Lightroom vs Capture One

[Mike Farley]

As I have stated elsewhere,l I am considering whether to migrate away from Lightroom to another application, or applications as Lightroom encompasses both image management and processing as its primary functions. I will share on the forum anything of interest which I find.

The first of these is a piece by Martin Evening, who is a Lightroom and Photoshop guru. He has published a number of books containing a lot of technical information and are what I turn to first if I want to find out how something really works. The article is a comparison between the sharpness and colour/tone rendering capabilities of Lightroom and Capture One, which is the closest alternative to Lightroom in terms of the range of functionality on offer. As you would expect, it examines the topic in some detail but the conclusion tells you what you really need to know.

A number of commentators have mentioned that Capture One produces much better looking images and extract more detail from Raw files than Lightroom. Martin Evening demonstrates that this is mainly due to the default settings which the two apply. Lightroom uses more modest settings to allow users to get the the look they want, whereas Capture One attempts to get the image nearer to the final result from the outset. Lightroom can produce something similar and, if desired, it is possible to create presets to apply the required settings. Both company's approaches are valid and it comes down to a matter of personal preference as to which is better. Evening says either applications is a solid performer and while there are some differences between the two, he argues that they are not as great as some would have you think.

There is a caveat. Capture One might be a better choice for some as it has some features which are not present in Lightroom. It also has the advantage that it is still available with a perpetual licence, albeit the purchase cost is considerably higher than Lightroom 6.

http://4bcokm12bvu948gi7312gnab-wpengin ... %20Pro.pdf

[Sarahrs]

I tried capture one and really liked it, powerful and easy to use. However it doesn't like windows and it developed a bug. The only way to fix it was moving to apple.

[Mike Farley]

..... it doesn't like windows and it developed a bug. The only way to fix it was moving to apple.

Was that the advice of of the Capture One support team?

[Sarahrs]

capture one won't fix it....

[davidb]

capture one won't fix it....

If that's their advice I don't think I'll be looking at the Mac version either! If they're not prepared to fix THEIR problems I'm not prepared to give them MY money!

[Mike Farley]

capture one won't fix it....

What wass the problem? Was it anything to do with what this user reported last year?

http://photosofarkansas.com/2016/08/17/ ... n-windows/

[Sarahrs]

Yep. Essentially that issue. If I had a mac and the spare cash I would use capture one. Really nice software, intuitive and a lot less fussy than photo shop/lightroom.

[Mike Farley]

Yep. Essentially that issue.

I wonder whether Phase One has now addressed this? With Capture One 10 it appears to have changed the requirements for using Open CL. Instead of a list of supported graphics cards, there is now a minimum version for the graphics card driver. For anyone interested in Capture One it would be worthwhile taking advantage of the 30 day free trial to see if the problem persists.

https://www.phaseone.com/en/Search/Arti ... cleid=1720

I have an older PC with a graphics card which the manufacturer no longer supports. I could swap the card out for a newer one, although I am reluctant to do that as the PC has occasionally been unstable over the past few months. As it would not start the other day, I suspect that the cause is hardware related rather than anything to do with the software. It is an ongoing investigation, but until I resolve it there is the possibility I might not find Capture One to be especially quick for GPU assisted functions.

[Sarahrs]

If I had the cash and a mac I would buy capture 1. B