Corel Paintshop Pro 7 ultimate vs Serif PhotoPlus x7 vs ACDsee - Need advice

[ricardo_o]

<p>Hi Friends,<br /><br /> Recently I have upgrade my laptop to Dell Inspiron 7000 (with improved speed & RAM), I need your advice for deciding on a new Post Processing program for my RAW files(Canon 6D & WP Lumia 1020). Although, I have been using Lightroom 4 prior (which is pretty good), I decided not go ahead with the new Adobe monthly subscription model as I'm not a professional photographer and only process my pics every other month (party/holiday). <br /><br /><br /> I have narrowed it down to three choices<br /><br /> * Corel Paintshop Pro 7<br /> * Serif Photoplus x7<br /> * ACDsee Pro 8<br /><br /> what are the major pros & cons of each program?<br /><br /> what will you recommend? <br /><br /> Cheers!</p>

[steven_clark]

To clarify for other people: you are talking about

Paintshop Pro X7, I think it's been 13 years since you

could get a copy of PSP7.

[bgelfand]

<p>Lightroom is available for purchase; you do not need to use the subscription model. If you wait about a month or so, you should be able to get it for about half price as part of the Holiday Specials. Last year and the year before it was sold on Amazon and Newegg for about $75 - less than the upgrade price. I you are running Lightroom 4 the upgrade to 5 price is about $77 right now.<br>

http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Lightroom-5-Upgrade/dp/B00CH6AWOY/ref=sr_1_3?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1412706987&sr=1-3&keywords=lightroom</p>

<p>Photoshop is a different story. It is only available new by subscription.</p>

[Charles_Webster]

<p>You can get Photoshop Elements 13 for <$90 at Amazon. Most of PS functionality, less cost, no subscription.<br>

<Chas></p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>There's no reason for you to switch from Lightroom 4. It'll continue doing what you need. And it'll help you keep track of your photos, which can be very helpful if you shoot mostly family stuff. You can use the tags, keywords, etc., to organize by event, names, etc.</p>

<p>And you can extend the functionality of Lightroom with external editing tools that interface pretty well with LR: Nik, onOne Perfect Suite, DxO FilmPack, pixel level editors like Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop Elements and others.</p>

<p>For that matter, Picasa is very good for organizing family and casual snapshots, and includes face recognition. It's also subjectively "quicker" feeling than Lightroom 4. But it lacks Lightroom's far more sophisticated raw handing capability. I keep saying it, but if Google nudged the Picasa crew to produce a version with better raw development including noise reduction, it could offer some serious competition to Lightroom for many photographers.</p>

<p>Regarding Paint Shop Pro, I actually still am using the old version 7 when it was still a Jasc product. The only thing I've used it for is to work in layers, and very seldom - maybe a handful of times a year. It's occasionally been useful for selective edits that Lightroom still can't quite match. And most recently I've used the channel mixer swap trick for color infrared photos.</p>

<p>But I don't do pixel level editing or layers often enough to justify even the reasonable subscription fee for Adobe, and I'm not sure I'd use it enough to justify even the cost of Elements or the latest version of PSP. However my old copy of PSP7 has very crude cloning and brush tools, and there are occasions when I'd be able to use better brush tools.</p>

[alexandr_schneider]

<p>I am using ACDSEE PRO 7. Organizing, editing, viewing. For me it is very speed and powerful software. I edited by it more than one hundred thousands pictures. Its core qualities is speed, comfort and wide variety of image editing tools. Nor Picasa, nor PaintShopPro can not compare to ACDSEE.<br>

But RAW files taken by my Sony (ARW) i prefer edit in Image Data Converter and after that continue editing in ACDSEE. </p>

[Mark Keefer]

<p>I have Paint Shop Pro X5 and thinking about getting X7 that supports full 64Bit and faster. It's a darn good program packed with many features similar to Photoshop. There are tons of tutorials on anything you want to do with it. It does layers, clone brush, graphic arts. It's a good tool. I use it with Lightroom 5. I have an older version of Photoshop CS3 on my old Windows 7 Machine that I rarely turn on any more as it is so slow and the reason I bought a new computer. Sadly Photoshop CS3 will not install on my new Windows 8 machine. I am getting by just fine with Lightroom 5 and Paintshop Pro X5 for now. You probably will get by nicely with Paint Shop Pro X7, it really can do just about anything Photoshop can for a lot less money. To get the most out of it, just watch the many free YouTube videos out there.</p>

 

