Frustrations and Delays

ON1 Photo RAW 2022

I had been looking forward to the December 20th update to ON1 Photo RAW 2022. Improvements and fixes were promised, including tweaking of the sky replacement tool. ON1 Photo RAW has been my primary start-to-finish raw file converter and editor for over a year now.

However, several weeks ago Photo RAW began to crash on my 2017 iMac. ON1 support provided me with instructions for the time-consuming uninstall-and-reinstall process to get it working again. However, they could not replicate my crashes with the sample files and logs I sent them. Support indicated because ON1 is a small company, they could not spend more time trying to solve my problem.

What I discovered was the digital asset manager I had been using -- Photo Supreme -- altered the Firmware cell in the EXIF data to read "Photo Supreme..." in JPG and TIF images. When ON1 encounters one of these JPG images, it shuts down. Using the Batch processor in ACDSee Photo Studio for Mac 8, I have been able to copy groups of JPGs, replacing the Photo Supreme entry for EXIF Firmware. ON1 Photo RAW 2022.1 will then run on those image files.

My challenge now is either finding and copying the remaining Photo Supreme JPGs or to limit use of ON1 Photo RAW 2022.1 to new files.


Luminar NEO

Skylum Software has been an innovator in the use of artificial intelligence or machine learning for editing digital images. The bigger software companies were a couple of versions behind Luminar in sky replacement. But Skylum's creativity has come with an erratic roadmap for development of newer products. An announced digital asset manager never happened. However, Skylum's Luminar is an excellent tool for photographers who perform creative manipulation of their images.

The newest release will be Luminar NEO. Last year Skylum announced Luminar NEO would be equipped with new tools using a faster engine to speed creative photographers' workflow. The product was offered at a bargain pre-release price. The suggested release date was late December 2021. As time passed, we got glimpses of the performance of a few new tools. The release time was moved to January 2022. The previews we saw did not include the app's interface. The latest information supplied by photographers promoting the product on YouTube indicates the release date is now sometime in February.


 OM System 20mm f1.4 PRO

Last week I received a message from a major photography equipment supplier that shipment of this lens has been delayed and I could cancel my preorder if desired. This news was not unexpected. The shortage of computer chips and distribution problems has had a major impact on the photography industry as well as other industries.

We'll just have to wait a little longer to get our hands on the 20mm f1.4 PRO, the first product to carry the OM System brand, the new name for what once was Olympus cameras and lenses.

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