7/1/2023 0 Comments Google nik collection costAs an editor billed as an ‘Essentials’ version, it’s pretty comprehensive then. To wit the ability to create custom camera profiles, a presets editor, and access to DxO’s de-noise, moire and DxO ClearView filters. You do lose out on some of what the full version of PhotoLabs has to offer though. To the point in fact that previous purchasers of PhotoLab might feel a little hard done by that it is now added to the Nik Collection ostensibly as a free option. There is an incredible amount of control available to the user. In fact it’s reminiscent of Nikon’s Capture NX2 thanks to the inclusion of Nik’s u-point editing controls. The detail, colour control and localised editing available with PhotoLab is excellent. In this vein, this was my first experience with PhotoLab, and I have to say that I was impressed. I strongly suspect that the PhotoLab 2 Essentials has been added purely to give users of the Nik Collection a taste of the PhotoLab experience and potentially divert sales towards the full version of PhotoLab. This is something that should come as a bug fix. The code required to make the panels and writing slightly larger and more easily read on a 4K and higher screen surely shouldn’t require being paid for (assuming that the user has a paid for copy of the original DxO Nik Collection). On a recent workshop to Iceland I saw users of the original Nik Collection quite happily using the software on brand new Macbook Pros which are kitted out with 4K screens. I couldn’t really test this to be honest, but also didn’t hear that much about the problem to start with. More important to some users is the improved working with 4K monitors. The hype is that there are over 40 new presets, an added RAW developer based on PhotoLab, better support for 4K monitors and some behind the scenes tweaking courtesy of DxO Labs expertise in correcting optical defects via software. Of course if you wanted to use the software and didn’t have a copy of the Google version of the collection then you would have to fork out to pay for the DxO version.Įnter 2019 and DxO launched a supposedly all-new Nik Collection 2. So, the conclusion in 2018 was essentially that the DxO update wasn’t really worth the money just keep on using the old free version. Unfortunately, the supposed fixes didn’t actually materialise for many users (I was one of them…the new version didn’t stop the regular crashes that occurred when jumping between Photoshop and the plugins - rather this was corrected when Adobe updated Photoshop). Ostensibly the DxO version of the collection fixed some of the glitches that had started to appear as Windows and Apple updated their operating systems. Under DxO the Nik Collection once again has a price tag of $99. The French company DxO, creators of their own editing software applications PhotoLab, ViewPoint and FilmPack, bought Nik from Google in 2017, continuing to offer it for free until they brought out a supposedly bug-free version of the collection in 2018. Google also drove the price for the full collection down to $150, then to $99, and finally offered it for free! Then in 2012 Google bought Nik and effectively killed off Capture NX2 as Nikon lost their stake in Nik. In particular, their Color Efex, Silver Efex, HDR Efex and Viveza were quickly recognised as some of the best plugin apps in the industry. The full collection cost a whopping US$500, but you could also buy each of the independent apps for about $99 (if memory serves me correctly). As an independent software developer Nik brought out the Nik collection, also based on their u-point technology. This was a fantastic - albeit slow - RAW developer that could arguably get the best results of any programme from Nikon RAW files. The u-point technology underpinned Nikon’s RAW developer, Capture NX2. It began when Nikon decided to let go the Nik team and their proprietary software based on what they called ‘u-points’. The Nik collection has a fairly storied history to date.
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