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Lightroom doesn't require you to subscribe, so frankly I'd get Lightroom 5 if you're used to working with LR already, and happy with what it does. If you mean you really want to turn away from Adobe, the tool closest to Lightroom of those you mention is ACDSee Pro; I never got round to trying it, but reviews are quite positive. Personally I use CaptureOne, which is worth trying out as well (but a different pricetag than the tools you look at). Another tool similar to Lightroom with decent reviews is Cyberlink PhotoDirector 5 (but again, I never got round to trying that one either); it costs about the same as the other programs you listed, it's not too well known.</p>

<p>Paintshop Pro X7 and the Serif package are much closer to what Photoshop does; for the money they cost, I'd get Photoshop Elements instead (as others suggested); I'm using a less recent version (9), and it is really good value for money. If again it cannot be anything Adobe - I'd go with Paintshop Pro probably, Serif tools somehow always managed to underwhelm me (I tried several) and be too much wizard-driven; but for those these two programs, I'd first look how the raw file conversion comes out, I really have no idea about their quality.</p>

<p>It really depends a lot on how you work, and whether you use the catalog of Lightroom, or only its editing tools; whether you use batch-editing in Lightroom or not, and so on. As editors, the tools as PS Elements and PSP X7 have more bells and whistles (which is a pro and con - usability tends to suffer a bit). But as workflow tools, and getting a lot of images done quickly, simply and efficiently, they come very short to the likes of Lightroom and CaptureOne. As catalog tools, they're also not as good. Plus, the boxed copy of LR5 does not cost that much more actually.<br>

Best thing to do: download trial versions and see for yourself. It'll give you a better idea whether it's worth switching at all, and if yes, what kind of program works best for you. None of them is outright bad, but their User Interfaces and ways of getting tasks done do differ, and only you can judge whether you find those ways of working logical and efficient or not.</p>

[justthings]

<p>I have historically used the Paintshop Pro X software (up to 6 now). I don't use it for RAW file processing however because it is pretty bad for that. It is ok for a lot of other stuff like resizing and such for the limited amount of 'pixel' editing that I do. For RAW processing I have been trying out Lightzone and Raw Therapee - both of which are free and are significantly better than PSP for RAW files. I think the biggest issue is to identify what you actually need to do - something like Picasa (also free.. note the trend here?) may do very well for what you want to accomplish with your photos.</p>

[GBarrington]

<p>Actually I use both ACDSee Pro 8 and PSP X6. I use Pro 8 as my photo manager and raw developer, and PSP X6 as a companion bit mapped editor. Though I rarely use PSP any more, since the only thing I use it for is when I need layers, which ACDSee won't do.</p>

<p>To tell the truth, the bit mapped editor built into ACDSee Pro is now good enough, that I no longer think of it as some sort of 'touch-up' editor. It is capable of some very subtle work. ACDSee Pro's newest features include Pixel targeting and something they call a blend mode. PT allows you to build a mask built around lighting zone and color information contained by specific pixels. One (admittedly cheesy) example of its use would be if you only wanted certain parts of the sky to be "bluer" with out changing other parts of the sky at all.</p>

<p>The ACDSee blend modes seem to function like the blend modes in most editors with layers. But it is NOT true layers. But they are named after and appear to function like layers blend modes. It is possible make an edit and then select a blend mode and offer a different effect (either quite subtle or "over the top"). I'm not sure how this function works, but it is kind of cool.</p>

<p>I did not upgrade to PSP X7 as I don't think the upgrade price would have bought me much in the way of extra value, since I use it so rarely. This does not mean though that I think has no value. It is a very good bit mapped editor. And its raw development capability is far better than people give it credit for.</p>

<p>The thing is PSP's raw tool does things a bit differently. More like the first generation raw developers, it focuses on developing a raw photo to the perfect exposure, which you would then finish off in the bit mapped editor. This is a common sense approach for a PSP centric workflow, and when viewed from that perspective, it is a very good raw developer. But for most of us used to the 'soup to nuts' approach of Lightroom, ACDSee Pro, or CaptureOne, it seems . . . odd. We've been spoiled, I guess.</p>

<p>I wrote two articles on my personal, not for profit blog on using both Pixel Targeting, and on how to get the most out of PSP X6's raw development. And I think they're pretty good. I'm not sure if the Photo.net rules permit posting another site's address, so if you are interested, you can look meup on blogspot. just put <em>"http://glenbarrington.blogspot.com/"</em> in your internet browser.</p>