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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@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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Does seem rather like that, Mike. It only makes one believe that this is a real issue and there is a report on here somewhere where a user experienced just that problem. I guess they will not admit it because:
a) they don't know how to fix it
b) nobody will risk using the software if it has such a critical bug.
c) and/or Andy is right
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Thanks for the update Alex. I have to say this is long overdue, but it's appreciated. Can you confirm that the critical issues you refer to were identified from feedback on the limited release of the 3.0.2 update? 3.0.2 has done absolutely nothing to solve my issues (15+ minute load times, general slow performance and instability on the Mac). I don't mind you taking more time, but you need to get this right to restore confidence.
I also suggest you make sure that everyone at Skylum is on the same page. Earlier today Maryna responded to a thread on this community stating that the delayed release would happen this week. Now you're saying next week? This is a great example of why trust and credibility in your company and product is being eroded.
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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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So, are you saying that people in the early-rollout markets will actually get 2 updates? I ask this because I "cheated" with my VPN and got the 3.02 update from Canada a couple of days ago. FWIW, on my Macbook Pro the update went smoothly. 3.02 found my existing catalog (images on Drobo) and updated very quickly. Thumb generation and scrolling seems much faster. I haven't had a chance to do any heavy edits with it yet. But, so far, good job! I assume I should update again next week.
Lloyd
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Alex Tsepko / Maryna Skylum,
Australia and Canada were the fortunate(?) early recipients of Luminar 3.0.2, which continues to exhibit many of the issues raised in Luminar 3 Windows community message boards.
When Luminar 3 is fixed again and released to the rest of the world next week (presumably no later than Friday 22 Feb 2019), will it be version 3.0.3?
In another L3 Windows post, Skylum spokesperson Dmytro B. said Luminar 3.0.2 will be released next week! So what version will Australia and Canada, who already have buggy Luminar 3.0.2, receive?
// Confused in Canada
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Nicely said Kim. I’ve been on the Luminar journey since the start and have witnessed countless failures by Skylum to deliver what they promise. In 2016 they promised a Lightroom alternative and in 2019 we’re not even close. Many of us have given Skylum hundreds of dollars over the years and not yet seen the product they promised. Sorry Christopher we have earned the right to hold Skylum accountable, or as you would call it “moaning”.
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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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George, very respectfully, but things have changed so substantially from the way software was developed 30 years ago as to be unrecognizable. I know, because I have been along for the ride during that time too. The nature of object-oriented and crowd-sourced software designed to run on platforms of which the software designer has no control or knowledge has made s/w development just so different as to defy comparisons. Even with all the new QA tools now available, from automated to AI-based testing, the fact remains that both the software components and the architecture on which they are expected to run vary more widely than most people can imagine. A bug-proof release is a thing of the past I'm afraid, because of the almost infinite number of possible dependencies. I worked in classified environments, where 9-month, multiple-cycle, 3d-party testing and certification were mandated, and it still didn't take care of all possible issues. Honestly, what software manufacturer out there, in any business, delivers bug-free software in anyone's memory? Not even Apple, and they have a major advantage over everyone else as they control both the hardware and OS stack. I think Skylum is to be commended for being proactive about these issues, and for keeping the customer informed, especially for a product that is offered at a substantially lower price point than the competition. I find Luminar 3.1 to be quite stable, and very powerful. I certainly feel I got a hell of a deal on this software. I am very happy to give them time and patience to develop as stable a release as they can. Again, I am only offering my opinion for what it's worth, and I have nothing but respect for your own experience in IT.
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I'd like to say I've really enjoyed reading this discussion. I don't pretend to know a damned thing as it relates to software engineering, but I will say that I've used a lot of photo editing software in my time.
I just updated to the latest version, and the process was smooth and painless. Luminar is running faster, now supports my camera, and all is good in my world. It's pretty obvious that consumers and developers alike are struggling with the vast array of (often personally created... I built my own pc) differing systems out there. Luckily for myself, while the software certainly has had some issues, it mostly runs pretty well for me, and my computer at this point is nothing close to what anyone who knows might call 'high end'. Luminar 3 has really never crashed for me (though some serious patience has been employed in a few instances... where another may have said 'Well that crashed' and rebooted, I simply said 'Well I'll go get another cup of coffee and see what happens here in a minute...').
For me, overall, I've enjoyed the experience of using Luminar and it feels so much more organic to me than Lightroom (which I used for years) or Capture One (which was used for a year or so when I first became a Fuji user and LR was obliterating the raw files). It has, as hyperbolic as this may sound, helped me enjoy shooting again, plainly because I am as excited to edit as I am to shoot, and that's important to me. Would/could I use Luminar if I were still shooting weddings/as a professional? I'm not sure. With the way it is running now I think that I probably could. But I also have stopped throwing thousands of files at a time at my editing software so who knows.
But for someone who shoots because they love to shoot, and edits because they love to edit, for themselves, I can say that Luminar is easily my choice for editing software. They have done what few others have been capable of doing in my opinion, and that is make post processing truly enjoyable. It goes without saying that YMMV here, my opinion is my own and based on only my experience.
In closing, thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread... I've really enjoyed reading the conversation, and I think there have been so many great points made on all sides. I hope the update works well for all and helps to alleviate at least some of the problems mentioned here. And thanks to the Skylum staff who have contributed. I appreciate their time and efforts.
Cheers.
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The recent update 3.0.2 on Mac was quite disappointing as it rendered Luminar 3 unusable because it hung every time it started. The support answer was a full reinstall including losing the catalog and all photo edits. This has greatly shaken my confidence in the product. Thankfully, I didn't have any critical work in Luminar. I've been a Lightroom user for many years and gone through all the updated without ever losing my catalog and photo edits. Since you seem to be gunning to become the LR replacement you really can't afford a misstep like this again.
I like the product but I'll be very cautious for some time now before committing to using it full time.
Wishing you well in the future updates.
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@Christopher Barkey
Being new to Luminar, I don't think you are aware of the years of this happening. People have been very patient. I was one of the "fortunate" people in Australia to receive the infamous update (3.0.2) and the software has become less usable since. I've gone back to 2018. -
@Christopher Barkey. Depends who you talk to. We have stuck with Skylum as many of us were MacPhun customers years before they decided to release to Windows. "Moaning customers unfortunately don't help! " is a little condescending, when you're new, and don't know the background. I'm hopeful they get it right as well, otherwise like so many others, I would have asked for a refund.
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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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@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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