Capture One 12 vers Lightroom 6 & Classic
Capture One 12 vers. Lightroom 6 & Classic:
The big non-destructive RAW editor competition: Capture One 12 vers LR Classic. The debate is hot and ongoing – especially since Adobe went subscription only with LR. Being a LR guy I tested Capure One now for a while and found it to be much faster (than LR) and much better in the color grading/editing section. In terms of layers /localized edits LR is much slower and also lacks in some details that are very well done in C1. However in terms of overall package. HDR and Pano function in LR – link to Photoshop (PS) and Print Module/Book / and Map interface – LR offers more. If you do not need all these additional functions and want a fast RAW editing software than C1 might be the way to go. I find C1 to be much more responsive and C1 also uses eGPUs – this is a huge PLUS if you work on a MacBook Pro or related and need some additional power occasionally. LR totally ignores eGPU power. Since LR lacks in speed anyway with lots of localized edits LR gets so slow that you want to get a cup of tea sometimes – its just unbearable even on Smart Previews – this is big MINUS for LR. The classic version improved on speed but not by too much. Localized edits are slow never less.
Capture One can be nicely customized to your needs. LR is barely customizable but easier to use for the beginner. To get productive in both software packages you clearly need the keyboard shortcuts and here C1 is really great. You can clearly link everything in this software to a keyboard shortcut and its so easy to become very quick and productive that one clearly has to ask what Adobe has been drinking all these years … . Why is that not possible with Adobe LR? Hard to understand why LR has so few shortcut menus.
LR is much better linked to PS and that is a big plus for LR and its more affordable with 120 Euro per year and that includes PS. C1 is at 360 Euro right now (but without subscription). Paying the Adobe Cloud subscription with LR/PS for three full years is about what you pay for Capture One. So if you buy C1 upgrade again in 3years and this puts both packages on-par – cost related. Overall however cost should not be the deciding factor – compared to other overheads this is a low contribution to you annual costs.
LR is the best overall package if you need more than a RAW editor software.
C1 is better if you need performance and speed and if you are an impatient personality (like me ;)). I tend to go for C1 but I am right now still in a testing phase and havnt decided to leave LR. Unfortunately I will have to use PS in the future – the direkt link to editing layers in PS is important for me sometimes. So it will be difficult to avoid the subscription concept of Adobe if you arrive at that point. Being locked into the subscription circle is however unacceptable for me – so I am basically right now holding breath to see what the competition is doing and testing other packages here and there. So more to come … .
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