Capture One Discontinues Manufacturer versions of Software

Capture One today announced that they were discontinuing the individual manufacturer versions of the software. This means that the Sony, Nikon and Fujifilm versions of the application are going away. In fact they’re no longer available as of yesterday.

So what does this mean for existing users of the branded versions? Well, luckily things aren’t too bad.

• If you’re a perpetual licence holder of the current version, you will get a free upgrade to Capture One Pro in April of this year.
• If you’re a subscriber, you will continue to pay the current price for as long as you subscribe, but will also get the upgrade to the full Capture One Pro in April.
• If you have an older version of Capture One for Nikon, Sony or Fujfilim, you can upgrade to the full version for the price you would have paid to upgrade the branded version (a 25% discount). This offer also ends in April.

It’s not clear what’s happening with the free express versions. As it stands they’re still on the website, but will they be discontinued in the future? I suspect not, but you never know.

So why are they doing this? According to DpReview the company’s stated reason is because..

“(This is in) preparation for the launch of new and existing products, including a powerful new way to collaborate with Capture One Live, and the brand's first iOS app with Capture One for iPad

My thoughts on this

I was a bit blindsided by this announcement. I’m a little worried about the direction of the company to be honest. Back in December Capture One ended their long running affiliate programme. Had this still been running I would have had a heads up about this announcement. As it is, they informed users of the brand version through email, but as of now, there is no official announcement that I can find on their website, or official social media channels.

Secondly, the timing of this is a bit crap. Why wouldn’t you announce this at the start of a major upgrade cycle with Capture One 22 announced only a month ago? Why not do this then? I get wanting to simplify the lineup. I really do, but this seems like a bad way to do it, from a PR point of view. I read on some forums that some people paid for the cross upgrade from the manufacturer version to the full version when Capture One 22 was released last month, only to now find out that they could have gotten it for free. Again, I don’t understand why they didn’t announce this at the time of the upgrade? This seems like they deliberately delayed this to get people to upgrade to 22 first.

Thirdly, this significantly raises the cost of entry for new users of the software. Capture One is not cheap, and now, for those who had been on the fence about purchasing it, this may make them change their mind. Lately, I’ve felt that Capture One was trying to go in two different directions. On the one hand, it was a high end professional application, and always had been. On the other, they had been busy trying to compete more directly with Lightroom. Personally, I always felt it was a mistake to directly compete with Lightroom (and I said this to them directly). Perhaps this is them recalibrating?

I really want to end on a positive note, so let’s just hope that this is just the company looking to clean up their lineup and simplify their pricing before announcing new products. I still like Capture One, and use it all the time, and I won’t be going any where as a customer any time soon, but I hope this doesn’t put new users off from trying the software at least. Having said that, I do understand if this changes the calculus for some.

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