Adobe Aquires Pixmantec Technology Assets

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Press Release:
Adobe Further Extends Leadership in Digital Photography Raw File Workflows
Adobe Acquires Technology Assets of Pixmantec ApS

LONDON — June 26, 2006 — Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced it has acquired the technology assets of Pixmantec ApS, makers of digital imaging software that provides advanced workflow management and processing capabilities for digital camera raw files. The acquisition strengthens Adobe's leadership position in raw processing.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
"With high quality digital cameras now within reach of every photographer, customers are gravitating to raw file formats that allow them to get more control over final results," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions at Adobe®. "By combining Pixmantec's raw processing technology and expertise with our own, we're continuing to deliver on the promise that even your existing raw files can be processed with increasing quality as our software technology evolves."
Pixmantec is a privately held company headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and currently ships the RawShooter® line of digital photography software products. Adobe plans to integrate Pixmantec raw processing technologies into Lightroom™ and wherever customers will be working with raw files.
In preparation for this integration, the Pixmantec RawShooter Premium product is being discontinued, though the free RawShooter Essentials product will continue to be available until the Lightroom public beta program is completed. Existing Pixmantec customers will continue to be supported by Adobe and will be provided with an upgrade path to the Adobe digital imaging product family.
Adobe believes this acquisition will not have a material financial impact on the company.
 
I've been ranting about this on the Pixmantec forum, as have many others. :(

OK, I can accept that many people like Adobe products (and prices?), but I prefer to shop elsewhere, and RSP + Paint Shop Pro is an excellent combination.

So now it sounds as if Adobe is buying out the opposition and incorporating Rawshooter into its own proprietary software, in an attempt to force people away from the competition.

If I didn't dislike Adobe before, I certainly do now.
 
You have a fair point there Paul.

Its going to be interesting to find out how Adobes support will effect those that bought the full Pixmantec product.

It will also be interesting to see if Adobe are going to offer an upgrade path to photoshop, for those that already own RSP.

The good thing is, if you already own a stand alone RSP, you can still use the editing package of your choice.
 
The trouble is that RSP will only work until you upgrade your camera to something that isn't supported by the current version. It's even worse for RSE users because the promised release of a version for the 30D will almost certainly not appear now.

So the question is whether to continue using an obsolete product in the knowledge that I'll have to change to something else when I swap the camera, or move to another RAW converter now and begin the learning curve again.

The real shame is that RSP was only a couple of steps away from being a self-contained image editor in its own right. :(
 
I suppose its the case of having to wait and see.

silkstone said:
The real shame is that RSP was only a couple of steps away from being a self-contained image editor in its own right. :(
Click to expand...

Thats probably why the take over happened.
 
The beauty of RSE/RSP was their speed. Whilst I use PS it still takes about 2 minutes to load and is very slow comparitively . I just hope they keep the speed and light weight size of RSE/RSP.

I'm not hopeful.

:(
 
Damn.. that's Paint Shop Pro bought out by Corel and now RSP bought out by Adobe. :razz:
 
The RawShooter products do not offer any significant functionality that is not already, or will not be shortly, offered in Lightroom, so continuing this product line would only cause confusion for our customers.
Click to expand...
Strong whiff of bovine excrement there IMO. Lightroom is already at Beta 3 so how can Rawshooter technology be incorporated into it now. Furthermore, if "RawShooter products do not offer any significant functionality...." than why has Adobe bought them?
 
Indeed. It's to reduce the competition, simple as.

Just think back to when RSE first hit the streets, and *why* it was borne...IIRC It was borne out of frustration of major players offering only token support to RAW formats, and to bring the accessibilty of RAW to everyone (to paraphrase in a Robin Hood kinda way)....

It's a sellout, plain and simple.
Like CT says PSP has gone to Corel, RSE/P to Adobe....
Less and less is within the grasp of the common garden photographer.....
 
Agree absolutely. But at least when Corel bought out JASC there wasn't a price-hike for PSP and the only thing they messed up in PSP X was the browser. They didn't 'incorporate' it into their own image editing software and discontinue it. ;)
 
I feel sorry for the people who endorsed pixmantec RSE/P.

