Version 6 for the occasional user AND 10 times price increase

Hi @bryce

Thank you for posting the summary and analysis.

Here’s an example of a custom portfolio from this month:

That is a very impressive portfolio with amazing photos! Looks like you’ve been able to develop your own personal style for which I have a lot of respect. I know this took a lot of time and effort.

Ideally, I wish FM was a plugin for Premier or Final Cut!

We used to have a plugin for Final Cut Pro. But Apple is very unpredictable and tends to add and remove support for plugins randomly, so it was retired again. This did not gain enough traction so that we did not pursue this further. It is still much quicker to do animated stills in FotoMagico and export them to a video to use in FCP and Premiere than it is to make animated stills in FCP and Premiere.

This is perhaps why I, and other photographers who are in a similar situation, are sensitive to 5x price hikes…

I see your point. But please consider that the FotoMagico 6 update is about 4 years late. In the old model, updates would have cost around $70 in 2018 and again in 2020. So users got 4 years for free instead. Now of course it seems like it is a big price hike.

And we had to keep investing in FM5 to provide updates to make it work with new versions of macOS and other apps from the ecosystem. That revenue is missing in the business. Moving forward, another 5 year update cycle would be desastrous. So we need to switch to a model that allows for continuous improvements and provides revenue that finances the compatibility updates.

As a user you might say that this is not your problem and you would be right. But if software development can no longer be sustainable, the users also loose, because there will be only dysfunctional, cheaply designed and badly engineered apps.

It is just an option for those who can’t afford to keep the $8 subscription all year. We thank everyone who subscribes no matter how long for their support and will work our hardest to make FotoMagico even more worthwhile.

I´m sad to say, with this development of FotoMagico, i have to take farewell after starting using it occasionally from the beginning…With all of the software developers taking on the same cost model, you just have to prioritize what you spend your money on…

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Exactly, which is why I have switched to Affinity Designer instead of Adobe Illustrator and Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop - both Affinity programs are purchase only and so far equivalent to the Adobe programs, in fact Designer is superior to Illustrator, imho. Maybe there is an alternative to FotoMagico - sorry but for retired folk who like to dabble on their computers can’t afford the subscription model.

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How often did you use FotoMagico in one Year?

but today, what is correct ?


Bildschirmfoto 2021-11-25 um 19.09.24

probably twice a year for me - holiday and end of the year

Wonderful, new price a year for you: 2 months. Was it 8 or 9 USD for one month? Playback is free.

Too bad FM switched to the, hated by me, subscription model.
As a irregulier user I will not pay a monthly price.
So end of story.
It leaves the fact that FM is a wonderful app.

Leider, leider, leider (read that in German)

Grüße Slobber

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It’s interesting reading the discussion. Before now, I’ve never considered using FotoMagico … the purchase price was just too steep to justify my 1 or two times a year at most I might use it. Now, with the subscription I am strongly considering it for a project I have for the future. I agree, I wish it were a final cut plugin as I’ve tried multiple photo plugins with mixed effect. Just like everything, pricing is always a challenge, especially for small business. Boinx makes awesome stuff. I pay for MimoLive because it makes me money in my business… do I wish the price was lower?…yes of course in some ways BUT I am happy to pay to keep Boinx motivated to continually improve it. If it is too high, they will sell less licences, maybe they’ll lower the price to keep customers, but the alternative is worse… maybe they’ll decide that it’s not worth their time….which would be much worse (not suggesting that they will, just a general comment applicable to any company that produces products). I have walked away from clients that expect a lower price for my services than what I am willing to do it for.

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I’m having great success producing slideshows using iMovie or Keynote. I had never used iMovie but when the FotoMagico pricing model changed to the subscription, I spent about 15 minutes playing around with iMovie and was able to create some really cool stuff very simply.

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Hi, yes I have used iMovie quite often for movies…I’ll give it a go for a slide show. I’ve also used the home edition of PhotoStage which is not too bad… thanks for the reply.

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I couldn’t agree more. I’ve used FotoMagico maybe 3 times in the 3 years or so I’ve owned it. I like it very much for what it does, and would gladly pay a reasonable upgrade fee for one optimized for the latest computers. But paying a monthly fee for a program I seldom use makes no sense for me, no matter how well it does the job.

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Please consider that under the new model, you will pay $24 for those 3 times over 3 years using the most up to date FotoMagico instead of $140 for the next two updates under the old model.

Not to mention, if you recall Fotomagico 5 when it first came out was riddled with App crashing bugs… and playback issues that required numerous quitting and relaunches per session on Mac OS. It wasn’t until v5.4 many months later that it became more stable, but still had glaring bugs, and finally at 5.6.14 it was actually reliable. In fact all the reviews I’ve ever read said Fotomagico was cool if you can tolerate the never ending bugs. I’m not going to pay a monthly fee and wait a year or more until 5 updates for v6 to be reckoned with bug-wise… I use Fotomagico much less often now, preferring the precision control I get with Screenflow™ by Telestream. I can incorporate photos, movie clips and screen recordings all in one app with great voiceover control, Effects, Titles and Transitions and much more, all of which are very modern & professional looking. Also, precise Audio track control which I could never get right in Fotomagico, Ugh! The Goofy Skeuomorphic frames, or music that comes with Fotomagico is simply bloatware and very outdated for U.S. design trends and I would never use them. Version 6 just might be the last version you’ll ever see… now with the added shenanigans of a monthly rental fee. ~RpH

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So again I’m just trying to do the math here. I looked up Telestream’s “Screenflow” (since that’s the app you mentioned), and it’s currently going for $119.20/year (reduced from a regular price of $149/year on a Black Friday Savings event, and with an automatic renewal fee of $79/year).

Assume you’re ready to apply yourself to creating a slideshow, and you have all the photos you need, videos, audios, etc. Now assume it’s going to take you one month to build it. With Screenflow, that will set you back $119.20. With Fotomagico, you’re only out $8.

Now assume you plan on creating a couple more slideshows throughout the year. With Screenflow, you’re still out $119.20. With Fotomagic, you’ll be out (probably) $24.

Unless you plan on using FotoMagico EVERY DAY of the year (which will set you back $96), it still makes more sense to go with FM than Screenflow, considering all else being equal.

Except that it isn’t.

I’ll probably stick with FM5. It seems to be working OK on my MacBook Pro Intel running OS Monterey. Once I get my new Mac Mini I am hoping it will run under emulation using Rosetta 2.
It can still be downloaded from the Boinx website. However, I plan to keep a backup in case it’s removed.

Hi @Londinense there are no plans to remove FotoMagico 5 from the website and you’re welcome to use it for as long as it works on your computer. Please keep in mind that it is not optimised for M1 and doesn’t perform very well under Rosetta 2.

Just looked in to see what was new, and I was looking for Version 5 as I just installed Montaray
and want to reinstall V5. But can not find it? I too do not like renting software, and an upgrade price of $79.00 CDN would be fine, and that would be OK, but here it’s $12.00 plus 12% taxes, sorry way too much for me. i love the software but I can get Photoshop, and Lightroom for $10.00 and the slide shows are nice, fotomagico, is great but sorry, when 6 is finished so am I. Thank you for a great product.

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