Has anyone (else) moved to ACDsee

[jaomul]

I ended my Adobe subscription on Christmas day and bought ACDsee ultimate pack, includes a few different products and video editing software.

My thinking was I paid 126 euro or 150 dollars, so if I don't get on with it I'll hook up with Adobe again in ten months, as it's a little over 12 euro a month here so I some way I won't really lose money.

I must say I am impressed (I uninstalled lightroom and Photoshop straight away so I'd have to use the new stuff and get somewhat familiar). There are some things I prefer and obviously some things I don't. I'd guess that if one started with ACDsee rather than Adobe they'd probably never look back. Having been used to and really thinking Lightroom is fantastic, it's hard to unreservedly say go ACDsee, but I'd definitely recommend anyone thinking of alternatives or indeed splashing for a first paid software to give this one at least a 30 day trial.

Had anyone else here tried it? What do you think of it?

 

[goooner]

I play with the idea every year around renewal time. I had the test version and was impressed. The newest version should be even better. I liked the fact that that I could import my LR catalogues with key words etc. Is this still possible with the newer format LR catalogues?

 

[jaomul]

It is still possible to import a lot of lightroom info, I'm not sure exactly how much because I did very little cataloguing with lightroom, but have started now with ACDsee.

F stoppers have a few good articles on their website about migration from lightroom to ACDsee

 

[JoeW]

I actually use Affinity Photo.

 

[idcanyon]

I use ACDSee for organization but still have the Adobe subscription for editing, mostly for the raw converter. I've never seen anythink who can stand with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) on its Highlights and Shadows tools. ACDSee is close. Its "Highlight Enhancement" and "Fill Light" are basically worthless but its "Light EQ" is just about there, but it doesn't work with the selective area brush tool. Everything else is probably just as good. I've also tested Affinity Photo. I found its raw converter lacking compared to both ACR and ADSee, but I may not have given it a good enough try. I don't have the ultimate version with the full suite of editing tools so I don't know how ACDSee stands up against Photoshop.

Every few years I play with the idea of going to Lightroom but every time I try I find that I just can't stand it. Reasons 1) ACDSee is just plain faster; 2) ACDSee is more tolerant of my messing with the file system behind its back, including copying between computers where ACDSee is installed; 3) Adobe believes I should always keep my raw files. In Lightroom, to delete the raw but keep the Jpeg I have to export the photos, delete the raw, and then re-import. I only keep the raw files on the best 5-10%.

 

[stk]

I just downloaded the free trail, and it looks really promising. But for now; I'll stick with the evil I know.

 

[Dave442]

I had ACDsee years ago so I receive their e-mails all the time about upgrading to the new version. I just find the LR works very well for my workflow so I have not gone back to ACD, I do have ON1 and use that as a plug-in with LR.

It just seems that ACD, ON1 and others are always "almost there" with their product. Adobe really opened the door for them with their subscription model so I expect they will keep improving and adding the features their customers are pushing for. However, as they keep making these improvements the upgrades usually have a cost so really it can become more expensive over a year for one of these products vs the Adobe Photography package with LR Classic and PS.

As for LR, I am still using the standalone version and will probably go to the subscription model when I change computers. However, the Adobe standalone has worked fine for the last few years without requiring any upgrades (in just over seven years I've paid for versions 3, 5 and 6).

I feel that ACD and On1 really go over the top on pushing new versions that are really just addressing issues they should have been in the current version or taken care of with a free patch.

 

[goooner]

I went to the subscription when the stand alone could not read my D7200 Raw files (had LR5). Normally the updates in a 'version' are free ex 10.1-10.9. Then the upgrade to 11.0 will be cheaper than buying it out right. Imo, the only reason to upgrade, is if your raw files are not supported any more.

 

[idcanyon]

...the upgrades usually have a cost so really it can become more expensive over a year for one of these products vs the Adobe Photography package with LR Classic and PS.

I had ACDSee 7, ACDSee Pro3, and now ACDSee Pro 9. I'm not sure how many versions have passed since Pro 9 since they reset their numbering to a year system. I read the "What's New" once per year and then usually pass. If you put yourself in a position where you rely on it for editing then you'd want to upgrade more often, I think. Most of their new stuff is related to editing.

 

[jaomul]

Just thought I'd update this in case anyone was interested-

Having used ACDsee for two months I signed up again to the Adobe photography package.

The one and only reason was raw file development. It does so much so well that I really wanted it to be my program of choice but it just cannot pull details out of Raw files as good as lightroom or indeed dxo 11. This came to a head when I took a bunch of family photos the other day and the skies were a little bright. I tried everything with ACDsee to get details back in the sky but it was like working on a jpeg, everything just got darker, no details recovered with either it's highlights slider or in its light eq panel. Indeed I even brought the exposure back a few stops and still nothing, but the conditions did not add up to a photo blown beyond detail getting retrieved

I tried the same file in lightroom and in on slide of the highlights slider the sky was full of clouds. A few more tweaks and I had the photo looking the way I wanted. I just couldn't get this result in ACDsee and found that I had very little leeway for editing any raw file that needed tweaking especially with highlights.

So, back to Adobe it is, I'll still use ACDsee for some stuff, it has really good presets and is the business for jumping around to photos dotted around your computer. If only the raw editer was better adobA would have been in my rearview mirror completely.

Others may have a different experience, but just thought I'd put it here for info

 

[Fujidave]

Once I got LR6 standalone I did try the trials of the ACDsee, I thought that both the ones I tried were very good. So if and when LR6 packs in I will buy ACDsee Ultimate 2018.

 

[jaomul]

Once I got LR6 standalone I did try the trials of the ACDsee, I thought that both the ones I tried were very good. So if and when LR6 packs in I will buy ACDsee Ultimate 2018.

Lr6 will not pack in, it just won't get any more updates

 

[Fujidave]

Once I got LR6 standalone I did try the trials of the ACDsee, I thought that both the ones I tried were very good. So if and when LR6 packs in I will buy ACDsee Ultimate 2018.

Lr6 will not pack in, it just won't get any more updates

That is good to hear that it won`t pack in.