Capture One Wish List – 5 Things I wish Capture One would do to improve the Software
I’ve been using Capture One for quite some time now (since version 6 I think) and in that time it’s come a long way. With recent versions, they’ve been adding a lot of features that people have requested for a long time, but there are still areas where I think the software could be improved. Moreover, some recent decisions by the company are somewhat perplexing, and there are areas there that could be improved too. So, in no particular order, here are the five things I would love to see improved in Capture One
Quick disclaimer. I know some of these may come across as overly negative, but before you start sending me hate mail, just know that I love Capture One. If I sound critical, it’s because I care, and I want to see the application continue to grow. It’s also just my opinions, and it’s perfectly fine if you don’t agree with those.
Lower and more consistent pricing
I understand that Capture One bills itself as a high-end professional tool, but the company is also going after the broader consumer and prosumer markets, and in that market, the pricing doesn’t really make much sense. In fact, they increased the prices a year ago, ended the cheaper manufacturer versions and increased the cost of upgrading.
In particular, the subscription prices are in my opinion too expensive. The cost of a year's subscription is more or less the same as the cost of a perpetual upgrade, and doesn’t come with any other benefits. As they only upgrade the software to a major release (requiring an upgrade) each year, the subscription price is too expensive in my opinion, and offers no real value over the cost of a perpetual licence upgrade. I had thought it was a better option initially, but after doing some analysis of the costs, I can’t see a big advantage.
I recently asked a question on my Facebook group whether or not people were still using Capture One, and a surprising number of people said that they had moved away from the software, with the increased prices being the major factor. With the manufacturer versions gone now too, the price of entry for new users is significantly higher. The Adobe photography plan, on the other hand, gives you access to two versions of Lightroom, all the mobile versions, and Photoshop, and cloud syncing and only costs €12 a month (approx €144 a year, ) whereas Capture One costs €29 a month or €219 a year. This just doesn’t come across a good value if you’re trying to woo Lightroom customers (which company execs have previously stated is their goal). I don’t mind paying because I like and appreciate the software, but it’s getting hard to justify to others, especially as Lightroom has improved so much recently.
The other issue is the constant sales. It’s hard to gauge the proper true price for Capture One because they are constantly having sales, with various discounts on various versions. I know everyone loves a sale, but it seems that for some, this is now baked into the price. Would you not be better off just offering a more consistent, lower price, rather than having your customers trying to fit into the best sale window?
I could go on and on about this, but I’m going to move on.
A better plug-in API
The lack of proper plug-ins is a big bone of contention for some users, and while you can use lots of software as external editors, there are very few decent plug-ins available. According to developers who I’ve heard from, the main reason for this is that the plug-in API just isn’t good enough. How true this is, I don’t know, but that’s what is being said.
A strong ecosystem would really help improve the software, so making it easier for developers to make plug-ins would be a considerable benefit across all users, even if you never use them yourself. There are so many useful utilities for Lightroom, and clever plug-ins to expand the workflow, and it would really be great to see something similar on Capture One, but for this to happen, we need more people using the software, and a better API.
Improved metadata handling in Capture One
This isn’t something that affects me too much personally, but I'm aware that there are many users who regularly complain about this, specifically the keyword management. While some of these complaints are super specific, I think there’s enough chatter about this that it should be a priority.
The interface for entering captions and titles is kind of terrible, and I would love to see this improved.
Personally, I would love to see the company use AI to automatically take images and make it easier to search for photos based on object recognition, but I’m guessing that won’t happen any time soon.
Focus on the small things
A whole release where there isn’t any big features, but just fixing all the small usability things that people have been complaining about for years. For example:
- The ability to put different variants into different collections or folders.
- The ability to see the contents of collections when the parent project or group is selected.
- Fix the auto-rotate (OK, this is only a new one, but it irks me so much)
- Fix the Fullscreen Mode, so it’s just the app full screen, and have a separate option for full-screen slideshow.
- When you reset the crop, it resets the rotation (or at least an option)
- Ability to hide cropped edges on the thumbnails
Stuff like that. I’ve seen people complain on forums about this stuff for ages, so fixing a lot of these little things would make a lot of people happy.
Replace the new Capture One activation system
OK, this is a specific one to Capture One 22, but the new authentication system is terrible. The way it seems to go to the webpage to download something just to activate the application just seems ridiculous, but the bigger issue is that a recent outage from their Payment Processor Fast Spring caused Capture One to be unworkable for some time for some subscription customers. This isn’t really acceptable in this day and age.
If you are selling your product as a high-end tool for professionals, a problem with a partner’s internet service shouldn’t take down a standalone application for an extended period. It’s just not acceptable in the professional space.
Conclusion
These are just some of the things that I’ve been thinking about recently, when I use Capture One. Everyone has their own pet peeves, and so I’m sure 20 different people would write twenty different lists. So, what are the 5 things you think need to be changed or improved? Leave your answers in the comments below.
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