Subscription Model

[Travel Buddha]

I get the attraction of a subscription model from the company's perspective. It gives predictability to cash flows and makes the company that much more marketable for outside investment or buyout. I don't begrudge Camerabits for the decision. But, as someone who first started using PM 20 years ago as a student, and have been a loyal paying customer for more than 15 years, there are two things that make this rub me the wrong way.

1. The decision to make the Mac Universal release the transition point. If this was done at the release of PM7 where a whole bunch of new features were added, it would make sense. All this release does is optimize the program for Apple processors. By choosing to transition now, you're essentially charging users more for a program that simply does what's advertised.

2. The lack of an upgrade option (as was previously available) for legacy users. I think it would be totally reasonable for CameraBits to say. "For $99 legacy users can upgrade to the new perpetual license, with 1 year of updates included." I'd jump on that in a heartbeat, and I doubt I'd be alone. That would acknowledge the decades of support the userbase has happily given the company for producing a great product, while also transitioning to the new business model. After the year is up, we can choose whether to move to the subscription, buy another perpetual license, or stop paying.

Speaking for myself, I'm definitely not moving to the new subscription model, and paying full freight for a new perpetual license, when I already bought one, is a non-starter.

[elianoimperato]

I get the attraction of a subscription model from the company's perspective. It gives predictability to cash flows and makes the company that much more marketable for outside investment or buyout. I don't begrudge Camerabits for the decision. But, as someone who first started using PM 20 years ago as a student, and have been a loyal paying customer for more than 15 years, there are two things that make this rub me the wrong way.

1. The decision to make the Mac Universal release the transition point. If this was done at the release of PM7 where a whole bunch of new features were added, it would make sense. All this release does is optimize the program for Apple processors. By choosing to transition now, you're essentially charging users more for a program that simply does what's advertised.

2. The lack of an upgrade option (as was previously available) for legacy users. I think it would be totally reasonable for CameraBits to say. "For $99 legacy users can upgrade to the new perpetual license, with 1 year of updates included." I'd jump on that in a heartbeat, and I doubt I'd be alone. That would acknowledge the decades of support the userbase has happily given the company for producing a great product, while also transitioning to the new business model. After the year is up, we can choose whether to move to the subscription, buy another perpetual license, or stop paying.

Speaking for myself, I'm definitely not moving to the new subscription model, and paying full freight for a new perpetual license, when I already bought one, is a non-starter.

I totally agree with you. Unfortunately we're white flies and Camera Bits business will continue also without us 

[rhomberg]

100% agree with both previous posts, well said. I didn't even think about the fact that now also upgrade pricing is gone.

Transitions to subscriptions have been handled well or even very well and thoughtful by some developers where every user was left happy. They learned a lot from others. I feel like no one can be considered "happy" here. At best people swallow the bitter pill, resign and say PM is essential for their workflow. So, I am still on the lookout for whatever new amazing development is to come now that PM has to justify a subscription model by additional means other than the developer's wish for a steady income stream. 😊

[ulrik]

What would make you upgrade?

We need a two pronged strategy:

1. Try to let them know that we like the programme but we are more likely to give them money if they change their approach.
2. Come with the features we need and which would make it worth for us to upgrade.

For me to update and pay quite a substantial amount more, I need to earn more money. And thats speed (software, option to do all in one window, custom shortcuts, easy to change FTP, automatisation and constant crop.....) and improve quality of photos via editing (extremely quick editing  with a possiblity to auto adjust on all photos).......

[DanY]

My two cents: Seems I'm not the only one who is unhappy with the pricing for the subscription and the "upgrade" price for previous perpetual license holders like myself. Camera Bits needs to add a lot more value to users for them to stay. Besides if a company like Affinity can do perpetual licenses with the current version lasting years before an upgrade, I don't see why Camera Bits can't. Affinity adds so much value and keeps geting updated. Their tutorials and learning resources are top notch and easy to access. They also earn additional income from plugins. Sure Photo Mechanic may not do plugins, but I think the company owner reading my post should get my drift. I'm still on the last real perpetual version of the software. Its been a couple years since the company strayed. I check in every few months to see if the number of improvements is worth it for a new license. So far still not.

