NIK: DxO has announced that they’re acquiring the Nik Collection assets from Google

[nardes]

It looks like Nik Software has a new owner...

https://www.diyphotography.net/dxo-a...plans-develop/

Cheers

Dennis

[Gazza]

Hope this happens. I quite enjoy using there easy-to-use filters.

I was one of the many that actually paid for it. Looks like I'll have to pay for the new version(2018) all over again?..."Such is life"
(Have submitted my email addy for updates)

[Geoff79]

Haha, we are to rejoice that something free will probably have a price tag on it in 2018? Not for this cheapface.

That said, this is a very new acquisition to me and, as with CS6, I’m happy with it as it is now and a paid upgrade wouldn’t interest me.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[arthurking83]

Haha, we are to rejoice that something free will probably have a price tag on it in 2018? Not for this cheapface.

That said, this is a very new acquisition to me and, as with CS6, I’m happy with it as it is now and a paid upgrade wouldn’t interest me.

So you wouln't be interested in it if were developed further into the future?
Can't agree with the sentiment that something free(now) will have a price on it in the future .. as the 'now' product is a dead end(ie. no further development), whereas the '2018' product may be bettered in some way(ie. further developed).
Development costs something .. so there's every reason that the product will have to cost something.

rejoice that they still offer it for free, and that you can still use it as is.

It should be noted too that when Google purchased Nik(because they're too stupid to develop their own easy to use software too mind you!) .. they also continued to sell it at a ridiculous price.
At least they had the good grace to stop selling it once they stopped future development of thee product.

I once tried DXO's software(among some others) as a trial a while back and didn't like it at all .. but now that they've integrated the Nik U-Point tool into their new software(called Photo Lab) .. I may try it again.
That U-point tool(known as Color Control Point in Nikons' Capture NX2) is my preferred way to edit my images.

They want US$100 for the essential edition and US$150 for the pro version .. not too bad(other than the pathetic exchange rate at the moment)

[Geoff79]

So you wouln't be interested in it if were developed further into the future?
Can't agree with the sentiment that something free(now) will have a price on it in the future .. as the 'now' product is a dead end(ie. no further development), whereas the '2018' product may be bettered in some way(ie. further developed).
Development costs something .. so there's every reason that the product will have to cost something.

rejoice that they still offer it for free, and that you can still use it as is.

For me, personally? No mate, I wouldn’t be interested. I have no doubt that PS CC is probably far superior to CS6. And I’m 100% sure any future developments of this software will be better.

But I’m a very simple man with very basic post processing skills and no real need to spend money on stuff that I can get a good equivalent for free.

I never have, nor do I ever expect to sell a photo (as much as I, and definitely my wife, lol, would love to) and I will certainly never make money out of photography. It’s just a hobby I’m quite passionate about, and for what I do in PP, free stuff is more than adequate for my requirements.

So all this said, good luck to the new versions of this. I can’t begrudge people from hoping to make money from a good product... hell, if it was mine I’d be charging for it, lol.

Just saying that I will personally not be part of the paid future versions.


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[jim]

Just upgraded to DXO Photolab Elite for $US 69, partly on the strength of this. Has the potential to render Photoshop largely irrelevant for me.

[arthurking83]

... It’s just a hobby I’m quite passionate about, and for what I do in PP, free stuff is more than adequate for my requirements....

Yep .. I'm hearing 'ya, that's for sure.
We seem to be travelling up the same creek ... it's just that my canoe didn't come with paddles(long Nikon related saga!).

I'm loathe to pay for stuff I don't really need either, and have been burned with paying for supposedly high quality software too(i.e. Lr4 back then) .. and it was a POS back then .. and having trialled v5 found the same thing.
I didn't reinstall it on my new PC, and resigned myself to the fact that LR4 was $100 down the drain.

I've tried a few $100+ softwares, just that none were as good for my (lazy @$$ed) PP style.
I liked Capture One tho .. just that I found it hard to edit without that U-Point processing style.
I was one of the very few that stuck with Nikon's CaptureNX2 with it's U-point process workflow .. why I'm interested in this DXO Photo Lab software too now.

