The Big Photographic Deals thread

Caporegime
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Soldato
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I paid full price for it and was disgusted to hear it was being discontinued for the AI version with support finishing after 12 months.

Loads of us on it's forum expressed our anger to Jim Nix (one of it's trainers) pushing the new app after hearing the lame excuses about the direction in which the replacement was going: One click editing for photographers who would be too busy to worry about the implementation of finer details because they needed more time to photograph.

It was implied a few months back there wouldn't be a Luminar 5. Where does it say that there is? As far as I can see they, Luminair are only offering discounts for people with Luminair to change to Luminair AI to cushion the blow for Luminair 4's discontinuation which was sold to me on the grounds free updates would be available for life?
 
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Caporegime
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I paid full price for it and was disgusted to hear it was being discontinued for the AI version with support finishing after 12 months.

Loads of us on it's forum expressed our anger to Jim Nix (one of it's trainers) pushing the new app after hearing the lame excuses about the direction in which the replacement was going: One click editing for photographers who would be too busy to worry about the implementation of finer details because they needed more time to photograph.

It was implied a few months back there wouldn't be a Luminar 5. Where does it say that there is? As far as I can see they, Luminair are only offering discounts for people with Luminair to change to Luminair AI to cushion the blow for Luminair 4's discontinuation which was sold to me on the grounds free updates would be available for life?

Its mention on their forums and expected and they do release one around that timeframe. Maybe they wont. how knows. But it wont stop your luminar 4 from working. Do people still get updates for luminar 3 and 2 and 1? Personally for less than £7 (you got 3 programs for £20 and in fact you got 13 LUT sets which all cost £15 each if you are into using other peoples presets) and a guarantee that you will get updates for at least a year, ii dont see the problem in buying luminar 4.

If I had bought luminar 4 for full price for £90 earlier in the year I can see why you might be a bit miffed though.
 
Soldato
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There’s a fairly decent deal on the X-T30 with XF18-55mm over at the fujifilm refurb store - credit HUKD.
It may not be the cheapest it’s ever been found but for the XF kit package and direct from fujifilm it’s a decent deal for anyone who’s interested.
 
Soldato
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Except Luminar 4 is losing it's support for Luminar AI. Still a bargain for £20.00 if you'll make use of it but it's not a Lightroom or photoshop replacement.
Edit: for the record, Luminar 4 runs fine on my PC.


What is it for? I am very new to photography and use Lightroom to touch up colours and photoshop to... make people look their best.
 
Soldato
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Luminar AI is meant to automate the editing process for photographers through the use of pre-sets and "AI" algorithms. You can also replace the sky and add objects to that sky automatically. In addition to everything I've said about the company, I noticed they were advertising the software as able to automatically add reflections from fake skies to water without telling purchasers-this is to be added at a later date. You can add reflections from fake skies in Luminar 4. It takes about eight minutes and you have to do it manually.
 
Soldato
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Doesn’t a lot of Lightroom get automated through presets anyway?

AI wise, I only do tiny touch ups in terms of photoshop and making eyes, fat and skin that little bit nicer, doesn’t take long? Just can’t see the point in a whole other program for it.
 
Soldato
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Luminar 4 is great for quick edits that don’t require much thought however it’s very easy to overdo things. When I want more control or have an image I’m particularly happy with I stick with Capture One.
Luminar’s portrait AI is actually very good and when required I’ll do all my tonal edits etc on CO then finish them off on Luminar using the auto enhance features - although again a certain amount of restraint is required.
Finally I do enjoy using the augmented and replacement sky tools. Totally unnecessary in my opinion but great fun to play with.
 
Soldato
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There's a 20% off deal on curry's clearance over on the bay. Some camera equipment listed. As usual some of the prices are ludicrous however I just picked up a brand new XF50mm f2 for £320. Much cheaper than even used copies.
 
Soldato
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Soldato
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Is it just me or have the deals on cameras, lenses and camera related gear been quite poor since last summer?

I've saved for a Panasonic G9 as it was selling at £799 prior to Covid, it crept up slowly and has been at £999 since about August last year. But I've noticed this with all the camera manufactures, rarely any deals and retailers have no offers either.

Sony did have some cashback offers.

Looking for a camera with a Microphone input and sticking to M43 as I have a fair few lenses for this system.
 
Caporegime
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Is it just me or have the deals on cameras, lenses and camera related gear been quite poor since last summer?

I've saved for a Panasonic G9 as it was selling at £799 prior to Covid, it crept up slowly and has been at £999 since about August last year. But I've noticed this with all the camera manufactures, rarely any deals and retailers have no offers either.

Sony did have some cashback offers.

Looking for a camera with a Microphone input and sticking to M43 as I have a fair few lenses for this system.

You're right that G9 deals have dried up. Haven't seen a good one for a while. I also keep an eye out for A7iii deals, these have been OK but infrequent - not quite got me to bite yet!
 
Caporegime
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Co Durham
Is it just me or have the deals on cameras, lenses and camera related gear been quite poor since last summer?

I've saved for a Panasonic G9 as it was selling at £799 prior to Covid, it crept up slowly and has been at £999 since about August last year. But I've noticed this with all the camera manufactures, rarely any deals and retailers have no offers either.

Sony did have some cashback offers.

Looking for a camera with a Microphone input and sticking to M43 as I have a fair few lenses for this system.

Yeah it was still on offer at £799 right up to July. 1st of march was cheapest at £763. Ever since beginning of July its pretty much been £999 everywhere except Carmarthen Cameras had an offer on 2 weeks ago for £879.

I suspect now with Brexit/covid and exchange rates you are going to be stuffed. I mean Sony have put a £850 premium on the UK list price of their new A1. So it will need to come down by £850 at some point in the future just so we can pay what everybody else is paying for it today.

So yeah deals seem sparse on the ground atm,
 
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