MacPhun’s “Complete Your Collection” Limited Time Offer
By PhotoJoseph
September 15, 2014 - 9:00pm
If you're a fan of MacPhun products but don't yet own them all, then this is a great time to check out what else they have on offer. You can complete your collection and save 30%, including on their all-new Tonality Pro, a very cool B&W conversion tool, which I've yet to review on here… but I will, I promise!
Click here to visit their store and Complete Your Collection.
Comments
on September 25, 2014 - 5:55am
Given that Aperture is being retired, what happens with the plugins you get with the Pro version of these apps? If there are no plugins for Photos, then what would the Pro versions give you over the regular versions? While we will get Extensions instead in OSX10.10, are existing Pro users gonna get a free upgrade, or would current Pro users be stuck with outdated plugins requiring a new license to get Extensions support?
I’ve only tried the standalone versions of some of their apps, like Tonality and Snapheal, but I’m not prepared to upgrade until I know what the situation will be in the post-Aperture world.
And yes, I could move to Lightroom, but I really don’t want to if I don’t have to, and the though of moving my library makes me groan, seeing as none of the edits can be ported over.
on September 25, 2014 - 5:58am
I think that's a great and fair question. I don't know the answer but I've asked someone from MacPhun to publicly respond here. Hopefully they will.
@PhotoJoseph
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on September 27, 2014 - 10:11am
Hi guys - Kevin here from Macphun. Thanks for the interest and excellent question.
Frankly speaking, the development team is currently researching how best to evolve our tools and technology to fit the new OS X / Photos Extensions architecture. After that, we’d take up the question of how to best deliver the goods to the world.
From the “do I upgrade or don’t I?” perspective, please note that our Pro versions offer a lot more than just plug-in support for Aperture or the other hosts - there are new controls in each of the products that offer more control and creativity.
That said, I think that Aperture will continue to have a decently long life-span. Not sure what Joseph thinks, but I expect Apple to update RAW libraries and maintain OS X support through at least Yosemite if not longer. Therefore, I think even if folks get our Pro versions now for exclusive use in Aperture, they are still an excellent value. And… of course the worst case if Aperture suddenly blows up is that our software provides Pro-caliber features when running in their standalone modes.
As we hear more or finalise our plans for this, we’ll announce it on our blog at http://macphun.com/blog.
Thanks again for the question. Kevin (from Macphun)
Kevin La Rue, Skylum
on September 27, 2014 - 6:32pm
Thanks for your reply. Personally, since they have promised Yosemite support, I’ve decided to use Aperture for at least until we know what shape Photos for OSX will take, and then perhaps some, given the initial version might not be feature-complete or stable, going by past examples. I fear Photos won’t have the same organisational or metadata-tagging features as Aperture though, which would be a great shame, an opening for a 3rd party to supply an extension of their own to fill the gap.
As far as I know, Aperture today relies on the system Raw library (hence support for some mirrorless camera Lens profiles), much as Photos will later. As it is, their Raw library supports my cameras fine, so I’m not worried about updates. The promise of Extensions is that they can plug into that Raw library early in the chain for better output quality and speed. If it allows the effects to be applied nondestructively, that would be amazing.
Tonality is the product that interests me the most, perhaps Snapheal, but I tend to use Photoshop for that. It needs further investigation.
on September 28, 2014 - 7:58am
Sounds like a plan, Martin. A bit of a wait-and-see we’re all in. I would find it unconscionable if Apple were to “blow away” all the metadata/tagging of your library when it converts over to Photos.
Kevin La Rue, Skylum
on September 28, 2014 - 10:22pm
Thanks for responding personally, Kevin. I wish more developers were as involved!
And to everyone else, Kevin makes a very good point—even if you don't use Aperture anymore, all of the MacPhun tools operate standalone, meaning they are independent apps. Operating as a plugin is a bonus, really.
@PhotoJoseph
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