I have no problem paying for stuff, even if it is only hobby related expenses. Gear hass cost me much more than software over the years, and Ii use the software more so than the total cost of the peripherals I've bought for my camera(ie. lenses/tripods/flashes/etc).
So software is something I always use .. and hence paying for it has never been a point of contention for me.. my only criteria is that if I do pay for it, then it's should work better than the other software I have/had(why LR was such a disappointment).

The only issue with sticking with old non supported software(ie. CS6 in your situation and CNX2 in mine) is future possibilities for editing.
With CS6 you'd really need to convert to a format that's workable, and new model raw files aren't compatible in CS6 via ACR now. So you need an intermediary format .... basically it gets messy and bloated.
And the DNG converter is not a real option .. Adobe made sure they buggered that option as best as they could!
For users of CNX2, which is Nikons' raw file editor in the CS6 realm is a dead end, and basically the same situation as CS6 .. new model cameras are not supported.
Could use tiff format conversion, but back to the messy/bloated workflow as above with CS6.(ie. not a real option, other than it is an option as a worse case scenario).

The basic crux of the reply is that at some point in the future, our old redundant software(your CS6 and my CNX2) will have to be 'let go' and replaced with something else. This is not going to be an option, it will be a fact.
Of course we have time, no way to know at what point in the future that those software will just not load onto whatever OS we'll be using in the future .. but a situation like that is inevitable.

This is why I'm always on the lookout for software that may do something well, even if it has to cost a little bit.

[Ross M]

I received an email because I signed a petition to keep Nik development going. The email had the following link to DXO's press release:


https://nikcollection.dxo.com/wp-con...se-English.pdf

- - - Updated - - -

So you wouln't be interested in it if were developed further into the future?
Can't agree with the sentiment that something free(now) will have a price on it in the future .. as the 'now' product is a dead end(ie. no further development), whereas the '2018' product may be bettered in some way(ie. further developed).
Development costs something .. so there's every reason that the product will have to cost something.

rejoice that they still offer it for free, and that you can still use it as is.

It should be noted too that when Google purchased Nik(because they're too stupid to develop their own easy to use software too mind you!) .. they also continued to sell it at a ridiculous price.
At least they had the good grace to stop selling it once they stopped future development of thee product.

I once tried DXO's software(among some others) as a trial a while back and didn't like it at all .. but now that they've integrated the Nik U-Point tool into their new software(called Photo Lab) .. I may try it again.
That U-point tool(known as Color Control Point in Nikons' Capture NX2) is my preferred way to edit my images.

They want US$100 for the essential edition and US$150 for the pro version .. not too bad(other than the pathetic exchange rate at the moment)

Yes, I miss the days of US aussie dollar parity. I get excited when I see good photo software advertised and then realise the price is in US dollars and I have to factor in the exchange rate.

[Wayno]

This is great news. I too bought the complete NIK Software back in the day.
I do use its noise reduction (hope DXO develops this further), and some pre sharpening. But the Silver Efex part of the package is fantastic with plenty of options and variations to convert my images into black and whites.
I've signed up for DXO emails, so will keep an eye out for an updated one. Will certainly look to purchase any updates as the NIK Software hasn't been updated for ages....

[Tannin]

I've used two or three of the Nik programs since back in the day when I paid for the package - Viveza, Color FX, and sometimes Silver FX. I've never taken the time to learn the sharpening or noise reduction modules (I still use Neat Image). But with the writing on the wall, not so long ago I switched to the TK Actions Panel and (at vast expense) Topaz. I haven't been using those two for long enough to say too much about them other than that they seem very promising. Just the same, given the amount I just spent on them - a lot considering that I PP as little as possible - I can't imagine spending even more. Besides, I don't like the notion of giving money to DxO. (It would probably only encourage them.)

[arthurking83]

I ended up buying the Elite version of DxO's Photolab, as it has noise reduction and something else that I'll probably never use.
It seems to work quite well at limiting chroma noise, from the two or three images I've tested it on.
Only thing I haven't yet found is if you can selectively use NR on an image, rather than a wholesale global application of it.

But DxO have or are integrating those Nik things into Photolab .. or something to that effect.
(not really into 'plugins' per se .. so I'm not too sure what and how they all work in relation to the base software).