Helicon Focus 9.0

Announcement of new releases, bugs, support, suggestions
madking426
Posts: 43
Joined: 04.10.2017 04:43

Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by madking426 »

What an amazing update! Everything is lightning fast! Thank you for making this happen! 🫡🫡
madking426
Posts: 43
Joined: 04.10.2017 04:43

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by madking426 »

One minor bug found. When in the Retouching tab, image cannot be moved with the space bar like it used to be. It brings some inconvenience when part of the shot need to be edited.
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

Hello, thank you! We're fixing it. In the meantime, hold the right mouse button instead of spacebar to drag the image around.
madking426
Posts: 43
Joined: 04.10.2017 04:43

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by madking426 »

Thanks for your quick reply. Tried the mouse right click but didn't work. Strangely, the horizontal scroll wheel on the mouse worked for panning left and right but nothing happened for the vertical scroll wheel.
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

Windows or Mac?
Stacker0815
Posts: 4
Joined: 28.03.2026 23:24

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Stacker0815 »

Hi,

nice work!

I noticed this (Win11):

1. The magnifying glass (left mouse click) in the GUI zooms in further on a finished stack than in v8 (it would be nice if this were adjustable).
2. It's also extremely laggy with RAW files.

3. CLI commands (like this) don't work yet, do they? It only outputs a preview image with a watermark.

cmd = [
HELICON_PATH,
“-silent”,
“-m:B”, “-r:50”, “-s:4”,
input_folder_path,
f“-save:{output_file_path}”
]

best
Last edited by Stacker0815 on 28.03.2026 23:35, edited 1 time in total.
richardhc
Posts: 4
Joined: 25.06.2017 06:14

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by richardhc »

I have the same problem with 9.0 - nothing I try will let me scroll at all when zoomed in during retouching. Good thing I still have version 8. Windows 11, no mouse just using the keyboard. I think it was a serious error to change the scrolling by the arrow keys to using the up and down arrow to move up and down through the image list. It was easy enough to change images before but impossible to do a good cleanup without being able to scroll around during retouching. I suggest you go back to the former system.
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

Stacker0815 wrote: 28.03.2026 23:35 1. The magnifying glass (left mouse click) in the GUI zooms in further on a finished stack than in v8 (it would be nice if this were adjustable).
2. It's also extremely laggy with RAW files.
Hi,
1. We'll check this, thanks.
2. The magnifier is laggy? Or the software overall?
3. The fact you're getting the result image means your command line is correct. Do you have the Pro license? Or active trial period?
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

Hello,
richardhc wrote: 28.03.2026 23:47 I have the same problem with 9.0 - nothing I try will let me scroll at all when zoomed in during retouching.
HOLD the right mouse button and move the mouse.
Or, get the updated version, Space now works on Windows (the Mac version will be updated later, delayed by technical issues due to updated Apple software). But you still have to move the mouse to actually pan the image.
richardhc wrote: 28.03.2026 23:47 Good thing I still have version 8.
You can have both side by side.
richardhc wrote: 28.03.2026 23:47 I think it was a serious error to change the scrolling by the arrow keys to using the up and down arrow to move up and down through the image list. It was easy enough to change images before but impossible to do a good cleanup without being able to scroll around during retouching. I suggest you go back to the former system.
Thank you, that's not intentional, we'll look into it and restore the keyboard controls.
Stacker0815
Posts: 4
Joined: 28.03.2026 23:24

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Stacker0815 »

Catherine wrote: 29.03.2026 01:49 Hi,
1. We'll check this, thanks.
2. The magnifier is laggy? Or the software overall?
3. The fact you're getting the result image means your command line is correct. Do you have the Pro license? Or active trial period?
2. The hole image-viewer which shows the stacking result is laggy (no problem with v8 and RAWs here) i use a AMD RX 9070XT
3. Pro-license (with v8 no problems) it seams licence check is the problem then..?
4. Stacks with RAW files (i tested ARW and CR3) are broken see screenshot:

Image
Attachments
Screenshot 2026-03-29 173006.png
(1.48 MiB) Not downloaded yet
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

Thanks. We'll check the silent mode operation, it does sound like something's wrong with the license check.
You can just keep using Helicon Focus 8 and I assume there's no image corruption issue there as well. But we don't see it on any of our computers. If you have the time to try a few things, we'd like to know if the image corruption also happens with OpenCL disabled, and with JPG source images (e. g the demo stack: menu - File - Run focus demo). And how often does the corrupted image occur? Every time, often, rarely?
Meanwhile, we'll look for more PCs with AMD GPUs to test on.
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

The silent mode watermark issue should be fixed now in the updated version 9.0: https://www.heliconsoft.com/downloads/HeliconFocus9.exe
Stacker0815
Posts: 4
Joined: 28.03.2026 23:24

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Stacker0815 »

Catherine wrote: 29.03.2026 19:38 Thanks. We'll check the silent mode operation, it does sound like something's wrong with the license check.
You can just keep using Helicon Focus 8 and I assume there's no image corruption issue there as well. But we don't see it on any of our computers. If you have the time to try a few things, we'd like to know if the image corruption also happens with OpenCL disabled, and with JPG source images (e. g the demo stack: menu - File - Run focus demo). And how often does the corrupted image occur? Every time, often, rarely?
Meanwhile, we'll look for more PCs with AMD GPUs to test on.
Hi,
1. Wow, you guys are fast. CLI now works with the new .exe!
2. I tested JPG, TIF, and RAW files, and I’m getting the same error shown in the screenshot every single time. It works when I completely disable OpenCL.
But I kept testing with photos from Nikon (Z8 and Z9), Canon (R6M2 and another model), Sony (A1), and OM System (OM-1).
All stacks show the problem except for the OM-1 files (whether TIF or RAW).
The demo JPG also works.
Maybe it has something to do with the resolution?
Let me know if you need more info or tests.

best
User avatar
Catherine
Posts: 1850
Joined: 29.04.2019 23:38

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Catherine »

Thank you for the info, could you please also try with OpenCL enabled and the "Fail safe mode" checkbox ticked ON (on the same Performance tab)? Restart Helicon Focus after changing it for the changes to take effect.
Stacker0815
Posts: 4
Joined: 28.03.2026 23:24

Re: Helicon Focus 9.0

Post by Stacker0815 »

Tested: Enabling fail-safe mode makes no difference.
Post Reply