KC Honie

Serif, you are clearly an Adobe competitor. So why won't you listen to your customers and release a Lightroom alternative? With AI now one of your biggest requests you have a golden opportunity to create a photo management/storage/database/photo development app with AI features that will bring a ton of customers to your platform. Offer this with a discount to V2 bundle customers and you can make enough money to fund the development of that single app. I want local processing speed, and I want local management but with the smarts being offered by Google Photos search. GPhotos has super powerful search, I can type "fruits" and will bring results with photos that contain fruit. Could be paintings of fruits in a bowl, a street market stall, or a fruit tree. If I say "fruit trees" it is smart enough to narrow it for me. That would be incredible in a photo management app. To have auto-tagging, geolocation from merely analyzing the picture, I think this is called reverse geocoding. You are missing a massive chance here.

None of which are anywhere near Lightroom for cataloguing. They are slowly improving that aspect but... 
For one thing none of them have the mapping section nor the web gallery generation AFAIK
Photo Supreme looks interesting. You are right that Photo won't replace Lightroom in the same way Photoshop and Bridge don't.

Sorry to resurrect a nearly dormant thread, I think he wants what most of us want (wanted) a credible replacement for LR and C1.  So yes, a photo organizer and raw developer.  Everything is there on the developer side, Affinity Photo  has all the tools except an organizer...

2019 old for a Mac????  Hahahahahahaha
Sorry but NO, a 2019 Mac is very serviceable and will run the Affinity applications just fine, he may have to update MacOS, but the hardware is no problem.

Same here. Have already bought a copy of DxO PhotoLab because of C1 has been appalling with supporting new camera models. It's good, but not Affinity good.
Would love to see Serif step into this part of the market. Not sure what limitations LibRaw place on that. I know it's a whole new frontier to develop a RAW Workflow solution, but C1 have botched it and most of us are already here because we wanted to get as far away from Adobe as possible. 

This is as good of a place to put this as any.
I sent this to Serif outside of the message boards with regard to the current Capture One Pro licensing debacle.
I am a retired engineer, strategist, marketer, investment banker, and now photographer/creative.  I use Capture One and the full suite of Affinity products.
As I am certain that you are aware Capture One was/is popular in part because they had a robust perpetual licensing model (plus a fantastic product). Many of the same reasons that Affinity apps are very popular.  
Capture One has made a move to force users into a defacto subscription model and ANGRY does not begin to explain the sentiment of the ~50% of users that are perpetual licensees.
Opportunity
The opportunity for Serif is for "Affinity Develop", an application that is a competitor to Lightroom, Capture One, DxO, etc.  While not a trivial task to develop, the core is already done in Affinity Photo, simply strip out the develop module and wrap a DAM around it and you are ready to go.
I would hope that Affinity Develop (as I like to call it) is in actuality fairly far along. Now would be a GREAT time to "leak" that news.
Threat
The threat is much more subtle, like many C1P users I am now looking at alternatives such as DxO, LR, Topaz Labs, RawTherapee, and Dark Table.
If people bite the bullet and return to Adobe (I am an Adobe refugee from the subscription licensing model) then not only do they get Lightroom but also Photoshop and LR for iPad. Thereby deprecating Affinity Photo.
I am trialing all of the app mentioned above and am leaning toward moving back to LR. It would be fantastic to have a complete Serif Affinity suite including "Affinity Develop".  Roundtrips between it and Affinity Photo would be much more elegant than LR and PS and it would mimic (hopefully better) Adobe's camera raw.
Here is some of the anger directed at CO.
https://support.captureone.com/hc/en-us/articles/7998068628637-Changes-to-the-way-licensing-updates-and-upgrades-work-FAQ
Alternatively a simply a DAM created for AP would be sufficient.
As primarily a photographer, if I chose to return to Adobe (their subscription is much more favorable than CO's) then PS will displace AP.  I would rather be horsewhipped than return to a subscription model but CO is forcing our hands.  So come on Serif, show us photographers some love!!!
As an aside once the move is made to LR/PS that customer for AP is probably lost. The transition from C1P to LR will be painful and most won't want to make that kind of transition again anytime soon.
I would drop C1P like a hot potato if there was an Affinity solution.
 