It will put a dent in their reputations.
 
I don't see why that should be Matt, the product is still the same as it was when they endorsed it (for the moment). It may be that Adobe use it as is, more likely they will pull the stuff out of it that they want and incorporate it into lightroom as intimated above which would make it a different product.
 
I'm glad I didn't upgrade and buy RSP then. Because of my frequency of reformatting...I kept to the RSP trial...occasionally flicking back to RSE when it ran out.

I did plan to upgrade to RSP one day, but I'm glad I didn't now.
 
Ok, it's not good overall.

There are other RAW processing programs available, capture1, bibble, breeze, to name a few. So all is not lost completely. I'm sure with this event there will be another processing program available soonish.

After all, is not RS just the product of a fall out with the programmer and the people at phase1?
 
Steep said:
I don't see why that should be Matt, the product is still the same as it was when they endorsed it (for the moment).
Click to expand...

You're correct, but it doesn't stop people blaming others.
So it could have a damaging effect on the parties that endorsed it.
 
One of the good things about RawShooter is that it records all the processing parameters for each image in a separate data file, without altering the original RAW file. So you can reprocess the file with the same adjustments at any time, without having to start from scratch. That means you don't have to keep the huge 16-bit TIFF files, because you can recreate them from RAW at any time.

That assumes that you keep on using Rawshooter. If you move to another processor, it will not be able to read the RS data files so you have to start again. Let's guess if Lightroom will be able to read this data. :thinking: :thumbsdown:
 
Gandhi there's also silkypix developer studio to consider. I've not had too much time to try it yet but it's an alternative.
 
makes me glad that i use GIMP & UFRaw :D
 
brummie said:
makes me glad that i use GIMP & UFRaw :D
Click to expand...

I got the impression that GIMP was still restricted to 8bit formats. Is this still the case?
 
SammyC said:
I got the impression that GIMP was still restricted to 8bit formats. Is this still the case?
Click to expand...

yes as far as i am aware but its fine for me. Fits nicely into my budget (y)
 
Paint Shop Pro X does handle 16-bit, but only for certain types of manipulation. For others you have to convert to 8-bit, which is a shame.

I'm trying to decide whether to keep on using RSP which will become useless when I next change my camera, or move straight away to another RAW processor. I've just downloaded Bibble Pro which looks OK at first glance - does anyone have any experience/advice on this?
 
brummie said:
yes as far as i am aware but its fine for me. Fits nicely into my budget (y)
Click to expand...

2.4 is getting closer so hopefully this will be fixed in that release.
 
I don't think its been mentioned here, There is another all-in-one image converter called 'Lightzone'.

It allows you to work on most image formats including RAW.

The tools:

The ZoneMapper tool allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast of your entire photo or any combination of the highlights, midtones, or shadows.

The Contrast mask tool allows you to adjust the contrast of all or parts of your photo using a technique based on the tradition of using a contrast mask in a darkroom.

The Sharpen tool allows you to sharpen all or parts of your photo using a technique based on the tradition of using an unsharp mask in a darkroom to increase the perception of sharpness by emphasizing edges.

The Blur tool allows you to blur all or parts of your photo by a specified radius. This can be used to soften grainy or blemished areas, or to create out-of-focus areas.

The Hue/Saturation tool allows you to make color adjustments in hue, saturation, or luminance.

The Color balance tool allows you to adjust the color balance of your photo around a specified point of the tonal range.

The Color cast tool helps you to reduce color casts of your photo by selecting neutral gray points.

The White balance tool allows you to adjust the white balance of your photo to compensate for a color cast in the light source such as the blue cast of the sky or tungsten lighting.

The Channel mixer tool allows you to convert your color photo into a black-and-white photo and individually control the red, green, and blue channels.

The Noise reduction tool allows you to reduce "noise" that is often present in digital photos as a result of the sensors in digital cameras. The tool reduces noise in chromaticity without modifying luminance.

