Capture One Pro 6 (PC/Mac)

Capture One Pro 6 is the top of the tree as far as Raw Developers are concerned. Aimed principally at the medium format market, Capture One is extended in version 6 to give more support to pro Nikon and Canon dSLRs. The software is lightning fast and feels more like handling prints than any other photographic software I have used. Although it substantially outperforms Adobe Lightroom, Apple Aperture 3 and DxO Optics Pro on the functions it supports, it does not include Digital Assets Management, and PhaseOne recommend Expression Media to fulfil this function, which is also integrated with the Capture One product.

There are three key things which make Capture One Pro 6 stand out from the crowd.
* Speed
* Refinement
* Workflow

Speed:
The overall responsiveness on a 2.6 Ghz Intel Duo Mac with 4 GB of RAM is essentially instantaneous for most tasks -- very significantly faster than any of the competing software on the same machine. This means that you can zoom in and out, move the picture around, adjust levels, make local adjustments, set white balance, deal with sharpening and noise reduction all without having to wait for the screen to refresh. On outputting a series of files, our tests suggested that Capture One was more than 10x faster than Lightroom, and 100x faster than DxO. In other words, it does in seconds what Lightroom does in minutes and DxO does in hours.

Refinement
Although Capture One has fewer controls than most of its competitors (no 'Vibrance', for example, though it has saturation), all the controls present are much more refined than their counterparts elsewhere. The Levels control, for example, allows you to set slanting level sliders for differing input and output levels. The local adjustments have layers. The white balance also has skin colour correction. Users can quickly define and correct their own lenses, including setting lens distortion and light variance (which means you can deal with the dust on your sensor), rather than waiting for profiles to be developed elsewhere. Capture One also has a powerful keystoning control, which deals with the converging verticals as well as using a Shift lens in many cases.

Workflow
Capture One is highly customisable to fit around your workflow, rather than making you follow its workflow (in the way that Lightroom or DxO do). Virtually every element of the interface can go virtually wherever you want it, and all the key tools are available in all the modes. Capture One also has a powerful tethered capture function, though this does not support camera controls and live view for 35mm dSLRs such as the Nikon D3. Further, there is highly optimised support for the iPad and the iPhone as display devices, ideal for working in a large photoshoot with an art director, lighting specialist and so on each of whom wants to see the pictures within seconds of them being taken from wherever they are standing.

Downsides
Capture One has fewer features than most of its competitors, and little in the way of 3rd party software. For example, the extensive web output options present in Lightroom are matched by just a couple of options in Capture One, though these are highly professional and effective. Likewise, there are no Facebook upload options. On the other hand, if you use ProPhoto lights, these can be controlled directly from within Capture One.

If you are looking for the pinnacle of speed and optimisation in working with Raw images from high end dSLRs or medium format cameras, Capture One Pro is the best currently on the market. However, if you are looking for a more general tool which, at a cost of speed and refinement, does all of the cataloging and databasing in addition to raw development, then Adobe Lightroom may be a better option.

There are far fewer programs designed to perform digital darkroom and workflow than there once were and many have been lost or sold to other software houses and either renamed or absorbed into other products. For the PC user, CaptureOne and Lightroom are two of the three major remaining contenders. Of those two, it is CaptureOne which is claimed can sometimes out-perform Lightroom with a slightly better handling of fine detail, colour and dynamic range. The differences would be subtle rather than substantive, but if you need that little bit extra, then CaptureOne may be the solution. It is normally somewhat more expensive than Lightroom (although on special offer of 50% discount at 09-2012, which may make it a bargain to buy) but it is oriented towards the professional user in that its support for certain models and brands is either weak or non-existent. It is unlikely that its level of model support will be changed to be more embracing. Where it does excel is in its support for full-frame and medium format cameras, and especially for those that use digital backs, which lesser products including Lightroom may ignore. There is a list of supported brands and if you scroll over one with your mouse, you will be offered a list of supported models for each.

Feature-wise, it does not offer quite as wide a range of facilities as does Lightroom but it will be sufficient for many users. PhaseOne, its creators, claim to provide extensive user support but I have heard comments from a one-time user who suggested otherwise.

It does not provide the photo management capabilities as does Lightroom and you may need to seek out a product that does should you need it. A companion product, Media Pro, is available at extra cost should you need that option.

Capable, but not exceptional.

Please note this is more of an observation applying the dust tool rather than any kind of in-depth review:

Capture One is certainly lots faster than Lightroom. Alas, for me, speed at the unacceptable sacrifice of quality. My photography involves lots of rough travel which involved lots of sensor dust. With Lightroom I could fix the dust in one image, batch apply (wait all night) and hey presto - all fixed.
Try this with Capture One - hey presto, about half fixed. The other half with resultant 'tool mark' blobs worse than the original dust.

So, for dust fixes this product is no good. Phase One need to fix this, I'm sure it's an important tool for many.
Though, in fairness, this software is aimed more towards the Studio phoographer, where the environment is a little cleaner!