First of all, thanks for these updates, excited to try out the tools! I do have some issues that I've found after an hour of trying to use this as an alternative to other photo editors that I'd hope to see addressed:
1. A way to save raw edits as XMP instead of requiring the saving of an .afphoto file, the idea of closing down in an ecosystem, particularly with the lack of a DAM, doesn't sound appealing. It sounds like that's kind of what the Embedded and Linked options do, however the Linked option did not actually add any files to my system (I kept watch on any files with the same file name as the photo), so I'm unsure what the difference between the two is.
2. Global presets for RAW edits, instead of one per page. It's a bit confusing as is. Also a way to edit existing presets and save it as such, instead of deleting a preset, remaking it from scratch and saving that. Also this is likely a bug, but when opening a new raw file to edit, the settings are set to Default, but the "selected" preset is the last used one, requiring switching to Default and back to the saved preset to actually change things, sometimes even doing it multiple times, the feature seems quite buggy. Also, ideally a Preset Manager would also be present, to be able to see exactly what each preset does, and potentially tweak from there.
3. Non-destructive cropping is a must. Honestly just something similar to the artboards, so if you crop an image you can adjust the crop later. I could just open the file in ADesigner, but that's an extra step that could be avoided.
3.1. Keep a strict ratio for cropping, but allow to rotate the crop based on mouse position when dragging the crop selection around (see how cropping operates in other apps like Lightroom and Capture One).
4. Split view of photo without edits, or just being able to toggle the raw edits on and off for preview purposes.
5. It's not clear enough that a photo is a RAW file, a button similar to the FX one would work wonders and make it much clearer what it does.
6. There's something about the Overlays panel that feels incomplete, I think it should be closer in look and feel to the Layers panel but then again, how is this better than just duplicating the layer, making the adjustments in that raw layer, and applying a mask to that? Even more powerful then because you can use images and the like.
 
I might add more to the list once I spend more time on this, but so far I'm somewhat disappointed. Non destructive raw editing was a highlight of the announcement, so I thought it's finally a good standalone photo editor. It is clear however that the app development is still walking in the shadow of CameraRaw and while there have been some improvements and additions that are much welcome, I'm sad to say that I'll likely be sticking with Capture One, despite my wishes for that to not be the case, not because of the lack of a DAM (just making that clear), but because of the lack of a good, non destructive, open photo editing flow.

Even if you are in the throws of coding version 2, you still have to fix the major issues in v 1.xx…  

Even if you are in the throws of coding version 2, you still have to fix the major issues in v 1.xx…  

Scene: A family in a car driving along a road.
Small child "When will we get there?"
Parent "Soon"

Apologies PaoloT, please come out for a beer with us. 🍻

Halt?....HALT??
We are a tech company. The management facilitated secure working from home by the end of March 2020. We never stopped

🙄

The challenge with MAS is that Apple takes up to 30% off the top and all updates within a revision, i.e., 1.x, 2.x etc must be free...  So to rev to 2.x Serif must in essence release a new AP product. (I suspect Serif is paying closer to 15%).  Two of my Affinity apps came from MAS and one direct.  If I were to update in the future, I would do them all direct...
I stopped buying from the MAS some time ago, I prefer for the developer to get the revenue that Apple skims...

Why that? If someone wants to find software the MAS is neither necessary nor the best way for a research procedure with e.g. tests, comparisons, deep info etc. In that way other media appear a lot more important than the MAS, in particular for "professional" software rather than for entertainment (game, music) or for "single" tasks (learn a language, specify flowers, calculate etc). So I wonder how the MAS should be able to "reach just about every Mac user" concerning a certain type of app and clients – or whether the MAS just reaches "everyone" in a more general sense, e.g. by forcing Mac users to have an Apple ID and to visit the MAS for macOS versions.
I rather assume special magazines and websites are places that do reach more users who are interested in a special topic. The MAS is more a chaotic warehouse than a pool for structured information. For a purchase it is not required if a developer has its own shop or distribution channel.