What would make you upgrade?

We need a two pronged strategy:

1. Try to let them know that we like the programme but we are more likely to give them money if they change their approach.
2. Come with the features we need and which would make it worth for us to upgrade.

For me to update and pay quite a substantial amount more, I need to earn more money. And thats speed (software, option to do all in one window, custom shortcuts, easy to change FTP, automatisation and constant crop.....) and improve quality of photos via editing (extremely quick editing  with a possiblity to auto adjust on all photos).......

[Sharonel]

For me, At least, After upgrading I cancelled my recurring renewal. In a year, I'll see what were the updates within the year (I don't see, currently, any reason to keep a subscription to be honest, With the new feature lifecycle) and make my decision. The break even of PM between perpetual and yearly subscription is 1.5 Years. Between PM+ perpetual and Yearly it's 2 years and above. I suspect that as I see currently, PM doesn't show features or fixes that justify yearly updates (Or subscription), So perpetual per 2.5-3 years looks attractive, Unless PM will get thier SH*** together and start giving more value than just OS compatibility. The only question is Mac OS, And the time that the MAC doesn't work with the new OSs. this is an upgrade point as well.
In the past, PM5, PM6 - I paid $150 for the initial version and 90 or $99 for the upgrade. Other times.

[jrp]

Well they don't currently even give guarantee OS compatibility, just encourage you to delay upgrading on the grounds that new releases always have bugs.  I have always liked the app for its comprehensiveness (even though they could have provided better links to IPSC) but now there has been little by way of improved performance / features since we went subscription.

AI will soon, if it is not already, be capable of managing your keywords and metadata, so we are left with a fast copy function which, on MacOS, just uses a built-in MacOS app, ditto.  I'd say that keywording has another 5 years, beyond which AI will obviate the need for it.

I have just given cameratbits another year's rental, but next year is not a given, I regret to say.

[leitner]

Photo Mechanic is an essential niche for a lot of professional photographers and they recognize it's value for their bottom line which is to save time, which is money. Photographers who aren't professionals should maybe find other software that suits their needs and wallet.

I'm sure there still would have been disappointment, but probably less hard feelings, if this was stated when subscriptions were announced.

Heck, as recently as August Camera Bits featured a guest blog post which mentioned using Photo Mechanic for organizing and captioning a family photo archive, https://home.camerabits.com/how-i-use-photo-mechanic-to-organize-thousands-of-photos-fast-my-top-3-favorite-time-saving-features/, which I doubt most people would classify as professional photography.

I appreciate your honesty, and for clarifying that I should look elsewhere for software to help in my photography hobby.

Brian

[DarrenR]

I have been using this software for 15 years and very happily paying for every major update - there weren't too many of those so I didn't have an opportunity to be very supportive of CB. Now the pricing has moved into a completely different realm from my perspective and would likely cost me more for the next year or two, than the previous fifteen. It would cost more than Photoshop and Lightroom per year too. Clearly I am not using the software to its full potential and I am not the intended audience. I don't mind subscription models, but this particular one is too expensive for me and I need to look elsewhere.

I have enjoyed using PM a great deal and from Dennis' comments I guess was taking advantage of having cheap access to something I shouldn't have been using. I was lucky at their expense and I appreciate that :-)

Speaking of Dennis' comments (which are now removed?) I totally sympathized with many of his points and thought they were well made. As a software developer and small business owner of many years, I felt a lot of solidarity. It's a shame to lose that perspective that he brought to this conversation, by deleting his post.

Wishing you lots of success.

[DarrenR]

I appreciate your honesty, and for clarifying that I should look elsewhere for software to help in my photography hobby.

I agree with your points Brian and wish you luck finding something more in your (our!) lane ;-)