CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

LR6 is as good as, if not better, than the other proposed options, particularly if you have to buy a new option. The only real limitation of LR6 is no new lens profiles and RAW for newer cameras needs to be converted to DNG (or 16-bit TIFF from the camera's software). The grass is rarely greener, except when captured with a mirrorless camera ...

dls1 Loc: Massachusetts

Thanks! I will check it out.

dls1 Loc: Massachusetts

Yes, it all adds up and is so expensive. I have been of the impression that one has to ”upgrade” to stay compatible with various applications. Complicated.

vg Loc: Kansas City area

For the price of a Mc Donald’s hamburger, fries and a drink once a month I have the best and latest photo editing software on the planet. Need I say more?
Oh, also free upgrades are included, including AI .

dls1 Loc: Massachusetts

Thanks for the question. It has been a really interesting discussion!

BigDaddy Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

Love how you frame these things. Well done.

radiojohn

http://acpress.com/6free.htm

https://rawtherapee.com/

See if any of these are a fit. Can't beat the price

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

You neglected to say what the best editing software on the planet is. However I suggest that its the best on the planet for you, but perhaps not for others. I'm pretty sure that the software I'm using, DXO PhotoLab Elite, which is the best post processing software on the planet for me, is not what you are referring to.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

You forgot "it's so powerful that a person can't even learn everything that it can do in an entire lifetime!"



Mike

radiojohn

What happens when your rented software improvements outpace your hardware? For example, I still use Adobe Audition 1.5 and 3.0 which now sometimes crash Windows 10. I can't deal with losing 15 minutes of edits or whatever.

I make a good living with these two products and have purchased a couple of older nice laptops for next to nothing so I can keep using them.

The newer versions can only be leased, need more expensive gear and are more aimed at musicians than audio production.

I wonder when photographers will deal with the same challenges?

Collhar Loc: New York City.

I'm putting my $0.02 in.
With renting you do not need a huge chunk of money to keep monthly mortgage payments in line. Nor the expense of real estate taxes the cost of heating and hot water or property maintenance. No concerns about spikes or lows in the RE markets.
Lease or own if your car is damaged insurance pays for the repair. Every three years you have a new car which is always under warranty.
It should never be a you or them thing it should be what makes sense.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

Ok Boomers....

The ferocity of opinions on this topic shouldn't surprise me, but it always does.

Subscribe or purchase a license. Pick the one with the features you'll use most and that do the best job for your kind of photography.

I just don't understand why so many are so virulently opposed to any form of subscription software rather than the software itself. It's not like switching processing software is such a big deal - companies with far more expensive and extensive systems might find it a challenge, but re-indexing little Billy's football games is not going to make anyone's head spin.

Andy

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

Actually, if you primarily shoot raw, edit in your camera's native raw format, and use a full featured raw editor, switching from one software package to another can be a very big deal. Raw edits are saved in proprietary databases and proprietary sidecar files for number of raw converters/processors.

In order to move from one processor to another you either have to be willing to lose all your previous raw edits, or jump through hoops in order to try to save them in a different proprietary format which is not always possible. While some software does make an attempt to ease that burden, most do not do it effectively, or at all.

Some raw software like the Develop persona in Affinity, doesn't even save raw edits so moving to it from one of the top-of-the-line raw editors like Lightroom, Capture One Pro, or DXO Photolab, isn't even possible.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Depends on how much age has ossified my brain.
It's not that I can't learn a new program.
It's not that I have a real preference between a one shot license and a subscription license.

It's that as I age, it takes me longer to switch. I have something that works for me. True, I'm retired, which theoretically means I have plenty of time to spend learning a new system. However, there's a wide gap between theory and practice. Having a wife means I have responsibilities outside postprocessing, and when I get interrupted in the learning process, it means going backward further as my age goes forward. I can't just pick up where I left off any more.

So I went with the subscription software. I use it frequently. There are occasional glitches when an update comes out and something has changed, but those things are fairly minor. Nothing like starting over and learning a whole nother system. It would be like buying a new Dvorak keyboard after using a qwerty for 65 years.

<rant>
Complaints about the cost of the subscription software don't really impress me. $9.99/month + sales tax. If I were in such financial straits that an expenditure of that magnitude would cause me to skip some meals, I probably wouldn't have any photography gear left (and I would be significantly thinner). The gear would have been sold long ago. I probably spend more than that on (what my wife would term "frivolous") impulse purchases in a week.

Complaints about the principle of the thing ("I bought a program 5 years ago and it still works so why do I have to keep paying?") seem to me to miss an important consideration. Your old program probably works because your computer is old. Buying a new computer (or updating the OS) runs the risk of bricking your old program. Not buying a new computer (or not updating your OS) runs the risk of exposing your system to security problems. Computers are no longer a static system. Things change. And the rate of change increases. Keeping up is important.

Also, remember that you did not buy that old program. You bought a license to use that old program and if you actually read the EULA you would have seen that the software company retained all rights, and asserted the right to terminate your license for mis-use. (OK, that rarely happens, but it's the way it is). There is no obligation on their part to keep the program updated and current with OS changes.
</rant>

CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

You are what your tools say you are.