I have been immersed in the delights of Capture 1 for a while now. A couple of months of school images of all types, a wedding and some personal stuff have given me a task of what it offers and what it does not. All of my observations are based on those of a a new user with Olympus M43 cameras and lenses, so they may not apply to everyone.
The other day I was asked to do some images in strong midday light for the school. A perfect early Autumn day for any other purpose, produced harsh and hard to like files, so it was off to the processing bench we go.
Now I am the first to admit that, even though C1 has felt intuitive to me from day one, I have barely scratched the surface. In poor light, where noise and colour/contrast can be reduced, C1 has opened my eyes to a different and better way, giving me confidence in my cameras up to ISO 1600 basically issue free and even beyond that with a slight compromise in quality*.
The harsh sunlight I was dealing with was giving me some issues though. C1 has a hardness, that is a real boon when fighting poor light, but seems to be a little strong in intense light and with my 40-150 pro, that nasty Bokeh was really obvious. Highlight and shadow recovery are excellent, but a delicateness I am used to from LR was less obvious**.
On a hunch I gave LR a go and to my surprise, the files looked more natural and the Bokeh was less offensive. I could not push the files as far and on close inspection, slight noise was evident even at ISO 400, but as was, the files looked pleasant and most importantly, realistic.
So, where does that leave me?
C1 strengths;
A better base image, especially with noise and image “snap”.
More and generally stronger/better*** image making controls for almost everything from sharpening to dynamic range and colour control (don’t love the levelling options, but that is the only one).
A one page interface, fully customisable.
The built in layers tool with an on-off dynamic.
Any feature pre-sets, even cropping and levelling.
The ability to apply almost any control to any layer and tool.
Import and export interface, that just feels more intuitive to me.
It remembers what you last used, unless you make it a pre-set.
A feeling in most situations of “there will be an answer, I just need to find it”.
EM1 mk2 and slow zoom at ISO 3200, in poor light taken as a test shot against a pro Fuji combo and processed with C1. This is fine for most applications and way better than some. This image swayed me away from the Fuji direction, because I and others actually liked this image more! The Em1x is even better, making indoor sports fun again.
C1 weaknesses;
Control layout. The dialog boxes are all the same to look at and quite dense, making finding one amongst many tedious some times. Colour coding the text or box or similar would speed up things (it may have, but I have not found it). LR has less to worry about, but this helps with quick identification.
The levelling tool (either option) is not as fast and easy as the LR mouse scroll option.
It does not have as many options as LR once you get away from image processing (printing, books, GPS, stitching etc).
Files can be a little hard, especially when the light is good.
Lots to learn, if that can be considered a bad thing.
LR strengths;
Batch processing can be a little quicker.
Easy Photoshop linking (which covers some of the missing controls from C1).
More non-processing specific options.
Nicer files in good/bright light.
More “Hollywood” in the images with a natural glow and juicy colour.
Handles jpegs as well as C1.
I personally seem to like the black and whites more, but I have not had a chance to compare.
This image of my friend Kate has a certain “glow” and delicate sharpness to it that LR seems better at.
LR weaknesses;
Multi page interface.
Base RAW image files at higher ISO’s range from not as good to just poor for some cameras (EM1 mk2 at 1600+).
My LR does not support my newest camera on my older (but not that old) operating system.
Lack of processing options both generally and in their fine controls. I was a big fan of their brush tool, but compared to C1 it is rudimentary at best.
The tools remember a default that only changes if you change it before you use it, which after years of use, I still find annoying.
Pre-sets are limited to only certain functions.
Some tools are limited in strength or go to a bad place if pushed too hard.
I am sure to have missed something and will revisit here if needed and I have not even gone into the old Chestnut’s of renting over buying or industry support, but as things stand, this is the dynamic;
C1 is my primary, especially in tougher lighting situations, It is the more specialised Chef’s knife.
LR is my easy job, quick fix and my preferred option for bright light and better Bokeh with my twitchy 40-150 and 300mm’s. It is my Multi tool.
*M43 rarely needs more than 3200 with fast glass and it’s DOF/stabiliser advantage.
**Something I have noticed with C1 is the ability to push sliders further as the images hold together well. Doing the same in LR, coming from C1, reminded me that that is not always the case.
*** there are a few that LR is better at, such as softening backgrounds etc.