On1 RAW - what are your thoughts?

It's been mostly reliable for me - much more so than Elliot's experience, and I use it pretty much every time I process images.
 
So I received a 'special offer' by email for an upgrade and decided to buy Photo 2017 software for $60/£47. Observations are thus:

The Browse module doesn't work out of the box, and sods up the whole standalone experience - I have contacted customer support.
The Effects and Develop modules are now much faster than before, and more responsive than LR 5.7 sliders. If Layers is equally responsive then it will be worth the price of entry.
All presets and textures copied across from 10.5.
LR has a better RAW development engine.
Text etc layout seems to work better.
 
I keep flip flopping, I think if I gave it a real go it could be very good and unlike Lightroom they are constantly and quickly improving.

What's brought it back to me is the other day I processed an image using both and preferred the On1 one, so did my family in a blind test too. Could be a fluke but interesting nonetheless
 
OK, problems with browse sorted. Basically it requires reasonably current graphics drivers and relies on a dedicated graphics processor to manage everything. My drivers are reasonably current thanks to a Dell app, but I had to open the Nvidia control panel and set the software to use the dedicated graphics card ONLY. Once done & restarted it worked as intended.

It seems this issue is not unusual from the reply I had.

Having had a (brief) play with the browse and develop modules, I find it difficult to see what advantages this software has over Lightroom 5.7 for raw image browsing and development. It isn't substantially faster for browsing images from my Nikon D610, the develop module is less effective when processing raw files (more artifacts, unwanted behaviours like reducing whites also lifted shadows?!). Examples: I had a quick go with an awkward image - bird flying over grassland against a bright sky - and LR handled the extreme tonal range more cleanly, and drew more detail from shadow areas without fringing. The LR CA tool is also a lot more effective - pushing the purple fringing tool to 100% in P2017 didn't get rid of the fringing, but the eye dropper in LR worked perfectly first time.

Now the software is using the graphics card, effects is even faster and smoother to use - hopefully layers will be too. I also like that the eraser and clone stamp tools are available in effects. This is likely going to remain my pixel editor of choice for the next 12 months as a Lightroom plugin.
 
Can you share the gfx driver tip, worth checking to see how mines set

Ta
 
So, ancient mariner, are you saying it's not so bad after all? This is a serious question from someone who has the £50.00 give or take offer. Or should I just keep my £50?
 
JohnN said:
Can you share the gfx driver tip, worth checking to see how mines set

Ta
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Gladly:

Hello Toni,

Thanks for using ON1 Software! I apologize for the frustration with Photo RAW. We've been tracking similar issues with some of our other Windows users. Does this issue occur with all of your images, or a certain type? I recommend following the steps below as a first step to troubleshooting this problem. These steps have solved similar problems for our other Windows users.

First, it is critical that you visit the manufacturers website to download the latest driver directly from them. Updating thru the Windows updater will not give you the latest driver.

Full Instructions are available here:
https://on1help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205310358-How-to-update-video-card-drivers

Once you have updated your video card driver, please reinstall the program from the most up to date installers from our release notes page in the link below:

https://on1help.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/235180448

When the download is complete, please right click on the .exe file and choose "Run as the Administrator". After completing the install, please open the NVIDIA or AMD Control Panel (depending on what brand is installed on this machine) and make sure the Photo RAW is configured to run exclusively off of this GPU. Here is some more information on how to do so:

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/pc-components/how-set-default-graphics-card-3612668/

https://support.serato.com/hc/en-us...use-your-dedicated-GPU-on-a-Windows-computer-

Apply these changes and reboot your machine. Please let us know if the issue persists.

- Ryan | Technical Support
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Note that I did NOT go to the Nvidia site & download the latest drivers because I'm using a Dell running Dell drivers (that are reasonably recent), nor did I delete and re-install Phtos 2017 because I was already on the current version. I only forced use of the GPU to make it work.

Merluza said:
So, ancient mariner, are you saying it's not so bad after all? This is a serious question from someone who has the £50.00 give or take offer. Or should I just keep my £50?
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Sensible question. I'm saying it's usable, but in my hands it doesn't work as well as Lightroom 5.7 for processing images with difficult lighting. Note that I am an experienced Lightroom user, but have neither watched training videos from On1, nor have practiced extensively to optimise my technique with the software, instead taking what I know works well with lightroom and trying to apply it to the develop module. If for some reason LR were no longer available to me then I would most likely use DXO optics pro (9 is a free download) for image development and Photos 2017 for initial sorting and final polishing of images.

The 'deal breakers' for me with this software are that I have a catalogue of nearly 30,000 images in lightroom that doesn't transfer easily and the raw handling doesn't seem as good. And I DO have a paid for copy of LR5.7 that works well for me right now. If you already have image development software that you like and want something that will let you make adjustments beyond what it allows then this is probably £50 well spent if you can still get the deal.
 
