Capture One Finally Fixes Retina Performance (and something about portraits)

Last week Capture One (the company) held an event which they had been hyping up for a few weeks to launch the latest version of Capture One (the software) as well as giving an update on the company’s direction. At least that’s how they billed it. They had been selling it pretty hard in the emails that they had been sending out to customers, but in the end, the reality didn’t match the hype.

I had tuned in to the stream with some curiosity, as Capture One (the company) doesn’t normally hold live events like this. They normally just launch their software with a press release. Here’s how they had been selling this livestream:

Join the Livestream of our NEXT CAPTURE event to hear directly from our CEO, Rafael Orta, VP of Product & Technology, Kostas Kastrinogiannis, and Director of Product Management, Mathieu Bourlion.

You’ll get an exclusive first look at where we’re headed, why it matters, and how it will impact the way you create.

This is our biggest announcement ever, and it’s just the beginning.

What was “the biggest announcement ever?” A couple of new AI portrait tools, and some tweaks to how you set up sessions. The whole event was a bit odd, to be honest. It started with the CEO giving a slightly passive-aggressive dig about generative AI and how they would always be about photography by photographers or something like that. They reiterated their focus is on their legacy as a purveyor of high-end studio software. They also rebranded the entire company with a logo that looks a little like the Creative Commons or the Comedy Central logo, but given how the event was about “where’ we’re headed and why it matters” they barely mentioned the rebranding.

Anyway, the portrait tools, to be fair, are quite impressive. It’s not really anything new though, as other companies have similar tools, but it’s good to have them built into the software directly. I’m sure this will save professional portrait photographers and retouchers (they really loved the term “digitechs” at the event) lot’s of time and based on what I’ve tried, they seem to work quite well. However, as someone who doesn’t shoot portraits, there wasn’t really anything in this release for me.

Or so I thought.

They also released a new beta containing the new portrait features at the event, and for the first time, they have lifted the NDA on the beta releases. In fact, they are encouraging people to talk about it. (Although, given the reaction to the event on Reddit and other places, they may regret that). Nestled in the release notes for the Beta was this nugget…

Improved Viewer performance on macOS Improved Viewer performance on macOS Improved Viewer performance on macOS

We’ve improved Viewer responsiveness when using high-DPI displays, such as Retina screens or external 4K+ monitors. Slider adjustments now feel smoother and more immediate.

Finally.

I and others have been complaining about this for ages now. Years in fact. And amazingly some people even insisted it wasn’t an issue, and we were just making it up (I actually got an email to this effect) despite having previously been acknowledged by the company.

Anyway, I can report that it has indeed fixed this incredibly frustrating problem. Mostly. It’s still a tiny bit sticky at times, but it’s way, way better than it was.

So there you have it. Finally sorted.

I know I’ve been a little bit facetious in this post, but the event was just so odd, especially the way they had hyped it up beforehand. The rebranding is weird too. The whole thing comes across as just a bit defensive. They really didn’t need to do it, that way, The rebranding, and especially the new website and logo are just “meh”. I guess it might grow on us after a while, but it’s just so non-descriptive. Apparently, the logo is supposed to be someone focussing a lens. They really did hammer home the “we’re for professionals” vibe at the event too, and the tagline on the website is “MADE FOR PROS, USED BY ALL”.

I don’t have a problem with this, to be clear, it’s just a bit passive-aggressive, and again, comes across as defensive. I just think they left a lot of bad blood with some of their user base (again, based on comments I’ve received from people and from comments on reddit).

The new portrait tools are good. I honestly don’t want to take away from that, but when you see it as “the future direction of the company” you’re kind of saying that fashion/studio shoots are all we care about now. There’s literally no mention of Landscapes on the home page where they list all the types of Pros the software is for, and landscape photographers were a big part of the user base when it was part of Phase One. I’m sure that’s not intentional, but it kind of came across like that at the event, and again, professional landscape photographers in various forums were pretty pissed.

But at least they fixed the performance finally.

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