
Capture One users may be feeling a little ‘hung out to dry’ recently, as the popular post-processing and tethering software is accused of price gouging. The multi-user license has now been replaced by the Capture One Studio for Teams, and with it, a massive price increase.
Sure, users will get a slightly improved user experience, but enough to justify the 344% price increase is highly unlikely.
According to Capture Integration, any studio with more than one person will be forced to purchase a new annual subscription. This is apparently now the only option for studio and e-commerce shooters.
Massive price increase
Capture Integration reports that a team of 10 users could last week purchase an annual user license for $1,598. This week, that price has jumped to a whopping $5,500, a price increase of 3.5 times the previous price.
Capture One is selling updates as part of the “improved user experience” to justify the increase. These include AI cropping, faster AI in general, and a tethering boost particularly geared towards Sony and Fujifilm shooters.
Truthfully, all that doesn’t sound particularly worth the additional cost. The single-user Capture One Pro licenses haven’t increased in price and remain at $299. However, some very disgruntled studio and commercial photographers will almost certainly be required to upgrade to the Teams subscription.
More subscriptions
Can they afford to do this? Of course, the larger studios and commercial photographers who work on big campaigns should be able to manage it. However, that being said, it’s yet another subscription that needs to be paid.
With the number of subscriptions out there these days, Creatives are beginning to feel like a bank to software companies. It’s important to keep track; otherwise, these small monthly or annual costs can really sap your profits.
Walking away from Capture One
Studios with just two or three employees will have to pay for this higher subscription. Many of these medium and smaller photography businesses are running (rightly or wrongly) on incredibly tight margins. This could be enough to throw some of them over the edge and cause them to vote with their feet.
“This price increase is unprecedented and will cause some serious budget issues with the majority of our corporate customers. After speaking to a few today, they have expressed the desire to move to a competitive product themselves,” says Dave Gallagher from Capture Integration.
It’s worth noting that Capture One is now almost entirely separate from Phase One, although both are still owned by the same umbrella investment group. This move by Capture One is in line with several decisions over the past year to be more money-goal-orientated.
That’s too bad because Capture One was always a superior product for “serious” photographers. However, there does come a point where you need to say, ” Enough!”