Camera Bits Reviews 

Fair warning to anyone thinking about using Photo Mechanic: save yourself the headache and look at FastRawViewer instead.

I recently subscribed to Photo Mechanic and it was completely unusable, constantly crashing every single time a standard Windows Explorer file-picker window opened within the app.

When I contacted support, their official "workaround" was for me to go into my system files and manually rename a Microsoft Office DLL file (grooveex.dll) just to keep their software from collapsing. I don't have the time to act as unpaid tech support for a premium program, so I cancelled and asked for a refund since I couldn't use the software even once.

They flat-out refused the refund. Because I had tested a trial a long time ago, they used that as a loophole to deny it, claiming the crash is a Windows fault and not their problem. It feels incredibly cheap to leave a paying customer out of pocket for software that doesn't work out of the box.

If you want something that actually works as intended without a forced monthly subscription, FastRawViewer is significantly cheaper (less than £20) and completely stable. Don't waste your money here.

You pay $150 for a program that appears to be a lifetime license, but just a few years later they stop updating the software so the program (Photo Mechanic) no longer works. Now you have to pay double just to use the program again. And you only get a measly $20 discount? Scam company.

The support team isn't interested in providing even the simplest solutions or accommodating customers. You can safely save yourself the time communicating with them. It's truly a waste of time. Very petty. Absolutely not solution-oriented. A real shame. Good product, but absolutely terrible support. Absolutely user-unfriendly.