Jamon

Sony RX100 V lens correction still doesn't work. The xml file has "<model>DSC-RX100M5</model>", and the EXIF module in Affinity shows "DSC-RX100M5", but the "Lens" part is empty.

A tile-based rendering scheme being faster is pointless when the overall engine is so slow that you can see every tile being updated. I use a Xeon with Quadro M4000, and all other graphics software can perform smooth transients when adjusting basics like hue. Affinity cannot. The underlying reasons why don't change the fact that the user experience is a visual assault that makes working painful. It'd be like an audio engineer listening intently, and hearing blocky artifacts. The human senses prefer smooth gradients, not abrupt jagged squares with sharp corners flashing everywhere while focusing to make adjustments. A delay with a fading full canvas render would even be preferable to that. https://forum.affinity.serif.com/applications/core/interface/file/attachment.php?id=26308

WHY IS THE LENS DATABASE STILL NOT UPDATED? I added Sony RX100M5 support in MARCH. This is October. It does not take 7 months to sync with upstream. The performance is still bad, with big blocks. I'm waiting for this software to be ready so I can do work. I do not want to pay for Adobe subscription. But how many years is it going to take? It's been such a disappointment so far.

Still no support for Sony RX100 5. Syncing the lens database with upstream should be automated and occur with every update. It was committed in March. This is July. By the time you update the lens database the RX100 6 will be out. https://github.com/lensfun/lensfun/commit/29df5f9601d06750493510fe2a9d4af913555ead

Still no lens correction for Sony DSC-RX100M5, despite getting it added to Lensfun in March, as directed. Still incredibly slow adjustments that update the screen in big rectangles which look harshly distracting. Sony ARW load time decreased from around 7.2 seconds in release to 4.3 seconds in beta. Develop persona button labels "Develop" and "Cancel" now correctly display. I bought Photo and Designer for Windows. I also bought the iOS version, despite not having an iPad. I rarely use them, and mostly did it to help fund development. But the total cost would probably only pay for maybe 1 hour of developer time, and it looks like it'll be a long wait before the software is acceptable. Maybe I'll try it on macOS or iOS instead.

The new Affinity Photo for iOS appears to update faster than my Windows 10 workstation. But if you pay close attention to the video, it also updates with the same large blocks. I guess this is just how the Affinity engine works, and as much as I would've liked the software otherwise, this is a major fundamental problem for me, as I am uncomfortable without fluid updates. The sharp edges of tiles updating feels harsh and unhealthy to the senses, where it's a severe disturbance to workflow when there's any delay in screen redraws and the sharp edges become noticeable. I'd liken it to relaxing on the beach, feeling thirsty and drinking from the Affinity water bottle, only to feel sharp shards of glass in the water. Other software updates smoothly, without any sharp edges where some tiles update before others. This is a major human interface design flaw. Not everyone will notice or care. Some people have higher sensitivity. Like how I do not like to work on an LCD screen with slow PWM backlight, as I see strobing effects with sharp lines in the image too. I am using a $2,700 display for faster flicker-free updates, and I'd pay a lot more money for an Affinity suite that offered a more biocompatible style of screen redraws.

No lens correction in Develop. In the middle of March, I had my camera, the Sony RX100 V, added to the Lensfun database as instructed. This is a perfect grid, which as you can see, looks warped. Blocky screen updates. As I've previously posted, adjustments cause big blocks to flash around the screen. The sharp rectangular lines are offensive to the visual senses, and it feels incredibly low performance compared to other software that updates immediately with imperceptible soft smooth screen redraws. Missing labels on Develop buttons. These should say "Develop" and "Cancel", but instead, they're blank.

I've seen Affinity Photo referred to as "Photo". Lenovo, a computer hardware company, had a product called the "ThinkPad Tablet". Imagine if you saw employees of Lenovo referring to "Tablet", with sentences such as, "Tablet is an amazing device! Not only can you watch movies on Tablet, but you can call your friends too!" In case you do not immediately feel and understand what's wrong with that, "tablet" is a common generic term that describes an entire class of hardware within that space. "Photo" is already a commonly used shorthand within this space for "photograph". "I edited my photo with Photo", is convoluted. The product names aren't really matched. There's Affinity Designer, which implies it designs, or is used by designers. But then there's Affinity Photo, which does not photo, and is not used by photos. But regardless, "Affinity" is the unique identifier for the products. "Designer" and "Photo" wouldn't mean anything to anyone. They are far too generic of words. But "Affinity Designer" and "Affinity Photo", are unique. If one must use a shorthand, simply "Affinity" is better than "Photo", and it's usually obvious from context which one you're referring to. "Affinity Photo" isn't so long to really need a shorthand, but "AP" is even shorter if you do. Please don't refer to it as "Photo" though, as it overlaps terms, doesn't convey enough meaning, and sounds ridiculous: "Before you could edit photos on a tablet with Photo on the Tablet using a Wacom stylus; but now, you can also edit photos on the iOS version of Photo using a Pencil on the iPad!"

