Thanks.  I appreciate that!  I do want to offer some incentive to existing Studio users who also buy Ultimate.  Due to the resources involved with the development of Ultimate, it's difficult to give monetary incentives like discounts but I may be able to offer other incentives.  One thought was to give the entire library of camera (raw) profiles to anyone who bought both Studio and Ultimate.  I realize not everyone uses Studio/Ultimate for raw nor do they have one of the 53 cameras for which we have profiles, but I thought it might be useful for the majority of people since raw file support is a big feature unique to Studio and Ultimate.  I'm not sure... still thinking about it but I may be able to come up with something that doesn't reduce the price of Ultimate but that rewards those who bought both Studio and now Ultimate.  I'm open to ideas.

Regards,
Mike

I think you are correct based on your scenario.  You'd need to do HDR in another application because HDR isn't suitable for automatic raw processing.  Qimage is best for individual shots rather than HDR's or panorama stitching.  You could always do that in another program and then use any "flavor" of Qimage to print if you like.

Regards,
Mike

I've put together a mini-FAQ that is linked from the Qimage homepage that answers that and other questions:

http://www.ddisoftware.com/qimage/minifaq.htm

Regards,
Mike

You're missing the point: that's not what is happening.  For about the 20th time, the product you purchased is still being supported and updated.  The issue here is that a few people think they can dictate what type of products we produce and they want to prohibit us from making a new product and they insist we offer everything in Qimage... for free.  That's what is unreasonable!

Mike

  The magenta file name indicates that there is a "sidecar" file with the raw.  All that means is that you refined the raw beyond Qimage's automatic settings.

Mike

Wow, I found it and fixed it but this is a strange one.  To get it to happen, you have to:

(1) Have the full page editor open but small enough so you can see some of the main window behind it.

(2) Drag the zoom lever on the cropping tool.

(3) Just as you release the zoom lever, you have to move your mouse cursor quickly off the page editor and over the thumbnails, and then out of the thumbnails before the crop can redraw on the page editor window.  Or... move the zoom lever and before releasing the mouse while you are moving the zoom lever, move your mouse out of the full page editor window onto the preview page on the main window in the background and THEN release the mouse.

Obscure things like that are difficult to find by beta testers and that's the type of thing that makes it through the debugging process.

Mike

You make it sound like a conspiracy, which it is not.  Fact is, all software has bugs and the number of bugs will increase with major revisions and initial releases of new software.  I don't know of anyone who releases software with known bugs.  At least I don't.  But it is inevitable that people will find some that the beta test group didn't find as different people do different things with different procedures.  FWIW, for the amount of work that went into Qimage Ultimate and the fact that underneath, it has a lot of all new code, it looks pretty darn clean to me with just some minor issues which, as you know, will all get fixed in the next few days.

Mike

That is exactly how you should be looking at this!  You are a first time customer of this brand new product.  Qimage is no longer an open ended project where everyone gets everything we ever decide to do for free.  Qimage is a well defined (and unbelievably feature rich) photo printing application.  It will continue to be updated from a performance and compatibility standpoint, getting all the needed updates for new cameras, drivers, and operating systems, and even a few baseline innovations that bolster things like print quality.  It's time to admit that "Qimage" is not a catch-all term for all future work done at ddisoftware.  At some point, we need to get paid for our NEW work, else you won't have Qimage anything!  No one guaranteed (nor should they have even thought) that all new features related to photo printing or batch processing must go into Qimage, for free, and not a new product.  That's simply unreasonable.  So Qimage won't get the new features or innovations: it'll just continue to be improved in the realm of what it does now.  Qimage Ultimate gets the new stuff because it is a NEW product.

