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Lightroom vs. Phase One Capture One

jzieglerjziegler Registered Users Posts: 420 Major grins
edited February 26, 2012 in Digital Darkroom
I've been using Phase One Capture One for a while now, and have been pretty satisfied with it. Enough that I upgraded from the basic version to the Pro version a while ago. But, today only, B&H has a real deal on Lightroom. So, can anyone give me some pros and cons for the two programs? The biggest thing that I know about in Lightroom's favor is support for plugins, which Capture One lacks. Anything else that might make me want to spend the $ on Lightroom?

Thanks,
James
James Ziegler
http://jziegler.smugmug.com

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    W.W. WebsterW.W. Webster Registered Users Posts: 3,204 Major grins
    edited February 15, 2012
    Lightroom is a great product, I've been using it since the very first beta, but be aware that a major upgrade to version 4 is imminent. So if you buy LR 3.6, the current release, you could be facing an upgrade cost very soon!
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    ReeRayReeRay Registered Users Posts: 35 Big grins
    edited February 18, 2012
    Lightroom is indeed a great product but C1 Pro is superior IMHO as a RAW developer. Conversely, as a DAM system I find Lightroom indispensable. Using the two I find all my needs covered.
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    Ed911Ed911 Registered Users Posts: 1,306 Major grins
    edited February 23, 2012
    ReeRay wrote: »
    Lightroom is indeed a great product but C1 Pro is superior IMHO as a RAW developer. Conversely, as a DAM system I find Lightroom indispensable. Using the two I find all my needs covered.

    If you don't mind, please explain the differences that caused you to come to this conclusion...and your user level. The above answers leaves a lot to be desired about why you consider one to be better than the other.
    Remember, no one may want you to take pictures, but they all want to see them.
    Educate yourself like you'll live forever and live like you'll die tomorrow.

    Ed
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    jzieglerjziegler Registered Users Posts: 420 Major grins
    edited February 23, 2012
    ReeRay wrote: »
    Lightroom is indeed a great product but C1 Pro is superior IMHO as a RAW developer. Conversely, as a DAM system I find Lightroom indispensable. Using the two I find all my needs covered.

    I actually have another DAM that I am using, also a PhaseOne product. I have Media Pro (formerly Microsoft Expression Media, and iView MediaPro before that). I'm only using C1 as a RAW developer, and I use it for as much of my processing as I can.

    I decided to stick with what I have and not spend the money on Lightroom, even at the discounted price it was last week. I'm still learning C1, and don't see the need to change again.
    James Ziegler
    http://jziegler.smugmug.com
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    ReeRayReeRay Registered Users Posts: 35 Big grins
    edited February 26, 2012
    Ed911 wrote: »
    If you don't mind, please explain the differences that caused you to come to this conclusion...and your user level. The above answers leaves a lot to be desired about why you consider one to be better than the other.

    I don't know how to accurately define user level but I've been using BOTH Lightroom and Capture One for many years now. Hesitate to proclaim "advanced user" but not a beginner either.

    Capture One is my preferred RAW developer quite simply because the results I obtain are crisper, sharper, more defined and with greater detail. The algorithms applied by C1 and inbuilt ICC profiles are very much to my liking. Colour accuracy, especially with skin tones, is excellent and very easily achieved. The colour management tools in C1 are far more comprehensive. The LCC (light fall off) tool is excellent and works a lot better than "fill in" on Lightroom. Vignetting control is better than Lightroom also especially for the "introduction" of vignetting. CA, purple fringing and distortion correct tools are superb. Focus mask to quickly establish sharp images is a Godsend for speeding up my workflow. The local adjustments tool and masking/selection of areas is also excellent. I can copy the adjustments from the primary image and paste to all other sequences so much quicker. Creating unlimited virtual copies of a single image to work on is also excellent. Keystone is unsurpassed in my opinion and singularly worth the software in it's own right. Finally I can set unlimited UI's depending on my processing preferences.

    But, as I stated, these points are only IMHO what makes C1 superior to Lightroom.
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