Cost of Lightroom

Cost of Lightroom

I am on OSX 10.11 (El Capitan) on a iMac from early 2009 using LR 5.6. I cannot upgrade the OS any more as new versions do not support my Mac.
Primary use is for cataloguing photos - 180K of images and videos from the past 18 years.
I have used LR for ten years since version 2 and paid for each upgrade.
I would like to use like to use the cloud integrated LR for sharing and viewing and cross-platform editing.
Nice, but not necessary for my quality of life.
The Mac will (finally) be replaced in Sept when new Apple hardware is announced.

What I don’t like about subscription is that you’re tied into the absolute OS and hardware requirements of the software provider. There is no way that I could buy LR cloud version in 2019 and continue to use it on the same Mac until 2029.
Adobe will want improved hardware every 3-4 years to support the cloud versions. Not to take advantage of features in the hardware or OS but because of code bloat and inefficiencies that grow over time. Easier for them to force the 20pc of customers that are hardware laggards to upgrade to new computer than to pay for better developer teams and dev managers.

I upgraded to LR5 in early 2014 for $90USD.
That is a darn good deal for 5 years of software I use for a few hours every week.

There is a huge leap from $20/year to $120/year (plus new hardware every 5 years) that I am not yet ready to swallow.
However, LR is unparalleled for cataloguing...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Chriscrawfordphoto said:
Nope. Its a vital tool for my work, and honestly it is silly for people with thousands of dollars, sometimes tens of thousands of dollars, worth of camera gear to balk at the cost of software.


I have tried nearly everything out there. Affinity, On1, Luminar, Capture One. NONE came close to giving the image quality that Lightroom does, except for Luminar. Luminar is great, but very unintuitive to use. Its user interface is overly complex and it is SLOW compared to Lightroom. rob


What's wrong with the image quality on the others? Poor detail resolution and noise reduction/sharpening. Especially at high ISO speeds.


To me, my images are everything. I'm not compromising to save a few dollars.
Click to expand...

I m an amateur but photography is important to me. I fully agree with Chris.
robert
 
Capture One has the best color and it isn't really close to be honest. There is a reason why high end commercial photographers use it and not Lightroom. Lightroom is meant to be cataloging software, not really an imaging processing program. It kind of evolved into that. Amateurs on the internet don't really get this though.

If you want free there are a few options. I keep mentioning this, but no one seems to be paying attention- Hasselblad's Phocus is free. You just have to sign up with your email. If it works for you, then you are golden.

Raw Therapee has been the best software for converting camera scans that I have found. Pretty complicated though.

It is too bad that Apple gave up on Aperture. If you liked Aperture, IIRC the guy in charge of it started his own company called Gentlemen Coders. You can buy their program on the App store and it plugs in to Photos. I haven't tried it yet, one of these days. I think it is only thirty dollars or so.

Don't forget about the software camera companies give out too. I've used DPP from Canon at different times in the past and it works well.
 
For my needs, the standalone Lightroom 4 on my computer is fine along with the standalone Photoshop CS6 when I need it for doing things with layers and LUTs. They work with the cameras I currently own. I also use Capture One for the Fuji I have.

The reason professional photographers use Capture One I think is more for the fact that it works tethered to high end medium format digital cameras. I agree that the colors are better as well, but I think it's the tethering that is the killer feature for professional studio photographers.

The problem is that there is no point where a software maker thinks the software is done. They are always adding features and improvements sometimes to the point of diminishing returns. For example Word 5.1 did everything a word processor needed to do but that was probably 10 versions ago.

I don't have problems with a subscription model per se for things where new content is being created (newspapers etc) that have ongoing operating costs. But for a piece of software that already does what I want it to do, I think of it more as an appliance like a toaster. I'd like to own it and be done with it.
 
Your $300 purchase of Capture doesn't stop working if you don't upgrade or give Capture One more money, so it differs in that essential way.

Adobe no longer sells it's software stand alone.
 
nightfly said:
Your $300 purchase of Capture doesn't stop working if you don't upgrade or give Capture One more money, so it differs in that essential way. Adobe no longer sells it's software stand alone.
Click to expand...
Of course you do have to upgrade ($175) if you buy a new camera, which is something to think about. But that might not be applicable to you. Always trade-offs.
 
Only if the camera in question uses an incompatible image format natively.

My Ricoh GR II is much newer than my version of Lightroom and it works fine. I think the native format of the GR is DNG so it plays nice with even old versions of lightroom.
 
I just pay Adobe monthly to keep their software up to date. (Their software, not mine. And I'm totally fine with not owning software which has yet to offer a single problem for me, but many solutions.) It's an inexpensive software solution considering how many of their products I use on a regular basis.

If it ever becomes a problem I'll deal with it. But so far it's been gravy.
 
maigo said:
What I don’t like about subscription is that you’re tied into the absolute OS and hardware requirements of the software provider. There is no way that I could buy LR cloud version in 2019 and continue to use it on the same Mac until 2029.
Click to expand...

Just don't upgrade CC apps when new versions come and you'll be running the same version in 2029.
 
Cost of Lightroom

brbo said:
Just don't upgrade CC apps when new versions come and you'll be running the same version in 2029.
Click to expand...



However you don’t know when it’s going to stop working until it doesn’t work anymore (due to OS or hardware dependancies) or Adobe cripples features because you haven’t renewed your subscription.



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maigo said:
However you don’t know when it’s going to stop working until it doesn’t work anymore (due to OS or hardware dependancies) or Adobe cripples features because you haven’t renewed your subscription.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...


Actually, the software detects when your system will not work for an update and won't install updates that are incompatible. I'm using a 2008 Mac Pro and Lightroom stopped updating last year, but Photoshop's updates so far are still compatible with my ancient Mac.
 
Peter Wijninga said:
Am I the only RFF user balking at the subscription cost of Lightroom? USD 156/year! I am looking at alternatives...
Click to expand...

Before the dawn of the Adobe subscription, I was paying from $180-$195 every 18 months to update to the latest/greatest edition of Photoshop, so I've been paying the equivalent of $10-$11 a month for a long, LONG time to use Photoshop/Lightroom prior to this current model.

With all the money I spend any one year on lenses/other equipment, eating out, etc, $11 a month is not even a drop in the bucket and huge waste of energy complaining about. In the end and after trying all sorts of software, it's what I like using the best and if that's the case....well, case closed. You might as well be sending a complaint to Bernie Sanders, hoping he'll add this to the list of everything we should all get "for free", LOL...
 
maigo said:
However you don’t know when it’s going to stop working until it doesn’t work anymore (due to OS or hardware dependancies) or Adobe cripples features because you haven’t renewed your subscription.
Click to expand...

Well, you know exactly when it will stop working - the moment you cancel your subscription. Otherwise it will work just like on day one. The CC software doesn't live in the cloud, it's installed locally on your computer like any other non-subscription software. If you don't download new version (which you don't have to), you will use the same code 10 years later...
 
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