Capture 1 is working well. Some things I would like to share straight up;
It loads a lot faster than Lightroom, but this may be partly due to the library size disparity, or maybe not. C1 seems to load within a few seconds and the library loads as a separate entity. Lightroom has been taking a minute or so to load from off for a while now.
The standard files are cleaner, more finished and more mature looking.
The tools are more numerous, seem stronger and more predictable.
The above two result in a faster work flow because I don’t have to do as much.
It is highly customisable.
It has a brilliant masking/layering tool that is infinitely more versatile than my favourite LR tool, the brush.
Every time I ask a question of the programme, it seems to have an answer.
The answers are easy to find through linked tutorials, a free manual and simple intuition.
It is not an exaggeration to say, I feel like I not only have another arrow in my quiver, but an upgraded bow also. M43 has satisfied me on the whole for the last ten years, but it has gone from giant killing in the early days (EM5 mk1 vs D700 Nikon and 5D2), but has slowly lost it’s main advantages to the bigger guns. For me cleverness is the answer, I am just not sure they will not eventually be swallowed anyway.
I have so far found the wealth of easy to apply options mind blowing. It really is like Lightroom with skates on. The image above responded to C1 with a better, cleaner base file, showing me what it wanted (some clarity around the eyes). This is especially evident in under exposed files. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was this excited about a foundation function of photography since (searching memory banks…), maybe the first time a saw a startlingly clear file from an EM5 compared to my earlier Canon “smooth and soft” images.
C1 has given me effectively a sensor upgrade in comparison to what I have been seeing. I have liked the Olympus-Lightroom dynamic mostly, but mushy noise at higher ISO settings, especially from my workhorse EM1 mk2’s has been an issue. C1 has driven away those demons.
The same file developed in Lightroom a few weeks ago. Nice enough, but I can already feel I am responding differently to my files. Notice the way the Bokeh is rendered more smoothly around the books in the background. Nothing was done specifically to either file here, only localised clarity “brushing” over the eye and lightening globally. The limited options in Lightroom’s tools had not bothered me before, but the potential and logical application in C1 is eye opening.
The EM1x, the camera that forced me to look elsewhere when Lightroom and my older computer refused to catch up, has really impressed, but it has taken C1, both technically and functionally to see that.