Uncharacteristically, I responded to one of those “limited time” offers in my emails recently. Not sure what triggered my curiosity, but the company responsible (ON1 software) have impressed lately with their ON1 No Noise, so maybe that was the catalyst?

The deal was for ON1 Raw 2021 at a reduced rate, until the pending 2022 version is released. It was a steal (about 1 1/2 cups of coffee a month-C1 is about 6x that) so I jumped at the rental version.

The hope was to find a single programme that can do my work and personal images to a high level and quickly.

I have that to some extend now.

Capture 1 and ON1 No Noise work well and quickly enough (although NN does not link from C1 on my older desk top), but there are a few considerations worth exploring;

• C1 is expensive. Rental is more than any two other programmes combined and purchase is on the steep end.

• C1 has too much of some things I do not want (cataloging etc) and not as much of some of the things that I would like (easy pro level preset layers and filters)

• The interface is comprehensive and flexible but bland and (when I am fatigued) the many windows are very dense and too much alike. Some colour coding would be nice.

• C1 needs No Noise for the “pointy end” of high ISO control (3200-6400+), which is a reasonably painless right click away, but can be tedious en masse.

• C1 and NN do not work on my old computer (it loaded, but files do not link across).

• Did I mention C1 is expensive?

ONR rental, with a code from a reviewer is less than half my Adobe Cloud’s and the programme looks to have everything I need, I just need to work out if it is in a workable form and up to the quality I want. I have the 2021 version, that does not yet have No Noise integrated (but I have it separately). The 2022 version that is pending will have NN and some other features integrated so it is too soon to commit one way or the other.

I hope also that the things ONR seems to do well, presets and portrait features are refined in the next version.

First impressions are;

• Everything I may need is at hand, but the options are deep and the interface takes a little getting used to.

• The first level of controls (the quick option) look to be solid enough. The base file is not as good, by almost as much as the Lightroom difference, but that is the 2021 not the 2022 version.

• The import/export system is ideal, reading straight from the parent folder, then exporting as needed. I keep nothing in my catalogue (for work everything is either in a submitted folder in Dropbox or filed away on a separate hard drive), so this looks cleaner than running a catalogue, just to keep it empty.

• My continuing issues with Dropbox, may be replaced by the free 200gb storage that comes with the subscription. I have to look into this better, but free storage is good and it offers a compressed ON RAW file format that seems to hold an enormous amount.

• The base processing is good, maybe a little under C1 and DXO, but better than Adobe and with the 2022 version, it may even be better.

• It is quick enough, which some reviewers said was a potential issue.

• The tutorial videos are good (but they are needed).

• C1 files look better on screen and process easily, but on closer examination the ON files look as good, just different.

• It feels more like I have a bit of Photoshop power at hand than C1 offers. Never a PS user, some would be handy in a less dense form than PS.

Things I may miss from C1* are the amazing De-haze slider (ON1 seems to have a better contrast slider, but the haze slider is doing more of the Clarity slider’s job in C1/LR, one I use a lot less) and the easy layer brush tool (again ON1 seems to offer something possibly stronger and more versatile, I just don’t know yet if it is added complication for little real benefit). One option I am not really interested in is running both. Defeats the purpose. C1 > NN works well enough. Adding ONR to that dynamic is pointless. If not I will still be dumping Adobe though, so at half the rental price it is still possibly worth having as an option on the older computer.

*Always the same issue. I miss Adobe colour, the direct blue channel control and the levelling feature, but I adapted to C1. The reality is, like cars, each has things it does well and less well. Give and take with a dose of adapt or die.