I love MidJourney's latest AI image generator, but there's just one catch

Midjourney has been one of my favorite AI image generators, offering rich and powerful imagery with a range of useful tools to refine your images. Now, Midjourney is out with a new version that promises to help you more easily create the right photos, drawings, artwork, and more.

Announced on Friday and currently available for alpha testing, Midjourney version 7 carries with it a host of new and improved features, and ones that I’m really enjoying.

To use Midjourney in the first place, you need a paid subscription. The company offers four plans, from Basic to Mega. The least expensive Basic subscription will cost you $10/month billed monthly or $8/month billed annually. After subscribing, head to the Midjourney website where you can view images created by other people and generate your own. If you’ve never used the service before, my story on “How to use Midjourney’s website to generate amazing images with AI” should help you get started.

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Midjourney V7 is much smarter at figuring out your text prompts so you no longer have to ensure your description is perfect. Simply type a basic prompt, and the AI will interpret and expand it for you. The image generator itself is faster than in previous versions. After submitting my prompt, I was amazed at how quickly the four resulting images popped up.

The quality of the images is also superior. The announcement about V7 touts the quality as noticeably higher with beautiful textures, while bodies, hands, and objects are more detailed. I could see this in the images I requested. They appeared more rich and more vivid with attention paid to the details.

The new version is also Midjourney’s first model to offer personalization by default. This determines how well the AI understands your initial prompt and what types of images you want to see. And here is where the only catch arises.

To take advantage of the personalization, you’ll have to review and rate 200 images generated by other people. I shouldn’t complain too much as the process typically takes five to six minutes and is certainly better than paying for the feature. But it is a step you’ll have to complete to fully use the new version.

Midjourney V7 offers two distinct modes with different costs and speeds. Turbo is the more expensive to run, delivers the highest quality, and takes the longest to complete. Relax mode is less expensive to run and generates your images within a few seconds. But as it creates your images using a draft style, the quality is not on par with ones devised via Turbo mode.

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“We think Draft mode is the best way ever to iterate on ideas,” Midjourney said in its announcement. “If you like something, click ‘enhance’ or ‘vary’ on the image and it will re-render it at full quality. Please note: Draft images are lower quality than standard mode — but the behavior and aesthetics are very consistent — so it’s a faithful way to iterate.”

Perhaps coolest of all is the ability to speak your prompts rather than type them. In Draft mode, select the microphone icon and dictate a description of the image you want. When done, click the microphone icon again. Midjourney interprets your prompt and creates a set of images.

Some new features aren’t yet available or up to snuff with the latest version. When upscaling, editing, or retexturing your image, the AI will fall back to version 6. Moodboards and SREF codes for style reference will improve in future updates.

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Midjourney reminds people that version 7 uses a completely new model with strengths and weaknesses. But the idea behind an alpha release is to let people play with it — to experience how it works and how it can be improved. Midjourney promises new features for v7 every week or two over the next 60 days. Next on the list will be a new character and object reference.

Though Midjourney is one of the premier AI image generators, the service faces stiff competition. OpenAI’s ChatGPT recently unveiled a new and improved image creation skill that has already been turning heads. Let’s see if Midjourney version 7 can help it keep up with and surpass its rivals.

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