Helicon Soft Forum

Hello,

I bought a Lite license because, based on the list of features on the "Choose the right license" page (https://www.heliconsoft.com/helicon-focus-versions-licensing/), it seemed to have everything I needed.

However, in the middle of the retouching of my first stack with Helicon, I am suddenly stopped by a warning "Number of strokes limited in the Lite version!" WTF?

This very sneaky and tricky limitation was never explicitly mentioned in the description of the Lite version. Only by hovering over the small question mark next to "Specialized retouching tools" (and none other) can you get a hint at this.

I do not think this is a fair and honest way to deal with customers.

PLUS, that's not all: when, very disgruntled and frustrated, you resign yourself to forking out even more money for a Pro license, and you know that it is priced at 200$, you expect to have to shell out an extra 85$, since you just paid 115$ for the Lite version... but no! For some unexplained reason, it is a full 100$ that is asked of you for the upgrade, therefore pricing the Pro version at 215$ instead of 200...!

I have asked Support for explanations, stating how cheated I feel. I am expecting their response. I see that the company is based in Ukraine, so not much hope for a Better Business Bureau (or equivalent) there...

Dear Dominique,

we've refunded your order upon your request.
We are sorry to know about your disappointment. We'll see what can be done in order to make it more clear. Normally when choosing the license type potential customers go to the Choosing the license page where we say that retouching is not available with Lite version. Lite version does offer limited functionalty as compared to the Pro version, and it's not only about retouching, but also about saving to .dng, using OpenCl acceleration and some other Pro features as listed at https://www.heliconsoft.com/helicon-focus-versions-licensing/

As for the upgrade price, yes, upgrades are slightly more expensive, upgrade price includes additional fees that we bear.

Thanks for the refund.

I was a Zerene Stacker user and ready to go over to Helicon, but really this left a sour taste in my mouth. You really should mention very clearly and legibly that Lite version users will not be able to retouch, beyond just a few strokes because that is a major problem for most users. I have nothing against limited functionality, as long as the customer has been clearly shown the path they are about to walk, and evidently that was not the case for me.

And it's very much like the 1960s to charge extra for upgrades, as I cannot see, in all seriousness, what those "additional fees" can be. You should only charge for the difference between the small license and the larger one, otherwise this will bring you bad feedback on the social media. Even Adobe (and Zerene!) don't do that.

Good luck.

I’m keen to understand what retouching can be done on a Lite license …. Can someone please clarify ….. I don’t do much retouching, but occasionally need to touch up a bit of haloing…..

The Lite license does not really include the retouching function, but as a courtesy it is enabled for limited use. The limit is a certain number of brush applications.