The Clone tool allows you to copy one area of your photo to another area. This can be used to remove dust, scratches, blemishes, or other unwanted items from your photo.


More info can be found here
 
I feel for those of you who use the Pixmantec stuff, but as an Adobe user throughout my career, I'm quite pleased about this - it means that for me at any rate, the RAW converter in CS will improve immesurably.
The only other option for me would be to aquire the Nikon Capture DX software and re-learn all my shortcuts.
 
Well Adobe have responded over at the Pixmantec Forums.

To the many posters on this and other threads, including Lee Jay, Winston, Gareth, Stuart, Jimmy D, Leebase, TrueBeauty, on this thread:

We at Adobe are reading and listening. Yes, we've been slow to respond, and I apologize for that. In any acquisition, there are snafus and I and others did not handle the communication well at all. I've started a swat team to get the decisions final, coordination done, and communications out.

I have to say also that I'm really excited about the possibilities now that we have Michael Jonsson & Kenneth Tang Laerke joining our team. We have assembled what I think are the best minds in raw processing to take Adobe Camera Raw to the next level. The engines in ACR and RSP are each exceptional in a number of ways, and one of our first technical tasks is to determine how we can blend them to achieve something better than either was alone.

I've known Michael for a while now, and I know he's excited to be able to do even more than he could do alone. I won't put more words in his mouth right now.

I hope our actions will start addressing some of the gaps in communication. As I said, we've started acting to fill some of those gaps, including:

- We have taken down the RSP purchase link so that folks do not continue to purchase RSP unaware of the termination of the product.

- We are contractually obligated to continue selling the Color Engine for a few more weeks, so that sales link is still up.

- Purchasers of RSP will soon get information on the upgrade path from RSP to Lightroom. We hope many of you will choose to try Lightroom. (And yes, a Windows beta is coming soon. As Kevin notes, it's been demoed publicly and now we're polishing it. We have many folks who wish to download it, and we do not want to disappoint.)

- Michael Tapes will stay on moderating these forums, and he'll be hooked up to George Jardins, who will also monitor these forums, in addition to the Lightroom forums.

- We have already started looking at how to transition as many of your settings from RSP to Lightroom as possible. We don't know yet how feasible all of that will be.

- This week we are holding a get-together of the minds in California to figure out many more of the technical details and bring Michael Jonsson into the planning and development of the next generation of raw processing.

- There are many other actions coming.

All of this takes time, complicated by various factors like the inevitable summer vacations, but all that matters are the end results.

Again, I apologize for the delay in getting word directly to you from Adobe, and I thank you for your patience.

Cheers,

Dave Story
VP Product Development, Digital Imaging
Adobe Systems
Click to expand...

Taken from http://www.pixmantec.com/forums/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=32534&page=0&fpart=4&vc=1

Also, I'm not sure if it's been mentioned in here yet, but purchasers of RSP will be offered a free download of Lightroom v1.0

Taken from the Adobe/Pixmantec FAQ PDF here :
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressmaterials/pdfs/FAQ-Pixmantec.pdf
 
And further communications from Pixmantec this morning :

Dear RawShooter!


As you may have noticed, Adobe Systems Inc. recently acquired the technology assets of Pixmantec. Pixmantec's technology and expertise will be incorporated into Adobe's products. Specifically, some of Pixmantec's raw processing technology will be incorporated into Adobe's raw processing engine which is shared by Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom. We, the founders of Pixmantec, will join the Adobe team, integrating our expertise into their products, and continuing to be able to serve the photographic community.

As the founders of Pixmantec, we'd like to express how gratifying it has been to see the level of support and praise we have managed to gain through the introduction of the RawShooter product line to the market. We had a vision of making top-notch raw processing capabilities truly accessible to a wide audience of photographers, and the number of devoted users that developed tells us that we made significant progress towards that goal.

Nevertheless, we also saw that we were not the only company recognizing the need for specialized photography workflow software. Specifically, Adobe a company we have always admired had for some time been working on their own workflow solution, which was announced as the Lightroom public beta program in January of this year. When we met with the folks from Adobe, we found that the admiration was mutual, and that our visions for the customer were very well aligned. Ultimately, we saw the opportunity to make a bigger impact by joining Adobe, and lending our own best ideas and expertise to the ongoing Camera Raw and Lightroom efforts.

