Corel announces AfterShot Pro

Just saw this tidbit from CES: Corel, who recently acquired Bibble, announced their own raw post-processing software aimed squarely as a competitor to Lightroom/Aperture:

Corel Unveils AfterShot Pro, Picks Fight With Adobe Lightroom

It'll be interesting to see how it stacks up.

Corel bought Bibble in 2011 and the Bibble team all joined in to produce this new product, so it shows good promise, especially at ~$100!

Very interesting.. I see that 'Perfectly Clear' box.. I wonder if they purchased / licensed Athentec's filter to integrate with their product..

So far the reviews I've read aren't too favorable (pcmag was one of them, I think.)

They ranked them below Cyberlink's Photodirector (though, often I feel some of the reviewers for these products aren't all that qualified... I could name 5 or 6 people in these forums I'd trust before many magazine reviewers.) So, I'll reserve final judgement for if/when I get around to downloading the demo.

I too am looking at this space, and hope to see someone really step it up. As much as I like LR, Adobe seems to have an inflated ego (recent pricing attempt - and recent retraction) seem to show this. I still feel LR is missing the mark in several key areas... hopefully they've kept something up their sleeves with LR4 that will surprise us when finally released; the LR4 beta is where maybe LR 3 should have been IMO...

The problem is, these other guys haven't stepped up quick enough either from what I've seen... though for first versions I'd say these products don't seem bad. The price point of these new products is nice though... and makes it a much easier to recommend to my budget-conscious friends. Be interesting to see if Adobe feels the pricing pressure from these competitors, or if their ego will keep them priced in the $300 range even in the face of a $79 Aperture.

the layer approach seems interesting....i wonder how that works out.

BrandonSi wrote in post #13680178
I see that 'Perfectly Clear' box.

The Perfectly Clear technology was the only good thing Bibble had going for it. Years ago I was in communication with the developers of PC who told me they were going to develop their own RAW converter. I don't think they ever did, tho.

Interesting news about this new app. I'll need to read some user and magazine reviews before I consider it, tho.

Thanks for the heads-up!

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #13695883
So far the reviews I've read aren't too favorable (pcmag was one of them, I think.)

Reviewers (paid) are next to worthless.

ASP is (now) just a re-branded BibblePro v5. I've used Bibble for several years and it is a fairly easy to use program. It has it's warts (I've never heard LR called "perfect"), but for a $120 (Pro version) program it worked amazingly well.

The biggest complaint I've had with Bibble in the last year is the slow development, but after seeing the Corel news it's obvious they were busy putting their development energy into ASP.

My biggest "plus" with Bibble is the ability to ignore/disable catalogs when desired. LR scares the heck out of me with that "feature", plus it makes it difficult to work on images with more than one PC.

The $5 "upgrade" price made moving from Bibble to ASP (for now at least) an easy choice.

mbellot wrote in post #13697491
Reviewers (paid) are next to worthless.

LOL. If only people knew!

I used to be an assistant editor at a magazine and book publishing company. I was also a monthly columnist. One of my duties was to decide what/who got reviewed in the numerous publications. Details are not important. Suffice it to say that pressure was exerted upon me to put weight to those who also advertised in the magazines.

And those full-page advertisers? Wow! I was basically "guided" into groveling at their feet in full worship.

If people only knew.

The only surprise here is that anyone believes anything that they read in a magazine review !!!

Not sure if anyone's posted this link yet, but some plugins are available for Aftershot Pro.

This is a good thing for the market in that it will hopefully keep Adobe's ego in check. I've never seen an initial release of a software application that was perfect and met everyone's expectations. Remember the initial release of Lightroom, it certainly had its shortcomings. Aftershot Pro certainly has some interesting approaches and I may download a trial just to see for myself. I am not about to change my current application suite but more for seeing another way of doing things.

I will say, reviewers, non-photographers, are practically worthless.

I downloaded the trial and used it for the full 30 days. It works extremely well on my older laptops and it just screams on my newer workstation. It is one of the best apps I have used for image processing that doesn't not feel bloated. I have already added numerous plugins to it and use it, on and off, along with RT. I'm just a hobbyist but I do want my pictures to look the best they can. I also value my free time. ASP may not have all the bells and whistles, yet, as LR but it is cheaper and produces very good results. The bonus being that it isn't resource hungry at all.

Anyone can download the trial and judge for themselves. There's no need to take anyone's word or rely on cheesy reviews.