There will not be a public beta of ON1 Photo RAW but a private beta ahead of the release for ON1’s customers, the ON1 Plus Community and those who have pre-ordered Photo RAW. Still, you may try to win a version of the program, entering the sweepstakes.

ON 1 is giving away prizes each week as the launch date of ON1 Photo RAW gets closer. Besides the program itself, there are other amazing prizes to be won. Each week ON1 will pick the winners and announce them on its website. Prizes include Wacom tablets, Sony Mirrorless cameras, both B&H and Amazon gift cards, an Apple Ipad Pro, and a DJI Phantom 4 Quadcopter. New prizes are awarded to lucky winners each week for the next 8 weeks, says ON1. For official rules and eligibility, visit www.on1.com/sweepstakes.

Coming in November, ON1 Photo RAW is announced as “The Future of RAW Photo Editing”. It combines a fast browser, state-of-art RAW processor, a powerful effects engine and a layered pixel editor into one cohesive, fast and affordable app. ON1 Photo RAW will feature a new, modern raw processing engine, tuned for today’s sensors and graphics chips. Combined with the extensive set of ON1 tools, Photo RAW will bring photographers the world’s fastest, most flexible, and easiest to use raw processor and photo editor available. ON1 Photo RAW will continue to work where you want, as a standalone app, a plug-in for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, or as a host app for other editing apps.

Do we need another RAW editor? Apparently yes, as ON1 has been working on ON1 Photo RAW for some time, using its own ON 1 Photo 10 as the base. The company justifies the appearance of ON1 Photo RAW saying that “The current class of raw-based photo editors require photographers to catalog their photos, bounce between apps for editing, and forces them to work within the confines of their ecosystem. They haven’t adapted their apps to work efficiently with today’s popular 42- and 50-megapixel cameras. For years, photographers have been asking us for a super fast raw processor and non-destructive photo editor without the painful import process. This is ON1 Photo RAW.”

The information available and the interface images of ON1 Photo RAW you can browse through at ON1’s website do suggest photographers should look at what is being offered. I know I am quite excited. As much, I would say, as when I tried the first Lightroom beta for Windows on the Summer of 2006, ten years ago.