Nik Collection by "Google"

<p>I'm relatively new to photography within the last two years. I've been using Lightroom 4. I've been looking into free plugins for LR and I've also been hearing alot about Nik plugins as being 'the best' paid plugins. Forgive me if I'm just tuning into this, but it appears Google bought Nik Software. I am considering buying the 'Nik Collection' for $149.00 if it's still worth it. Thoughts? </p>

<p>Been using their collection for years when one program was more costly than the bundle is at this time. I would buy it now in a heart beat.</p>

<p>Definitely worth it and if you do a little Googling, you can find some discount codes that shave off another 15 (?) % on the cost.</p>

<p>It's worth it if it will do what you want. What do you want to do? Either way, you can download a 30 demo. Do that and see if it's worth your while. Probably will be. They are very good.</p>

<p>It's so worth it that there are many that are really upset with the new price. It used to be $500 US and was a tool that many bought in order to stand out from their competition. Sigh. </p>

<p>That's life. </p>

<p>Did the people who bought it at a higher price receive that perceived value during the time they owned it until the price was reduced?</p>

<p>I for one was not willing to pay the original price so I lived w/o it.</p>

<p>I know it's tough sometimes, but don't infer something from text on the net that perhaps isn't there. No regrets, Howard. </p>

<p>@Howard. Depending on when you bought the suite, you can get a refund of the difference you paid or you get a free upgrade to the latest versions. That pretty much seems to be making everyone happy.</p>

<p>I'm betting that it wil be free soon with a Google+ account</p>

<p>One of the least attractive things about the suite (when it was owned by NIK) was that you could not upgrade (ie. the suite you bought contained (for example) Viveza 4.0, if NIK released Viveza 5.0, you were totally out of luck and according to NIK (I checked), would have to buy the whole suite again. </p>

<p>Similar I recall as to the upgradability of various Creative Suite apps.</p>

<p>Yes let's hope that one can upgrade individual parts (eg., SilverEfex Pro) individually...and not have to shell out another $300-$500 to upgrade the entire suite once Google makes changes...there are some parts of the NIK (Google) Suite I don't use (ColorEfex), and other parts I use much...</p>

<p>Nik did offer an upgrade from Silver Efex Pro to Pro II. I purchased both and then, when Google took over, I was offered the complete suite of programs for free. Such a deal. However, I had Silver Efex Pro running on my Macbook, and it has been deactivated. Reloading the disc and using the old password no longer works. Not a problem since I do all my editing on my desktop Mac Pro. But it makes me wonder what Google has in store for the future. Whatever it is it looks to be cloud based.</p>

<p>Nik software is great value, I could recommend it highly.<br>

PS I have no conflict of interests here.</p>