Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

Here is more info: https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/news/dxo-releases-nik-collection-2018-and-dxo-photolab-12?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=23405&utm_term=6619375&utm_content=401054

cameraf4 Loc: Delaware

True that, Jerry. With DxO trying to come out of bankruptcy, and offering a great product like NIK, I sure want to see them around for a while. They say that folks who buy now will get lower-end updates for free in the future. Hopefully that will attract some buyers. I think certainly anyone who uses LR, PS, or Element should want to buy it. Just hoping that things work out well for DxO.

daldds Loc: NYC

I, too, will buy for the same reason, to help a company's profit margin when that company makes a product I like.
In regards to the opinions expressed on this topic, here's my thinking:
We have two types of members on this forum, hobbyists, and non-hobbyists. Those of us who can deduct the $49 on our tax forms have a legitimate complaint. It reduces our business's profit margin. (See my first sentence.)
For the rest of us, the money comes out of discretionary funds where we make choices on how to amuse ourselves. Why do we have a car with a GPS if our phones already have one? It's less effort.
Most of us have had NIK for years. Whatever we paid, we got our money's worth. Name something, anything, that lasts forever and works as well as the newer model. Everything becomes obsolete in some way or other.
Is there an improvement in the plug-in I like? I don't really care. Is there a company that supports the program? You betcha. Discretionary funds.
This whole topic falls under the category of "1st World Problems."

anotherview Loc: California

More or less my position for now. I will take a wait-and-see stance. I do not want to become a Beta tester.

DxO should offer a trial version allowing users to see how the upgraded program functions while not affecting the previous version of the Google Nik Collection.

So if unpleased by the DxO version, users could revert to the previous version.

Plus, a question or two arises: (1) Will the DxO version disable or delete or render inoperative the Google Nik Collection?

(2) Will the Google Nik Collection remain as a functioning suite of programs indefinitely since DxO now owns it?

This longtime user of the Google Nik Collection at this moment sees no rationale for switching to the DxO upgrade version besides putting dollars in the pocket of DxO.

Rab-Eye Loc: Indiana

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

anotherview Loc: California

Ditto:

anotherview Loc: California

Yes: "Additionally, and addressed in another thread, there is no list of improvements or changes DXO has made to the plugin to justify charging for it."

This user awaits an objective technical review of the DxO upgrade for the Google Nik Collection looking at its image-editing improvements, if any.

Right now, we see sell-jobs, shill-talk, marketing text, and personal opinions regarding the DxO release of the former Google Nik Collection.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Please let us know what the changes are and if they are any good.

Thanks

Vince68 Loc: Wappingers Falls, NY

Scott, here is what Brucej67 replied to me in another post on the subject, and my reply to him. There may be issues with the old NIK working with newer versions of PS. I don't think $50 for the new NIK is too much, but again, if in my case, I don't use it much, is it worth it to me to purchase it. Reading other users comments in this post do indicate however that others use it quite a bit and find it valuable. So whether $50 is too much or a fair price to pay really depends on how much each person uses it and how negatively it would affect their workflow when processing.

Brucej67 wrote:
I stated this in other threads this morning:
I run Photoshop 2018 on an iMac and when Apple did the latest update (also could be Adobe for their Mac version) Nik stopped working correctly. DXO's version of the Nik collection fixed the problem. I don't see what is wrong with a company picking up orphaned software and supporting it and $50 is not that much to pay for (hopefully) software that will be maintained, I wished someone had done that for Capture NX-2. The only hesitation is DXO has financial issues and there was talk a while ago about them going belly up.

That's the other issue Bruce... when Adobe updates PS software, when running NIK as a plugin, will there be any issues or problems with NIK then. You are correct, $50 for the DXO updated version of NIK is not too much to pay for updated software, and for it to function without any problems. My agreement with the other users was specifically based on how much they said they use NIK and my own actual usage of it. When I look at how often I have actually used NIK since I have had the free version, its probably less than 1% of the time that I have spent processing photos. Honestly, if the old version stopped working correctly for me and I didn't use it at all anymore, I probably wouldn't miss it at all. But thats just based on my usage of NIK in my workflow, others may incorporate it and use it a whole lot more in their processing and workflow.

ronichas Loc: Long Island

NIK Collection of 7 apps was originally the product of Nik Software. The great innovation was the use of U-point technology to selectively edit parts of the photo. NIK worked within LR and PS. A lot of us loved this plug-in for Photoshop and Lightroom.

Nik Software was acquired by Google in Sept 2012 - no new work was done on these programs. Reports emerged of problems using NIK with the newest versions of Adobe or with the new Mac or PC operating systems.

DxO acquired the Nik Collection in Oct 2017 and for the last 6 months has been working on the source code of the program.

Rewriting code to fix bugs and other stability issues that caused significant problems for some with newest versions of Adobe software. With the new version released yesterday by DxO - there are no new features yet, but it should now work properly with latest versions of PS and LR and the latest Mac and PC operating systems. Purchase price is now “reduced” at $49.

Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

Years ago I loved Nik then Google bought them and over time I stopped using them as they were point solutions rather than a full connected suite. I paid full price for them and was pretty put out when Nik reduced the price then Google gave them away. Now that Dxo owns them I was curious to see what they would do (especially with all the news about how much financial trouble the company is in). Then they release it with NO enhancements, just updated so they worked with the current versions of PhotoShop, LightRoom and PSE. I thought of paying the $50 but saw no value in it. I loved the u point feature but have moved on. My thoughts are if you are still using them and have current adobe products it’s a no brainer but if not it’s a no brainer to move on to On1 Raw , Affinity, Luminar or whatever is your favorite.

Dennis833 Loc: Australia

Basically it looks like DXO have upgraded the Nik software to run on the latest computer operating systems. I don't have a problem with them charging a small amount for this but I do have a concern that the company is going to go bankrupt.

anotherview Loc: California

If DxO went bankrupt, then its assets could go up for sale. We may presume a buyer of the Nix software would continue its existence as a proven software used by photographers.

Note that not every bankruptcy means a company goes out of business. Some bankruptcies allow a going concern to continue doing business while working with creditors.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I have upgraded to the DXO version in part because I own all the other DXO software and expect the DXO NIK Collection version to be eventually fully integrated into DXO PhotoLab Elite. I also have Elements 15. I first uninstalled my previous free version of the NIK Collection before installing the DXO version. Once installed it worked just fine with Elements 15. Of course that's no guaranty it will work without issues with Elements 14.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

DXO is offering a 30 day free trial of the full package. You can always first uninstall the earlier version yourself first and then reinstall it if you decide not to keep DXO's version.