. I completely understand how issues can prop up at the last second, in spite of all the imaginable testing. Luminar is an innovative product in many ways, and it is being marketed at a very accessible price point considering the feature set. The Luminar 3 version was a substantial improvement and offered many new features that truly enhanced the product. I find the internet tends to make it look like everything is negative, because people who are happy don't have as much reason to post. Pulling back an update, even at the last minute, is absolutely the right thing to do for Skylum to protect their customers. And since the bugs were discovered essentially after the very initial part of the release cycle, they now need time to be taken to understand all the ramifications and come up with solutions, because this is something that needs to be done only once. I have been part of such issues, I guarantee everyone that they want nothing more than to release the update. I much prefer waiting to make sure the update when it comes is essentially bug free, than to have to deal with a less stable release than I had before. So please take your time Skylum, and thanks for your hard work.
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We always release our software in a rolling wave - soft launch. We also posted more information about it in our new post here: https://community.skylum.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360041569911
However, in this particular case, we decided to put the worldwide update release on pause, in order to deliver a quality product to all our customers.
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