There are two classes of differences:
1. how you are permitted to use the product, and
2. what technical features are provided.
Very briefly, Professional Edition is required for uses beyond personal satisfaction and educational instruction. If you're selling many images or using the software as part of your job or to support a business, museum, or funded project, then you need Professional Edition. Professional Edition also provides access to the software's most advanced technical features and extended access to our support staff.
Prosumer Edition is the flagship product for non-professional users. It includes all the technical features from Professional Edition, but at a reduced price for advanced consumers.
Here is a full list of the features that require Prosumer Edition or Professional Edition. (We call these the “advanced Pro-only features” for short.)
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Preserve all metadata, including EXIF, IPTC, and any Lightroom keywords that have been added by the photographer.
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Lightroom plugin
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Option to honor image files' embedded color profiles in Zerene Stacker's own screen displays.
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Ability to overlap I/O with computation for faster operation while stacking.
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Ability to reduce the frequency of screen updates while stacking, for faster operation with deep stacks.
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Additional brush types for retouching.
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Multi-step undo when retouching.
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Additional interpolators for improved handling of very sharp source images.
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Integrated controller for the StackShot automated rail
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Ability to ingest and stack images while they are being shot with a USB-connected camera.
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When retouching, image brightness can be adjusted to facilitate working in unusually dark regions.
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Aligned and brightness-corrected input images can be saved to external files.
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Pixels from each source image that were incorporated into DMap output can be saved as image files.
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Depth map from DMap can be saved as a TIFF file.
Personal Edition is the entry-level product. It contains all the features that many people ever need, plus free trials of the Pro-only features. Trials of Pro-only features cover a 30-day period that starts when each feature is first used. To continue using a Pro-only feature after its trial period has expired, you can upgrade to Prosumer Edition for just the difference in license prices.
