Qimage Studio Edition

[N8535Y]

When Qimage moved to the Studio edition some time ago, I was a little miffed because the earlier version of Qimage contained a RAW converter for my D100 which was removed from the Pro edition to Studio Edition. In the original PRO edition, however, it only had two cameras for which it would convert RAW and it was very basic with no RAW adjustments.

The Studio edition originally added many many cameras, but frankly with very limited use for RAW conversion as there was no way of manipulating the RAW image exposure or white balance.

Within the past two months, Mike has added major improvements to his RAW conversions in Studio Edition and for almost all cameras currently available. Amazingly, this is one of the best out of the box RAW converters, providing for superb automatic exposure and color balance correction. That is, one click on a box of central interest in the picture gives you perfect exposure and one click with a white balance eye dropper gives you almost perfect white balance. The exposure control now also has a slider to adjust (fill tool) and a slider for white balance is promised to come.

In other words Qimage Studio Edition has gone way beyond the Pro Edition.

If pictures do not need the "selective" application of post processing such as are available in NX2, that is, selective in portions of the picture rather than global corrections (which are available in Qimage), then post processing of RAW files is much faster in Qimage than in NX2.

Unfortunately, Mike does not have available (and should have for his own beneift) a trial version which includes the RAW converter. If people could try it for just this added feature and compare it with other RAW converters, I am sure that there would be no question of the value of the added benefits that Studio Edition provides or the types of questions which started this thread a long time ago.

--
Bob

 

[Cliff Watson]

I was surprised to see this thread resurface. It reminds me that perhaps the internet is not a good place to vent!!

Just for the record, let me say that I love Qimage and use it weekly if not daily. It is one of the best applications ever written for bulk manipulation of images and printing. I use it both for printing and for preparing images for web display (resizing, cropping,…).

I continue to hear good things about the Studio version. Now that it supports raw, I may just have to upgrade from the Pro version after all.

 

[MartinDC]

Little did I know a new "flagship" version would be released making
the version I purchased a second level version.

You really shouldn't think of it like that. In what way is the professional edition reduced to "second level" because there is a version with a few more features? If you make money from your photography, or you display your work in galleries, then it might behoove you to consider the Studio Edition, because you might be doing more up-res'ing and large-size printing. Professionals who pay lots for setup are not going to be fazed by an extra $40.

DDI Software has to continue to make money while it's improving its software. And there's nothing wrong with charging more for a product infused with extra Research & Development, at least until he makes back his initial investment. Anyway, it's DDI's product and Chaney can market it any way he likes, and we can choose to buy or pass.

Anyway, as an aside, I think this thinking is rampant nowadays -- that when something with more features comes out, then it obsolesces what has existed before. Do you think many have been brainwashed by the electronics marketing machine?

I don't know the author and based upon everyone's feedback, he
provides a superior product for an exceptionally low price, but to
avoid this type of misinterpretation by buyers like me, I think he
should remove the "Free lifetime upgrades" from the Web site.

Who cares? I've certainly benefited from downloading upgrades without any additional cost (how's that for not using "Free Lifetime Upgrade"). Each time I feel I'm getting something completely new and paying nothing.