Luminar as my main choice
Answered
It started with a purchase of Tonality and then Creative Kit. I used these a lot and I was pretty impressed, so when Luminar arrived I saw a chance to leave Lightroom and instead have a software that I own forever. Then came Luminar 18, Luminar 3, Luminar 4.... and suddenly I realised that there won't be proper updates.
There is no roadmap for developing a serious software for advanced amateurs and professional photographers. What I see is simply a new app coming out, a few minor upgrades and then I'm asked to pay upfront for a a new software that is far from released.
This seems to be the future for Skylum and I finally took the decision to jump off the ship and continue with Adobe. They are at least serious in there ambition to make the best photography software in the world. Considering what I need to pay Skylum to stay as their customer and get all the "new" software (that really should have been upgrades, partly free), the price difference is minor.
Thanks for the time. I feel so sorry that a company with the potential I thought it had would end up with souch a rotten business model and I'm obviously not alone to have these thoughts.
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Hi Peter and John,
Please note that we create the new software to offer innovative possibilities. Our team was updating the existing applications, but recently we have been focusing intensively on developing the new product so our users could achieve even better results. The strategy doesn't imply leaving a client - our representatives are always glad to propose favorable options for customers and help with heterogeneous issues.
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User to user: I totally agree with you.
I could even stay and pay for new skylum products, agreeing with their business model, but not having backwards compatibility, means that every 2 years i need to through away my favored presets and my edited pictures. 2 years of work and pleasure starts from the beginning every 2 years...its awful. -
Hi Peter,
Thanks for being our long-term customer.
Please note that we offer perpetual licenses, that is, the versions you've purchased can be used for however much time you want.
However, we do ship new products/versions every 12-24 months. These versions are optional for purchase, but they offer new features, new workflows, new benefits. The version you currently own remains functional.
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Hi Elena,
I totally agree with you, but unfortunately there is almost no bug fixes in this software, no backporting fixes. So, we can stay with buggy software "forever" or buy a new one hoping that you fixed old bug without adding new ones. I think if your software would keep backwards campatibility you could keep most of the users. Backwards compatibility for plugins, presets, catalog e.t.c -
Hi Lenny Verkhovsky,
We completely understand your point. Indeed, lately, we've been too preoccupied with Luminar Neo as the release is right around the corner, so we haven't been releasing any updates for our other applications. Right now, all our resources go to Luminar Neo, but I'd like to assure you that our developers are doing their best to get the updates for our other apps to you as soon as it will be possible for them to do.
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Hi, Elena,
I wish you were right.... -
Peter, I started with Creative Kit. I still use Intensity for fun. I tend to use Luminar 3 because it works well. I use Luminar 4 when I have a need. I found that if I waited long enough, Skylum ironed out the bugs in its software. I switched to Creative Kit because Photoshop Elements 13 was a dog's dinner at the time. I felt disappointed by Adobe.
I use Apple Photos to store my photos. It was apparent early on that Luminar's DAM was always be lacking but it does offer something different to Adobe.
I've tried Adobe Photoshop Elements and Lightroom several times and neither suit my need; Skylum/Apple Photos do. One point in favour of Skylum is that it is a relatively small business which is leading the way. Another is that in the current business environment, road maps are an outdated concept. I prefer businesses who look to the future and seize opportunities when they arise.
Entirely agree with the points you made though! Today I can ride the bucking Skylum horse.
Best wishes.
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Dear Ivan,
I can appreciate your strategy to offer innovative possibilities to your customers, but so does adobe, DxO and many other companies. The difference is though that while adobe and DxO are doing it with backward compatibility and relatively easy transition between the versions, you are offering new concepts that are, to be fair, quite innovative, but cause too much problems since it brings us back to square one.
For me personally it means that my enthusiasm I had when I first learned that there will be a Luminar with a DAM that easily could compete with Lightroom, has now been transferred to a disappointment and a feeling that your apps are good as a Photoshop / Lightroom plugin, but not as my main choice editors.
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Elena,
The point I really want to make is that I, and certainly thousands of other customers, once believed that you had a serious roadmap for Luminar. If you did, there wouldn't be any Luminar AI or Luminar Neo. Instead there would have been upgrades on Luminar 4, which of course could be a paid ones. Now we know that there won't be any further upgrades on Luminar 4, which is clearly stated in the link that Lenny provided above and there won't be a Luminar 5.
We (your once loyal customers) are left with a dying software, on which we have spent a considerable time on building catalogues, making presets etc. Same thing will most probably happen to Luminar AI end Neo, when you'll decide within a year or so to launch a new app. It's simply not OK and hence my deep disappointment.
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