And let's talk about "unappreciated" for a moment.  You feel unappreciated?  Step into another mans shoes for a moment: mine to be specific.  I've supported customers for 12 years, providing free updates, stellar support, and even help in areas not Qimage: I've been known to help people with camera/printer decisions personally, not just in the helpful articles here, and even with other programs!  I've taken many suggestions and implemented them, fixed bugs in a matter of hours, and until recently, resent unlock codes for free sometimes up to a dozen times in one year for one customer when they are too lazy to save their own registration information.  I've helped people diagnose bugs in OTHER software like Adobe products, video drivers, printer drivers, problems with anti-virus programs, and have seen them through MANY operating system upgrades where most other companies would have left you high and dry.  Even WITH lifetime upgrades, most companies would have stopped at Vista saying "We're sorry, this product has reached the end of its useful life (hence no more LIFEtime upgrades) and we have no plans to update it for Vista support.  We'd be glad to sell you this new product that IS compatible, however..."  And then... they would do it again for Windows 7!

So now we have a vocal few (customers) who have obtained years of support and hundreds of free bug fixes and brand new features, yet when we come out with Qimage Ultimate, they say "You can't do that!  You can't come out with a new product!".  I think some people are just so spoiled that a dose of reality is way past due!  Did people storm Adobe headquarters when they came out with Lightroom, saying "That should have been a part of Photoshop Camera Raw"?  Did Adobe give you 50% off Lightroom just because you owned Photoshop?  And they don't even provide real support!  I realize that people have come to expect more of me than they would say, Adobe, but some of the expectations are grossly unreasonable... and they have been for quite some time.  Qimage Ultimate is how we attain a sustainable business model at ddisoftware.  In this economy, I think most people will be happy to see that.  The alternative is, you wake up one morning and find that there IS no more ddisoftware, and no more Qimage.

Mike

Not able to repeat that either at the moment.  Can you think of anything else you did before going to the page editor?  The things you clicked just before going into the page editor or even where you moved the mouse just before going to the page editor might be the key.  I've tried all clicks and movements that I can think of and it doesn't do that here so I'm thinking your sequence might just be a little different than mine.  Trying to replicate it but I might need more details if you can provide them.

Thanks,
Mike

I fear I haven't done as well as I could on the explanation of what the future holds for Qimage versus Qimage Ultimate.  I think the biggest fear among users is that Qimage is dead and Qimage Ultimate is the "new thing".  That's not the plan but I think people might think that due to my inability to really explain the business plan in a small space.  I'll try to update the web page with better info on that in the next day or so.  In the mean time I'll do the best I can here.  I'm trying not to over complicate so here it is put as simply as I can word it at the moment...

We recently did a business review of where we've been, where we are now, and where we want to be in the future as ddisoftware, Inc..  It soon became apparent that we could not continue with an "open ended" plan like Qimage where everyone expects everything we do to be provided for free regardless of how much it differs from the original concept.  The conclusion among the panel (and yes, this involved much more than just me and my say) was that "Qimage" had become known as a catch-all for everything we do at ddisoftware and in no way did it represent the product that we introduced in 1998 with free lifetime upgrades nor even the product of three years ago.  It was also obvious that we needed a more sustainable plan because we (ok, that one is mainly I) wanted to move faster and do more to stay competitive.  The market is a much different place now.  The only way to do that was to define Qimage as, well, basically what it is in Lite, Pro, and Studio and design a different product with a much different update approach where we have a platform to move forward without the limitations of the "Qimage umbrella".  Only problem was, I wanted to keep the Qimage name as it is a recognized entity in the industry.

So here we are with Qimage Ultimate.  It's a new product that has a whole new approach to development.  I'm still the lead programmer but we do have other programmers contributing now, speeding up development but also obviously draining more resources at the same time.  Qimage Ultimate will be on a faster development cycle than you have seen before with Qimage, yet Qimage LPS (Lite, Pro, and Studio) will remain active and will continue to be updated to keep with current technology.  That means that Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio will get updates to support new cameras, updates to keep pace with new operating systems, printers, and so on.  This ensures that the product you bought will be around for a long time.  As you know, we are one of the first companies to support new MS operating systems and that will continue in both Qimage and Qimage Ultimate!  That said, most of the new innovations will happen in Qimage Ultimate and a few of them will likely make it to Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio as well, particularly those that "fit" well into the coding structure of both programs.  For example, if we find a way to bolster print quality, you'll see that first in Qimage Ultimate and if we decide that code is easily adapted into Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio it will likely go there as well because it doesn't involve adding new features and expanding the product functionality.  It would, however, strengthen the Lite, Pro, and Studio products in that they will do what they do now, only better.  And that's what we want.