The challenge with MAS is that Apple takes up to 30% off the top and all updates within a revision, i.e., 1.x, 2.x etc must be free...  So to rev to 2.x Serif must in essence release a new AP product. (I suspect Serif is paying closer to 15%).  Two of my Affinity apps came from MAS and one direct.  If I were to update in the future, I would do them all direct...
I stopped buying from the MAS some time ago, I prefer for the developer to get the revenue that Apple skims...

Apart from Macros and masks?

I actually switched back to Photoshop and Bridge after using Affinity Photo for over 3 years, because I needed some sort of DAM software, better RAW engine and some photoshop tools + full PSD compatibility. But I still use Affinity Designer for vector work, because it just works better for me than Illustrator.

My guessing: Serif/Affinity will merge with another Company. Perhaps Adobe? perhaps Corel?

Why I guess this:
No Updates, no Betas, no new Videos on YouTube, hardly any new videos by James Ritson, no teasers for new features of upcoming releases..

again: just my private assumption.

As I have written before, Serif seriously needs a serious forum for commercial use of Affinity, and also for very ambitious customers. 
As I have also written before, the forum is more like a political youth party forum than a customer forum. All the little useless emotion driven posts that do no good, just fill in with noise. And then you have obviously not understood the intentions of many of the posts here. Even though it is written in black and white.
It is completely irrelevant to anyone but you that you are happy with the functionality of the program. Have you considered the idea that your needs may be smaller and even MUCH smaller than those of others? Nope, you sure haven't. You just have opinions. And in the midst of your unbridled need to share your own OPINIONS, you scare away those customers who have needs and input that can carry the programs forward from where they are today.
You simply must learn to live with the fact that others disagree with you, and that others have substantially different needs than you. That's what we're writing here - not to you, but to Serif.
And to make it visual. Here's the car you and users are happy with. A lot of us aren't:

We think that this time you should give Serif the time to work, and the time to deliver a thorough and important update. Probably more thorough than Serif is aware of.
Remember, too, that quality takes time. And it costs. And it's good that it costs.
Our impression of the Affinity trio is that the programs are made by too few, too busy and sometimes not competent enough programmers (vector algorithms come to mind, but also Photo which we can't use at all).
In particular, the number and type of staff may become Serif's biggest problem. And probably already is. For our part, we don't have the time or the business case to wait so many years for bug fixes or features, as has been the case since 2014. But we are only starting to evaluate now, so we hope the future is not like the past is described here in the forum (and in the release notes).
But beyond that, the programs are incredibly unevenly developed, and the order in which functionality is developed doesn't make much sense to us either.
Overall:
- Designer is an exciting program for bitmap artists, while it's an immensely thin cup of tea for vector designers. There is SO much missing that the program cannot replace real vector programs for professional needs. At all. What does Serif really want with this program?
- Photo is the most messy and mediocre program - we took it out of the evaluation after few days. My staff simply could not achieve the desired quality. Besides, the program is a sinful mess. The user interface, menus and panels have to be completely rebuilt from scratch. Tell us, are there no real usability specialists employed in Serif?
- Publisher is clearly the program Serif is most interested in developing, but it also lacks features that need to come soon, and come in good implementations. And there are serious signs that the user interface is not thought through from the start - the program risks drowning in panels and complexity year after year.
We're also speechless at the lack of accessibility features for PDF and ebook support. It's as if Publisher was designed in 1995. And what type of customer is it really designed for and for what needs - exactly?
So all in all, we hope that this time Serif steps back ten steps again, and fixes the mistakes and bad choices made along the way, and safeguards the architecture of the programs for the long term. And in the process employ expertise where they are on thin ice. This can be done on a project basis.
There is plenty for Serif to do - it will take time, and it must take time. Please don't push them into delivering more hacks. You're all going to pay for that.
/Eddie and co.

I'm also a photographer and like you feel a bit neglected. I use C1 express for Raw conversions, Topaz image quality suite for noise reduction, sharpening and resizing, and 3D LUT Creator for more advanced colour work. I understand APhoto can't match Topaz or 3D LUT Creator as either alone costs more than APhoto and incorporating them would put us in C1 Pro or DxO Photolab territory cost wise. I run APhoto on my PC and other software on my mac laptop. On the laptop I really miss the flexibility of APhoto. APhoto lets me use a Photoshop editing style and all the educational support associated with that. The improvements to APhoto I'd like to see are better integration with other raw engines, better plugin support, better masking and decent macro programming.