As we work to integrate Pixmantec technology and expertise into Adobe's raw processing pipeline, we will no longer be working on new versions of the RawShooter | premium product, and have stopped selling this product. Of course, your RawShooter | premium product will continue to work and serve you well, but we also know that many of you will eventually want a software solution that you know will continue to evolve, remaining up-to-date as raw workflows and processing continues to improve. Adobe Lightroom is a product targeted at solving these evolving workflows and up to the minute raw processing. Currently in public beta format for the Macintosh platform Adobe Lightroom will be released as public beta for Windows this summer.

Lightroom is being built from the ground up to address the unique challenges of a photography-centric workflow. Not only will it offer what we believe will be second-to-none raw processing, but it is designed to provide a start-to-finish workflow solution for photographers. We encourage you to learn about Adobe Lightroom: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom

For those concerned about the transition to Lightroom or the acquisition in general please visit this FAQ that addresses many of the topics discussed in the Pixmantec forums recently. Please continue to let us know how we can ease this product transition for you.

Now that we've joined the Adobe family, we must emphasize that RawShooter users also are now Adobe customers, regardless of whether you ever purchase another Adobe product. Your satisfaction matters to us. Specifically, Adobe will do the following:


Offer a free download version of Lightroom 1.0 for customers who bought RawShooter | premium prior to July 12th 2006, 12 noon European Standard Time. Given that Lightroom 1.0 will serve a much broader range of functionality and will be priced at a higher price point than RawShooter | premium, we believe this represents a great value for our customers.


Adobe will investigate to what extent your image corrections made within RawShooter can be transferred to Lightroom.


We will deliver support for Canon EOS 30D In RawShooter | essentials this summer.
We are deeply thankful for the support you have offered Pixmantec and we thank you in advance for your understanding and continued support.

The best is yet to come!

Sincerely yours,

Kenneth Laerke and Michael Jonsson
Click to expand...

Personally I find this the best news out of it :

"We will deliver support for Canon EOS 30D In RawShooter | essentials this summer."

Is anyone else quite curious about what Lightroom is going to be like?
 
I got that email this morning, too - here's an interesting bit for those who bought RSP (and understandably feel a bit short changed)

Offer a free download version of Lightroom 1.0 for customers who bought RawShooter | premium prior to July 12th 2006, 12 noon European Standard Time. Given that Lightroom 1.0 will serve a much broader range of functionality and will be priced at a higher price point than RawShooter | premium, we believe this represents a great value for our customers.
Click to expand...
 
Free Adobe lightroom for me then.

It will be interesting to see how it performs.
 
silkstone said:
I've been ranting about this on the Pixmantec forum, as have many others. :(

OK, I can accept that many people like Adobe products (and prices?), but I prefer to shop elsewhere, and RSP + Paint Shop Pro is an excellent combination.

So now it sounds as if Adobe is buying out the opposition and incorporating Rawshooter into its own proprietary software, in an attempt to force people away from the competition.

If I didn't dislike Adobe before, I certainly do now.
Click to expand...
I certainly agree, I have been using the Pixmantic Premium. The take over news came out just at the time my free trial was about to end!!.
I declined to upgrade because my experience with Adobe is that they never support any of their own software once they introduce a newer version. I have Adobe Photoshop 7 and they have never made Raw or other enhancements, or even cut down versions available from newer versions, such as Essentials and CS . We have to be content with third party plug-ins and if they are any good the opposition gets bought out!!.Check out DCETools and Pure image from MediaChance .com for some useful Adobe Photoshop 6 upwards Plug-ins.
I also use Micrografx Picture Puiblisher 10 pro. The user interface on this is fantastic and practical even Adobe Essentials is not a patch on the PP10. Unfortunately Corel bought out Micrografx to remove the competition and that was the end of a wonderful imaging software package development.

Regards Brian Wright
 
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