Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2

This product was wonderful when it worked. I only got to use it a handful of times however because it kept freezing and shutting down before I had a chance to save my work. The program finally just quit working though. It won't open up in Vista and I can't repair whatever is wrong even though I have the disk! It won't uninstall and it won't repair so now I'm stuck with a program I can't use.

Also, it bugged the computer somehow because whenever I go to update the iPod, iTunes now says to insert the Corel disc in order to do something. I tried it once and nothing happened so now I just have to cancel it but it appears every time. How annoying!

Shame on you Corel! Jasc PSP version 7 is probably the best one out there even though that one freezes as well.

I've been using PSP since version 4. It kept getting better and better and then...

It just feels slow and clunky now. It has some great features but little things annoy. At least this version works properly with Vista.

Biggest annoyances -- the DRM service may slow your computer or drive you nuts. If I had just pirated the software I wouldn't have to deal with worries about future installations, etc.

Also the software will nag you FOREVER to register -- even if you have no desire to register with Corel. There IS a registry edit that will disable the nag, but it's stupid to require that level of computer expertise to decline a registration.

In the end, it's pretty good software, but flawed by small idiocies.

This is an amazing program! The restoration functions are fantastic! I am working on a family history project right now and wanted the program to help me restore/fix and process very, very old family photos which aren't in very good condition. One picture, in fact, of my great great grandfather and 2 great great uncles is literally in tatters and has big chunks missing, huge tears and cracks, etc. The scratch fixing function blew my mind! It fixed in less than a second what normally takes me sometimes HOURS to fix! The cloning feature is equally as good, recreating the missing pieces in seconds instead of hours or not at all!

I am also working on a dvd slideshow project for my dad for Father's Day. I had 1 picture of one of my nieces with my dad. It was a great picture of the 2 of them! The only problem was that it was horribly grainy and was a mess! The one step noise reduction button truly blew my mind!! I clicked on the one touch noise reduction button and literally before my eyes, the picture was clear as a bell! I sat there with my mouth open in shock and called my oldest niece in from the other room to come and see it! She was equally shocked! I've been using Paint Shop Pro for 20+ years and swear by it as the ONLY program for editing photos and creating graphics, but this version is truly amazing and I highly recommend it!

Pros - Paint Shop Pro Ultimate Photo X2 is a great value, can greatly enhance your images, and can be found for half the list price. It has advanced capabilities found only in more expensive packages, and effectively meets all my image modification needs. This software works with Nikon DX raw file formats and it combines perfectly with my Nikon D60 for great digital photo editing. It can correct colors, keystoning and barrel distortion very well with a user friendly interface with menus that are configurable by the user. It has an advanced High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging module to create stunning scenes from multi-exposure images, this is usually a costly separate or add-on component in other software packages. I prefer this package to my Elements 7 software which cost me almost twice as much.

Cons - Very few, but this software is somewhat compute and memory intensive so make sure you have a fairly fast processor (e.g. 2GHz or faster) with at least 3GB of memory. I would bypass installing the MediaOne software that comes with this package since it is much slower than Microsoft viewer and paint for fast, non-intrusive image viewing.

This program is very unstable and freezes up more often than I would like.
Some of the quick fixes like purple fringe fix do not work and I have to resort
to using the color changer tool to get rid of purple fringe which is a very time
comsuming process.
The interface is combersome and does not allow for an efficient work flow.
I threw this program and my PC into the dumpster and purchased a macintosh
computer. WOW! What a difference! I'm using aperture 2 software along with the
included iphoto software that came bundled with the mac. I now fly through my
image processing time with better results.

I tried the program both on Vista and XP and it still ran like a turtle. Perhaps its
the inherent operating system instablity that makes this program so very very slow.

Perhaps an amature photographer with a lot of goof off time would enjoy this program.
Not that you can't get good results. It will just take you forever!

I'm not going to live forever anyway so a little extra expense on a system that works flawlessly
right out of the box is an important consideration for me.