Bibble 5 *finally* released

[bakubo]

I noticed that Bibble 5 was finally released a few days ago:

http://bibblelabs.com/products/bibble5/

Has anyone tried it?

[Mike-Photos]

I noticed that Bibble 5 was finally released a few days ago:

http://bibblelabs.com/products/bibble5/

Has anyone tried it?

Hi Henry
I worked with it for quite awhile in preview format. It's VERY fast, but it's not really complete. There's loads of functionality missing from V4, and there's along way to go before there's a real V5, IMO.

I was also in software development for a long time, and they made the classic mistake of biting off far more than they could chew. They rewrote everything, added layers, and added full catalog and DAM at the same time. The catalog and DAM took so much time, that fundamental features such as Perfectly Clear, and the ability to move tools and palettes around, is not there yet.

There were quite a few of us who tried to suggest early on that they can the catalog and DAM, since it's optional anyway, and focus on providing at least the functionality available in V4. It was like talking to a brick wall. If there's one thing I learned about producing off-the-shelf software, it's that once a feature is in, you can't drop it. But they have, so far.

Besides the omissions, there are also a number of known bugs. I think they released now simply because this is the one-year anniversary of their non-release of V5 which they absolutely insisted would be released in 2008, and they were insisting up to late December 2008 that it WOULD be released.

I'm sure they are a very dedicated and competent development team, but what is sorely lacking in their company is project management skills.

Having said all that, their A900 processing is pretty good, and I like their batch facilities and their speed. I wish them well, but I reckon right now survival is their aim. They are so late with the product they have had to issue free upgrades to purchasers who purchased V4 from around July 2006!

EDIT - Here's a few more features that did not get in:
"However, there are a couple major items that Bibble 4 offered that have not yet made it into Bibble 5. These include major tools like Perfectly Clear and the Heal & Clone brush, as well as smaller items, like black/white/gray pickers in the curves tool, Web Gallery output, and others."

[bossel]

Let's not forget Bibble 5 was promised for end of the year .... 2008! I kept watching and testing the early previews - image quality wise they were pretty good, imo, but later I lost interest. Not having a heal & clone tool is really a deal breaker for the now released 'pro-version'. If I had bought Bibble 4 based on the promise to have V5 soon, I'd be pretty outraged by now, but they don't understand this in Texas

For my raw processing, when needed, I still can use my old ACR + PS Elements. For my latest two books (presented somewhere else on this site) I mainly used in camera JPG. Camera set to vivid & sharpeding +1 provides pretty good results for low-medium ISO.

[bakubo]

Thanks for all the info. I haven't really followed what was going on other than I was aware that v5 was very late. Then a few days ago I saw it was finally released. I didn't know that it was missing all kinds of stuff so this isn't a real v5 release. It is just getting something out there. Sounds like the company is in trouble.

[bfitzgerald]

I've been playing around with Bibble 5, and I have to say..
Erm it's not really very good.

The layout is absolutely awful, main preview too small, cannot seem to adjust things how you want (aka thumbnails move them to the bottom), re-size panels etc, as said, missing stuff too. This is pretty poor IMO, LR has it's faults, but it hammers this. It's unfinished, and should never have been released like this. In no way is this worth the asking price..

In it's current form, I wouldn't even use it as a freeware program, it blows!

[marktuma]

For a bit of balance, I'm using B5 and liking it a lot. It's fast, output is good and the DAM features save me having to purchase another DAM solution. 5.0.1 was released today, adding back in black, white and grey point droppers amongst other things. Perfectly Clear is not in yet, but I'm not really missing it - I didn't spend enough time using it in B4 to be certain it was any better than just shooting in JPG - after all if you want a one click auto mode you've got that dial on the camera...

Bibble seem to be very active in developing the product now, whatever the reasons for their long delay. I will say I get better results from my A700 through B5 than I ever managed with Capture One, but whatever floats one's boat eh?

Cheers,
Mark