Many years ago, I bought Adobe's CS6 Master collection when released.
That put a smile in my face and lots of study time on my desk but I was all
going for it. I was just mastering the apps I needed the most that the maker
came up with a plan: CC based and on subscription mode only in the future.
That did it. Just like one looses his/hers faith in a lover in an instant, I was still
using CS6 — because it was mine — but was looking around hoping that the
subscription model would provoke some engineers to go to work and create an
alternative to CS and CC. And boy they did!
A group in Denmark had already created their own software to support the ca-
mera they were making, it caught the attention of many pro. photographers and
the team started to look for ways to extend their user base. And boy they did!
An other group, in England, had a way more ambitious project and their efforts
were just what I was looking for to replace CS6. After losing time investigating
dead ends like OnOne and others, Sérif (England) came up with a plan. They all
were working on a integrated Suite for photographers, designers and publishers:
Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer and Affinity Publishers. Yes, it had shaky begin-
nings — one cannot tackle a 30~ year giant as it is born. Starting from scratch,
with new ideas, no legacy to stumble upon, and time… Boy they did! Sérif's new
1.9 v. Suite release this week is a blast of innovations, power, features, and a lots
of fun.
The Danish team got me updating with great enthusiasm from v.6 to v.13.1.3 and
then… What I considered the ultimate RAW converter since a decade and still is,
made me lose my faith in the company with their recent release of version 14.
Contrary to Sérif's suite and their fantastic price and update policies, the Danes
took another path. The spectacular progressions and developments of their soft-
ware — Capture One — seams to have stopped at v.13.1.3 and more money is to
be paid with every full version update… all versions, to this point, were well worth
the investment but I stop here… v. 14 is not worth it any more.
Please, please, please, Sérif, I beg you… go for it and create /develop a dedicated
RAW converter. You seem to have the touch, to find the right way to go forwards…
I would like to count on your ingenuity and the brilliance of your team. Boys, do it!
Very best regards,
Nikon Shooter.