There are plenty of data recovery apps out there that will do a great job of finding lost photos, but Stellar Photo Recovery (Opens in a new tab) is one of the only tools on the market designed specifically for photographers and creatives.
This more specific focus means that this data recovery software has many features that professionals and enthusiasts alike will appreciate, such as compatibility with popular camera brands, next-generation imaging hardware, and drones.
You will definitely have to pay for the privilege of using this powerful and professional photo recovery application, but it might be worth shelling out the extra money when the alternative is losing images and critical business data.
- Stellar Photo Recovery at BHPhoto for €49.99 (Opens in a new tab)
Stellar Photo Recovery: plans and prices
- A premium and feature-restricted option at different price points
Since Stellar Photo Recovery is basically a professional tool, there is no free version available. And while it does have a free trial for you to test its capabilities, it's limited to recovering 1GB of data - scan your drives for RAW files or videos and you'll soon hit that limit.
The free version of the tool can recover up to 10 files. So you will have to pay to get the most out of this app. The standard version ($49.99 / £44.18 / AUD$79.07) is good, but you miss out on a lot of features with this product: it won't work with partitions, unbootable systems, RAID arrays, or optical media, and it won't work with any repair of photo or video. It also cannot repair photos in batches.
Opting for a two-year license isn't much of an improvement in value, especially when cheaper apps offer better features.
Unlock more features and value with the Professional tier ($59.99 / £53.02 / AUD$94.89), which comes with a one-year license, but at this tier you still don't get file repair or RAID support.
If you go for the Premium tier ($69.99 / €61.86 / AUD €110.71), you add those repair features, but you still don't get RAID capabilities. That being said, the Premium product will suit many photography professionals, especially independent sellers.
If you want RAID capabilities along with the option to install on multiple systems, the Tech tier (€99.99 / €88.38 / AUD €158.16) will do the job, but with a one-year license, this is the most expensive option.
You get decent tech support options no matter what you buy: Stellar includes email, live chat, and phone support.
Stellar Photo Recovery: Features
- A brilliant range of features with only minor issues
Stellar's list of photo-based features is impressive. It can recover images from all types of memory cards, including common SD and microSD cards and older, more obscure formats like CF and xD, and works with all major brands. It's not just about memory cards, either; this product is scalable, with the ability to take photos from drones, mirrorless and action cameras from companies like Garmin and GoPro and even 8K, 360-degree and VR gear.
As expected, Stellar's tool can also recover photos from all major conventional camera brands, as well as external hard drives, SSDs, USB drives, and internal hard drives.
Its file format support is also photography oriented. It will recover all common image formats as well as specific file types used by companies like Canon, Epson, Kodak and Sony, and has no problem finding files used in macOS software and Adobe tools like Photoshop and Lightroom.
It also works with storage sizes up to 18TB, which pushes the capacity limits of many other applications and means this software can work with many professional storage solutions.
Elsewhere, Stellar supports all popular video and audio formats, scans devices encrypted with Microsoft BitLocker, and can manage volumes and partitions. You can also create images of selected drives or files and folders to prevent your critical photos from being accidentally lost in the future.
Beyond its photo-friendly features, Stellar also offers amazing everyday features. Your scans can be paused and resumed, you preview your images before restoring, and you can add your own file type to scans if it's not already supported. It recovers data from RAID arrays and NAS drives and works with Linux and Mac file systems.
Stellar's interface is simple: select your storage volume, choose your scan type, and you're good to go. And, like many other applications, its results are presented in a Windows Explorer-style interface that is easily navigable. You can also browse the results by file type and use a search option.
However, there's nothing particularly innovative about the interface, and it's here that Stellar finds some minor weaknesses. This application does not always restore the files with their original names, so it may be difficult to find the recovered photos. And while the scans are effective here, they're not particularly fast.
Stellar Photo Recovery: Final Verdict
There is no doubt that Stellar Photo Recovery is one of the best photo recovery products currently on the market. Its specialized design means it can restore images from a wider variety of sources and in a wider variety of formats than pretty much anything else, and at higher levels you also get some powerful additions, like repairing photos and videos and supporting storage formats. more complex.
However, you'll have to shell out a lot of money for these high-end features, and even the entry-level products aren't particularly cheap. It is not the fastest scanning system and the interface could be improved.
If you are a home user who wants to restore photos from cameras, USB drives, and hard drives, then Stellar Photo Recovery is probably overkill for your needs. But its impressive array of features makes it a great choice for professionals, even if the price is a bit high.
Stellar Photo Recovery: Dashboard
Swipe to scroll horizontally Row 0 - Cell 0 Row 0 - Cell 1 Row 0 - Cell 2Stellar Photo Recovery: Price Comparison
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