Recently, Capture One released their latest v14.3 update. It came with some great new updates like the Magic Brush, but their attempt to “streamline” the user interface experience seems to have made quite a lot of their professional users pretty upset. At least, that’s what the feedback on social media suggests. As PetaPixel reports, the Output Tab has been removed along with specific associated features – breaking many workflows for photographers and editors. Some feel this is Capture One essentially trying to dumb down the interface for the more casual consumer and not their core professional user base that’s driven much of their growth since the product was first launched.
Architectural photographer Daniel Bray obviously wasn’t happy with the change at all. Capture One responded to Daniel’s concerns stating that it’s “made exporting faster and more streamlined”. Not everybody, however, agrees.
First Digi Berlin, a company supporting digital imaging techs, also wasn’t happy with the change, at all. They posted an extremely critical commentary to Instagram stating amongst other things that Capture One is shifting its attention towards picking up casual consumers rather than professionals to maximise profit at the expense of their core audience. Given some of the marketing images for the Capture One 14.3 update, one of which is shown at the very top of this post, you can understand where they get this idea from. This is just dissapointing and a slap in the face for all the hardworking professionals out there who rely on this tool. https://www.instagram.com/p/CR66nlPMdyV/ Not everybody is upset, however. Some users like the change, backing up Capture One’s idea that the previous way was confusing.
Capture One appears to have paid attention, however and is taking the feedback from their professional userbase very seriously. The company issued a statement to address the concerns of Capture One users who aren’t happy with the new update. The last week has revealed to us that not all those needs were fulfilled. While striving to create the most cutting-edge tools for our community, some of the long-established processes and tools our users rely upon were unfortunately lost in this recent update. This was never our intention. Exactly when a new version will appear is unknown, but Capture One appears to be working on it, possibly with a configurable toolbar that will let users have the option of choosing exactly what appears there. Hypothetically, this should make everybody happy, regardless of whether they prefer the old way or the new way of doing things in Capture One, but it probably won’t. [via PetaPixel]