Many thanks - in my case drivers and version up to date - I added the program specifics, but its the only gfx card I have anyway, so not sure it made a difference - not that is particularly slow, just thought it could be quick... these things can always be quicker :D

Usage wise I think I'm pretty similar to you - LR works well, I know it and it does what I want, but always worth keeping up to date on the demos, you never know they might just nick bits from some others (like sharpness highlighting that I think they're working on) or even - shock horror - come up with something new.
 
Bought ON1 RAW based on the hype, what a con. I have a home built PC with a top end AMD processor, good quality graphics card with 4 GB and 32 GB of fast RAM.
When using ON1 RAW It keeps on crashing and advises me to update graphics driver, my PC does this automatically. I was an ON1 PLUS member and complained bitterly about the performance, I was so pi55ed off that I asked what it would take to get a refund, I GOT ONE.
They have let me continue using the software and also use the updates - it still crashes. A few days ago I was asked to complete a survey on the program, I think that they now realise that they have bitten off more than they can chew with their claims.
Don't touch it until it gets five star reviews...
I'm now using Affinity Photo, not perfect but I feel that it will eventually replace Adobe CC for me, after all I'm an enthusiast photographer not a pro.
 
Well, I'd never heard of Affinity - interesting if somewhat fast intro on the homepage.

Now, I understand what you said about On1, but at least they listened, even if you still don;t like the software - I completely rebuilt my PC to make lightroom work and it still crashed whenever I ran Lightroom and they didn't even reply! Turned out it wasn't a problem with LR in the end, but it told me a lot about where I fit their world, so now despite thinking that LR is still probably the best I'm no longer loyal to them and continue to look for a viable (without being greedy - yes that was at you Capture One) alternative.

Edit: Been looking into it - Affinity is a PS alternative, not lightroom - thats probably coming next year... well until then then.
 
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JohnN said:
Well, I'd never heard of Affinity - interesting if somewhat fast intro on the homepage.

Now, I understand what you said about On1, but at least they listened, even if you still don;t like the software - I completely rebuilt my PC to make lightroom work and it still crashed whenever I ran Lightroom and they didn't even reply! Turned out it wasn't a problem with LR in the end, but it told me a lot about where I fit their world, so now despite thinking that LR is still probably the best I'm no longer loyal to them and continue to look for a viable (without being greedy - yes that was at you Capture One) alternative.

Edit: Been looking into it - Affinity is a PS alternative, not lightroom - thats probably coming next year... well until then then.
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The best & most cost effective LR substitute is probably DXO Optics Pro. I have version 9 that was available as a freebie, but they're up to v11 now. Or you can buy a Sony camera for a 'free' cut-down version of C1.
 
Cheers for the tip, but sadly it seems they don't support Fuji
 
Orangecroc said:
Such a shame DXO optics pro 9 isn't still free :(
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Agreed I went hunting today to see if I could find the free version. Park cameras have the essential edition of V11 for £76. https://www.parkcameras.com/p/6155467M/software/dxo/dxo-optics-pro-v11-essential-edition?

Based on their behaviour for the last 2 years, I suspect V10 will be made available FOC between Christmas and the end of Feb just after they release V12, but I wouldn't be completely certain. They have also dropped the price at Christmas a couple of times, but again, they may not choose to do that this year.
 
New version out today with improved browse speed, still missing ironically enough almost all my current system lenses, but seems to have my old system stuff, typical :)

As I'm a Windows user missing Flickr upload too and I do wish they'd get on with Fuji profiles, but I guess it's a niche market and sorting general system improvements for the whole user base makes more sense

The $49.99 offer is back too.
 
Well, oddly despite my previous comments I keep coming back and have done this little bundle with it - a big reason being that its just plain better at handling Fuji raw despite all the tricks I've tried with lightroom - now don't get me wrong I can make LR acceptable, but given I don't have a MAC and don;t want to faf about with shoehorning in another step to my (somewhat infrequent) workflow, I just want something that works.

I grant you they're a bit overcooked, especially the landscapes - but I'm learning and to be honest have a long way to come processing wise - it doesn't help that my monitors are massively different, but do work on my calibrated one.


A sea of heather by John Norton, on Flickr


Among the heather by John Norton, on Flickr


Spider Macro by John Norton, on Flickr


Anna in green by John Norton, on Flickr
 
I was on the verge of going for this ,thank the lord for this forum ,,I only upgraded to Lightroom cc when I had the 80D as nothing else would work at the time .i'm now considering going back to using aperture 3 for storing files and initial p.p and re- installing ps6 for my plug ins and final polish as both will adequately support my 1D4 files
 
the black fox said:
I was on the verge of going for this ,thank the lord for this forum ,,I only upgraded to Lightroom cc when I had the 80D as nothing else would work at the time .i'm now considering going back to using aperture 3 for storing files and initial p.p and re- installing ps6 for my plug ins and final polish as both will adequately support my 1D4 files
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I'd suggest giving it a quick try, the 30 day trial is unrestricted and free so nothing to lose but time
 
And the latest version offers a big improvement in browsing speed (now actually does what they promised in the marketing buildup) and images that get starred carry the starring across into LR.
 
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