BRX

I can confirm that the workaround works. Thank you - and please don't apologise for 'inconveniences' with a free, open beta.

I can confirm this behavior. This is critical.

Drag and dropping a CR2 into Affinity throws an exception. This is reproducable. Trying to load a CR2 in any possible way throws an exception. This is reproducible. I can not load any file, be it CR2, JPG, BMP... It throws an exception regardless of the way i do it. Affinity also throws an exception when i create an empty project. I already checked my video card driver, it seems to be up to date. The beta worked up until now. Windows 8.1 Pro, 64B 16 GB RAM Radeon RX 480 8 GB VRAM

You guys are awesome. Can we expect a release directly after the beta testing period?

I consider myself an 'amateur' - I do not make money off of my work when retouching photographs that I shoot myself. I have been working with Affinity since the release of the windows beta. On the same day, I uninstalled an old CS5 and Lightroom 4.4. It is just that simple - the software rocks. It simply does. Affinity is able to provide someone like me with a consistent workflow, a fresh, fast and intuitive interface. There are just so many small things that make life easier. The live preview when drawing masks. The 'restauration' tool that is just on a complete different level. The layer management. Merging HDR stacks. Focus Stacking..... AND seamless 32 Bit workflow without prompting the user with a "you cannot use this tool because of 32bit, please convert to 16 or 8 bit' bull. Stability is supreme in my case, no single crash. Performance on the other hand can and must be improved. Still, awesome job, I'll buy it. 50 is a steal for this thing and will help Serif become a relevant player in this business. Retouching photographs has become fun again for me.