I can continue to use C1P and AP for legacy edits, but I have already started the transition back to LR and PS.  I am primarily a photographer so C1P or LR are the tools that I use the majority of the time.  I occasionally use AP or PS, only when I have to do edits that one of the raw developers will not handle.
As a photographer you simply cannot use AP or PS as a production tool.  There is no way to cull and develop a photoshoot of 500, 1000, or 2000 images without using other tools.  With C1P or LR that is a trivial task.
The benefit of using Adobe (there are plenty of downsides) is that LR and PS both use Camera Raw and develop raw images the same.
As I said to another poster, C1P publishes a product roadmap, it would be very helpful if Serif did the same...
Based on the information available, I made a decision to use the tools that best suits my workflow...
Edit:  As an aside, it would be very nice to work on an image in the non existent "Affinity Develop" and seamlessly switch persona to AP or AD to keep working on the image, but alas that is never going to happen.

Capture One delivers algorithms and products on a whole other level, and I'm glad it's seriously discovered out there. There are no RAW converters that are anywhere near their output.
It's not so much a roadmap, but that they are flashing ambitious direction for professionals, they are communicating that not only are they going mobile, which is a very manageable task in the year 2022, but delivering something that seriously leverages the internet and cloud technology: Capture One Live. And that puts them in a strong place compared to competitors.
But true that companies can then make an informed decision. That's big money to invest, and they need to have a clear idea of what choices they can and should make in the next 2-3 years or more.
Serif's average customer doesn't seem to have the great needs or means, and they are obviously not commercial firms, and you can see that from two factors:
Serif Plus range that was not for professionals was discontinued without migration tools to Affinity. A commercial clientele had never accepted it and had left. Serif couldn't have lived with that. Extremely slow development pace where especially Designer and Publisher do not have special features. A commercial clientele would never have accepted it, etc. But really, what is it that spurs panic or impatience? It hasn't been very long since they pretty much closed the release 1.x branch (with a performance update which is actually chivalrous) and are working on a major upgrade. With a smaller development staff it will take longer to make, test and complete, all things being equal.
I also think many of us have come to understand that we are not waiting for an update that heals all wounds and delivers all missing features. I don't even think 3.0 will get there.
I have found alternatives instead for all advanced use, Photo and Publisher are completely inadequate, while I still enjoy simple things in Designer where the combination of vector and graphics works. Designer really needs to have many algorithms replaced and many features added for it to gain ground back from Vecstorstyler and Illustrator in my studio. Unreal much.
You have waited a very long time for a miracle in a rush of dreams. The miracle will not come. You're getting an update of sorts. And then you have to wait forever again. Lost opportunities in a studio without the proper tools. And the clock of Life is ticking.

All very astute statements, C1P'a raw develop engine is lightyears ahead of any others that I have tried, including Adobe's Camera Raw and the Raw Develop engine in AP.  In previous posts I have lamented the need to for Serif to up their game dramatically in their raw engine. I would have stayed with Affinity tools (I like personas) if there was a way for me to seamlessly do production photo editing, there is not.  I realize that I am part of a shrinking  demographic (photographer) so probably not going to get much love from Serif.
Your last comment "Lost opportunities in a studio without the proper tools. And the clock of Life is ticking." is exactly where I am.  I have changed tools to make my life easier and more productive!!!  The $$$ expendature is trivial in the bigger scheme of things.
More time shooting, less time editing...
I like your strategy quote, one of the things that we (previous business life) were very cognizant about was:  If you listen to your customers they will put you out of business!!!  Read Christensen and his concept of originally Disruptive Technologies, now Disruptive Innovation (Disruptive Innovation describes a process by which a product or service initially takes root in simple applications at the bottom of a market—typically by being less expensive and more accessible—and then relentlessly moves upmarket, eventually displacing established competitors.).  It may be that Serif thinks that the Affinity tools are indeed a Disruptive Innovation, they are not...