DSLRUsers.com

The Nik collection of plugins (the various Efex Pro and others), now owned by Google, are offered as a bundle for US$149. The plugins are available for Photoshop, Lightroom and Aperture. That sounds like a decent deal to me, esp compared to the previous price.

EDIT Link: http://www.niksoftware.com/nikcollectio ... main.shtml

Cheers
Steffen.

You beat me to it. I paid $US510 even after 20% discount (and more than $A510 then) but I've now been upgraded for free to two upgrades I didn't subscribe to. Dfine2 also now works from Photoshop in Windows 8. It looks as though you can only purchase the suite now, though at not much more than the individual components used to cost. For people who might purchase now, I wonder whether the old discount codes still hold.

You have a much more sensible heading, Steffen. If I had posted first I was going to call the thread "the Knights who go Nik".

yes got a text from a mate about it this morning, I jumped straight on it !

Its a great software suite...been using it for a while now...I guess I will just have to upgrade later down the track

NOTE: I was given a NFR copy of the suite (thanks to work) and it has everything pretty much up to date (except HDREfex rather than HDREfex 2) and it doesn't seem to let me update it any further. I think I will buy the upgrade at a later date but this pricing is mighty tempting.

I'm having problems installing this into windows 64. Anyone else who did the latest download have any issues ?

The upgrade worked fine for me, though it took a while.

the file I downloaded isn't an exe file. windows cant recognise the file.

The file I downloaded is NikCollection_1.007_22671_win_full which is an exe file and then generates a download. Upgrade, not initial purchase, though.

I have just made the purchase too. Anyone else interested? enter code "MU-43" for a further 15% reduction equalling a purchase price US$126.65.

For people who have just made the purchase, here are some useful videos. There are others on the Nik site:

Color Efex 4

Silver Efex Pro2

Silver Efex Pro

Thanks Steffen, Geoff, Murray, this deal is a no-brainer. I have never had the spare cash to buy many plug-ins, but this is a great deal.

Now to trawl back through the 1000s of portraits that I have discarded over the years and try to find some gems that I can polish up a little.

Ozi.

Rooz wrote:I'm having problems installing this into windows 64. Anyone else who did the latest download have any issues ?

I am running Windows 8 and can't run the installer either! Not sure what the solution is? Windows can't find an appropriate app.

Better contact Google I'd say then.

Murray Foote wrote:Better contact Google I'd say then.

Have sent them an email, so far only an automated response:

Thank you for contacting Nik by Google. We have received your question and due to new software releases, our response time is currently 1-2 business days.

Geoff, nik contacted me today and sent me another link which works fine. the previous file we both downloaded was the problem. the one they sent me and I downloaded is a regular exe file.

Rooz wrote:Geoff, nik contacted me today and sent me another link which works fine. the previous file we both downloaded was the problem. the one they sent me and I downloaded is a regular exe file.

Thanks for the feedback Chris, still waiting to hear from google myself, glad you got the problem sorted.

Bloody good deal this!

I used a promo code (northlight) to get a further 15% off.

I'm very happy with the NIK's collection, but the Silver Efex Pro plugin won't work properly with my copy of CS5. Re-install perhaps?

I suppose. I now have CS6 but Silver Efex Pro used to work when I had CS5.

I'm getting frustrated with several of the Nik plugins, namely SilverFX pro and HDR. Both cause PS CS5 64bit to crash every time. When searching the web, there seem to be zillions of problems with this software.

Not sure if I should pursue if further, just use the ones that work (Sharpen and CEP4), or get a refund.

Any other ideas?

I would definitely get in touch with them. I found them very professional, and if they don't resolve then you should get a refund. Out of principal alone I wouldn't pay for something that didn't work.

My installation is now OK. They sent through another weblink with an .exe file and all is good. I am using it through LR4 without any issue. I also have PSE10 but don't generally use it so have not tried the NIK stuff through it.

I've used some of them with CS5 and Windows 7 and now with CS6 and Windows 8. The only one I had any problems with crashes was Dfine2 in Windows 8 and that is now okay with the new release. In the meanwhile I was able to launch it from Lightroom and then edit the resulting TIFF in Photoshop. If you use Lightroom, then this may work for you. Also I suspect you can launch from Bridge.

Murray Foote wrote:I've used some of them with CS5 and Windows 7 and now with CS6 and Windows 8. The only one I had any problems with crashes was Dfine2 in Windows 8 and that is now okay with the new release. In the meanwhile I was able to launch it from Lightroom and then edit the resulting TIFF in Photoshop. If you use Lightroom, then this may work for you. Also I suspect you can launch from Bridge.

I don't have LR, and I am using OSx 10.6.8 on a Macbook pro. It may work better if I upgrade to Mountain Lion (?), but I am happy with Snow Leopard at the moment and I don't like to change OS if I can help it. Of course, it may have nothing to do with the OS.

I will contact NIKs this morning and see what they suggest.

Thanks all for the input.

Ozi.

ozimax wrote:I'm getting frustrated with several of the Nik plugins, namely SilverFX pro and HDR. Both cause PS CS5 64bit to crash every time. When searching the web, there seem to be zillions of problems with this software.

Not sure if I should pursue if further, just use the ones that work (Sharpen and CEP4), or get a refund.

Any other ideas?

Try uninstalling and reinstalling both Nik Plugins and PhotoShop....

aim54x wrote:

ozimax wrote:I'm getting frustrated with several of the Nik plugins, namely SilverFX pro and HDR. Both cause PS CS5 64bit to crash every time. When searching the web, there seem to be zillions of problems with this software.

Not sure if I should pursue if further, just use the ones that work (Sharpen and CEP4), or get a refund.

Any other ideas?

Try uninstalling and reinstalling both Nik Plugins and PhotoShop....

I might try that Cameron. Quick question though: I assume that I have to de-activate PS first, then re-install, then re-activate PS?

Just purchased and downloaded the files again. I downloaded the trial version a couple of days ago and when I purchased I did not get a serial number but a link to download again. Strange, but all is working well.

ozimax wrote:

aim54x wrote:

ozimax wrote:I'm getting frustrated with several of the Nik plugins, namely SilverFX pro and HDR. Both cause PS CS5 64bit to crash every time. When searching the web, there seem to be zillions of problems with this software.

Not sure if I should pursue if further, just use the ones that work (Sharpen and CEP4), or get a refund.

Any other ideas?

Try uninstalling and reinstalling both Nik Plugins and PhotoShop....

I might try that Cameron. Quick question though: I assume that I have to de-activate PS first, then re-install, then re-activate PS?

I cant remember what I did, but that sounds like a safe choice