I emailed the Lensfun maintainer approaching a week ago, and there's no response yet. I have doubts about relying upon Lensfun in this manner. At the very least, I think there should be a function to update the Lensfun library from within the current version of Affinity, so one must not wait for an Affinity update; and also the ability to add your own Lensfun lens profile data to your local library, for people who cannot wait for the Lensfun maintainer to include it. Who pays the Lensfun maintainer? What happens when they get ill? Does Affinity pay people to profile lenses, and contribute the data, to keep the library complete? Because my camera is extremely popular, released almost half a year ago, and there's no support in Lensfun yet. New cameras are released all the time, and this will be an ongoing problem, where people will be waiting for an open source project to support their commercial software. If Serif is going to depend on Lensfun, I hope they are contributing to the project, either in the form of money or data, and making an effort to keep it up to date. There should also be multiple maintainers, where a Serif employee has commit access to the official repo; or forks the library, to control and work on it independently, while sharing patches upstream, so if the original project slows down or closes, Affinity is unaffected.

It is beta quality, and you did pay to beta test; but you also paid to support development, and are investing in a development process that could result in having better tools in the future. Building Affinity is a lot of work, and it's happening behind the curtains. They've not slowed down, and they're aware of the rough edges that need polishing. How they handle communication, and whether it makes you feel good or bad doesn't really matter. You're aware it's beta software. There's a trial available before purchasing so anyone planning to buy can realize this on their own. I chose to purchase both Photo and Designer despite not even using it, or needing to use it. I find some core aspects to be almost unusable. But I've long purged all Adobe software from my systems, and what they have thus far has a lot of potential. As long as they continue development, and don't switch to a forced subscription model, I think the investment was worth the risk. They're a business, and hopefully your money helped throw fuel on the fire, to help motivate them by showing there's demand. If it's not ready yet, then you don't need to use it right now; as long as they continue to improve things, you should get your money's worth eventually. If you're frustrated trying to work with dysfunctional software, and broken communication, then step away. When you come back in months, it should be better. There are many excellent powerful aspects of the software, where it's not worth giving up now, losing patience, and succumbing to dark forces, even if you are the "Dark Clown". It's understandable why a business wouldn't want to advertise, "Buy our new product, that isn't actually ready for production!", or broadcast all the details of their operation. Those things can detract from the mission, and all that really matters is that they maintain focus and continue updating the software with necessary improvements. There's a lot of amazing things you can do with Affinity right now, despite it still being heavily under construction. Just keep saving, and take a break when you step on a nail. It'll get better.

In Affinity Photo you can press P for the pen tool, and draw a vectored line, click the stroke parameter to increase it to 3 pt, then click the "fx" on the layer, enable "Gaussian Blur", and drag the slider. They're basically the same software. Affinity Design is a kind of "persona", that's focused on vectors; and Affinity Photo is focused on pixels. You could smash them together, but you'd need to implement those modes anyways, to optimize which tools are displayed. Having dedicated apps can be like having a fork and a spoon, where you could make a "spork", but then it's not optimized for either case. If I want to do more complicated vector work, I can do it in Designer, ctrl+g to group it, ctrl+c to copy, switch back over to Photo, and paste. I can also use "Edit in Designer" to switch apps, then "Edit in Photo" to switch back. It's basically the same software, so it's like switching modes. It's a matter of organizational preference whether they're a single app or not. The Mac approach might be unification, but the Unix approach is dedicated tools. It doesn't necessarily mean that a unified interface would be simpler. It would be tricky to organize, and could end up more complicated in practice than separate apps. The tools are made for people, and most "photographers" will never need to draw, and most "designers" will never need to develop raw images or merge multiple exposures. By separating the software, it's easier to focus on supporting each group of people, in simpler ways. It's fun to think about and discuss. I can certainly see why an "Affinity One" would be a neat idea. For more advanced users especially, having a mess of menus and options might be exciting and feel more powerful. But it's Serif's project, not ours; and they're doing just fine. Having Photo and Designer works, and most importantly right now is to focus on the core basics, to polish what they've got.

I thought the only RAW engine available for Windows, which OP is using, is "Serif Labs".

Create a macro: File > New HDR Merge Select files Uncheck "Tone map HDR image" View > Studio > Macro Click the red circle for "Start recording" Enter "Tone Mapping Persona" Make HDR adjustments Save HDR preset and apply Macro shows "Tone map" Make any other adjustments Click the white circle for "Stop recording" Click the grid with the plus in macro panel for "Add to Library" Name it "HDR test" Run the macro: File > New HDR Merge Select files Uncheck "Tone map HDR image" Double-click "HDR test" Repeat I think that's the best you can do today. Hopefully once they add JavaScript it will be possible to open a folder, loop through sequences of images, HDR merge them, apply preset, and export to incremental filename, all without manually doing anything.

The administrator needs to enable it in AdminCP, then an RSS icon should be visible:

Extract the attached file, then select it in Affinity with: File > Import ICC Profile It's copied to: C:\Users\$user\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0\profiles ProPhotoRGB.zip