DxO PhotoLab and DxO OpticsPro before that came in two editions. The words “Essential” and "Elite are just words…and Essential Ed. is essentially an Elite Ed. less a few features that one might deem important or not. The free trial is always in Elite mode, and if you then buy the Essential edition, you’ll get frustrated.
We can check differences by reading the manual…or having a look at the comparison provided near the lower end of this page:
FilmPack has been sold as Essential and Elite editions too, but with FP7, DxO has stopped the stripped down Essential edition. We might see this with PhotoLab too, but only time will tell for sure.
I just stumbled across this in the fine print on the PL7 web page…
Practical information
You can activate your DxO PhotoLab software on 2 computers (Mac and/or PC) with the ESSENTIAL edition, and on 3 computers with the ELITE edition. An internet connection is required to use the Software and specifically for its activation.
This last sentence seems to indicate that it might not be possible to use PL7 when not connected to the internet, not just to activate it.
Well, so far, that doesn’t seem to be true. So, is this just a typo on the site, or are we going to find ourselves in the same position as Adobe users, who find they cannot work offline?
We got FTTH, here in the northwest of rural Brittany just a year ago. When we moved here in mid-2016, the house had an ADSL connection with about 2MB, which was all but unusable and would have cost twice as much than a normal line. So we had satellite broadband installed, which was expensive but worth it, apart from the latency of 1.5 seconds on every request, due to the distance to the satellite and back again.
Then Putin’s lot broke the satellite but, fortunately the mobile signal was upgraded by then and we could resort to a 5G modem, which worked pretty well and supplied the whole house WiFi. This saw us through until the fibre arrived.
We are fairly well served with 5G, here in France, even in rural areas - that is unless you are in the middle of the forested areas deep in the countryside, so, you can still breakdown in the car and not be able to phone for help. So, yes, we can access the internet everywhere, except where we can’t
That makes sense but the implication of the wording is that it is necessary for using in all its senses. But, since the site, from France, is a mixture of French and English, even though I have chosen English, I would guess it down to good old bday written copy.
You are absolutely correct. This kind of statement counts as false and misleading advertising. @StevenL
I hope this is in development at the same time as an update for this tool (at least background histogram, pipette and more precision (undockable and resizable window for example)) which is one of the most important tool for raw processors.
And I hope this new local adjustment organisation will help DxO to add more easily and fastly, and in a bug free way new tools in it.
I would say it’s needed for DxO to explain it that was as without an internet connection one would not be able to on demand download corrective camera body-lens files. And that way not be able to fully use PL in the intended way.
Indeed, and the same applies to all other DxO applications. They and PL need the connection to
display the hub pages
check for updates
download modules
report usage data
report error and diagnostic data
With proper preparations, we can prevent connections for the first three cases. And what about reporting? Can’t say for sure, I suppose that reports are buffered and sent later to DxO - or the trash?
Having read reviews I came to the conclusion that PL7 was not worth the £99 upgrade from PL6, and the same was true for the latest version of the Nik collection. The above discussion has just reinforced my views and I will defer a decision until PL8 comes out next October as to upgrade or lapse. Looking back at previous upgrades the pricing policy has been to exceed inflation quite significantly (£89 2022, £70 2021).
Further if the price of the software is £229 for Elite and £99 for the upgrade it suggests there has been a 40% increase in functionality which I just don’t see. I could take a cynical view that pricing is based on the cost of the development team, rather than the offering.
Even if there was a Black Friday event it would have to be significant to change my mind.
It’s not cynical. It’s always the case : developers have to make a living from their work. That’s the bare minimum (I have been a developer in the past, working for my own company). The question is rather : how to optimize the company/development team organization in order to lower the costs and to work more efficiently. Maintaining 3 separate products (I’m leaving DxO PureRaw and the Nik Collection apart) is certainly not an optimization factor. They are not even in sync.
So, the message received by the users and the could-be-customers is rather clear : DxO are mastering the technical aspects of the problem but the organization is too small to correctly manage the production process and the marketing policy. That’s why the result is a wonderful product plagued since years with consistency problems and a hard to understand (that is, irritating) pricing policy.
+1!
unfortunately their strategy (high price for little gain in functions and product segmentation) to maintain their cash flow in the short term is likely to cost them dearly in the medium term and weigh on the future of the company. (loss of customers whose patience is crumbling)
If we really knew what the future will bring, we’d better play lotto and get rich…and be able to buy each and every DxO product without even blinking.
So, let’s relax, buy if we want or need, or get happy with something else.
1 Like
stuck
(Canon, PL7+FP7+VP3 on Win 10 + GTX 1050ti)
58
I whole heartedly agree. I fell foul of DxO’s update policy early on in my dealings with them but I quickly realised that was the way DxO worked so I had to accept it or walk away. I accepted it and relaxed.
Since then though I feel the unrest / disappointment / anger / [insert just about any other similar adjective] with DxO’s marketing is growing each year. I have no firm data on that, it is just a feeling.
Having watched a couple of videos showing the revised PL7 local adjustment tools, I jumped in and gave my £99 to DxO. However, I’ve been considering asking for refund and revoking my licence.
After having edited numerous photos with PL7, my enthusiasm has fallen away. Despite wanting to keep my software up to date, the implementation of the LA tools is frustrating and time consuming.
Having to deal with the new colour space in PL6 was bad enough. Counterintuitive nonsense like having to keep soft proofing on despite my sRGB workflow and the DCPs I had paid for no longer working correctly (excessive highlight overexposure).
I no longer enjoy the software despite having stuck with it since Optics Pro 8.
They’ve managed to break my favourite photo software and I hope they fix it soon. Supposedly, this is the result after beta testing?! Feeling so bad, I even had a look at what level Silkypix had reached (quite impressive tbh).
Sticking with PL6 forever doesn’t seem a sensible alternative though and heaven knows what PL8 will be like.
and then there’s the lack of progress on improving the existing basic toolset. A customisable grid (colour and frequency) making it useable for manual perspective correction. On-canvas selection of curve points. Customisable shortcuts. Instead, we have improvements that I could probably live without. The colour calibration tool I imagine will be used by a very small minority of users while other changes seem to be causing some consternation.
I’ve given DxO many hundreds of pounds over the years. Maybe it’s time to cut my losses.