That's the best way I can figure to explain it right now.  Simply put, we will continue to make Lite, Pro, and Studio a strong and reliable product with needed updates but we don't plan to expand its features to cover new ground.  That will be done in Qimage Ultimate.  As to our users, it makes it pretty simple to decide.  If you are happy with what Qimage Lite, Pro, and Studio do as far as features and UI, there is little incentive to move to Qimage Ultimate.  We feel a lot of customers want to move forward with a bold new product that will break new ground in multiple areas as far as simplicity (UI) and functionality.  That, in a nutshell, is Qimage Ultimate.

Mike

Why would you only use Qimage Ultimate for "casual" raw printing?  It's going to do a better job printing the original raw file (more accurate renditions) than converting with Capture One Pro first in most cases... and it'll do it automatically without you having to "fiddle" with controls!

Mike

Like you say, everyone is going to have an opinion.  I in turn feel betrayed by customers who would call themselves "a loyal customer of many years", yet they not only expect what they bought to be free, but also everything I do from that point forward.  And what are they "loyal" for?  They "loyally" downloaded every version I offered for the past 10 years... for free?  They mentioned me on some forum (they like the software, why wouldn't they)?  They identified a bug (which I fixed in 8 hours) or they gave me an idea for a new feature (which I implemented and they are now using to their benefit)?  I'm sorry, but the real loyalty is with me and my company toward my customers and no, I am certainly not ashamed to say it!  The real problem is the pampering over the years and the fact that I've never taken a bold step to say "wait a minute... this isn't Qimage any more!"  Most people I think are just expressing an opinion and it's even usually one that I understand.  In a (very) few though, there's a sense of entitlement these days that is really quite ridiculous.  They think they can dictate the course of your business indefinitely because they paid 50 bucks in 2001.  This is a new product and just as you said, if it doesn't fit the bill for you, don't buy it!

Mike

I replied to that thread with some personal thoughts but from a business perspective.  Hopefully it will throw some light on the subject and hopefully it is seen as tactful.  If not, there will always be some who grumble.  I've spent far too long at the impossible task of trying to make everyone happy and it's time to move forward and face reality of doing business.  Apple is still selling a defective (and marginally innovative) product in the iPhone 4 and people are still eating it up.  Perhaps they have faith in Apple.  I think the vast majority of my customers have faith in me too... and my product isn't even defective!    Anyway, my response on dpreview is the only response that I plan to make, but it might be worth a read for those interested in my "deepest thoughts". 

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1003&message=35881442

Mike

Yes.  In fact, Qimage Ultimate will pick up the profile you installed with Studio seamlessly, that is, without you having to install it or even move it.  It uses the same application data folder.

Regards,
Mike

That's a difficult one because "just using it to print" means many things to many different users.  One user may use other tools to prepare the final print and only use Qimage Ultimate to queue up the final JPEG's, TIFF's, or PSD's.  Yet another user might use Qimage Ultimate's built in FlashPipe data downloader to download raws and automatically create an album showing all the images downloaded... and that might be considered part of the process of preparing to print.  A user who utilizes Qimage Ultimate's raw capabilities will find great benefit in Lightning Raw with much faster printing speeds and no delay when opening a raw photo to remove a blemish or correct red eye.  I would think the fresh redesign of the UI would be a big factor regardless of what you do in Qimage!


I think you mean the queue?  No.  The queue becomes almost redundant in Ultimate because you can get most of the (important) information that you'd get in the queue by just hovering the mouse over a print on the preview page in Ultimate.  The queue now becomes more of a troubleshooting or "diagnostic" tool.  I think most people won't even look at it any more.

Regards,
Mike