[Class A]

I believe Capture One Pro would be the best RAW converter / image management software for the K-1.

Phase One's software is used by professionals all over the world and not only provides better colours for Pentax cameras out of the box, but also has a much more advanced colour editor that is a lot more flexible and can even increase the uniformity of skin tones.

The "structure" control (in addition to the standard "clarity" control), the flexibility of the user interface, the B&W conversion options, etc. -- I could go on and on -- make Capture One Pro a better choice than Lightroom, IMHO.

Phase One seems sympathetic to supporting the K-1 but said that all their feature additions are request driven. So if you think Capture One may be for you and your K-1, please let Phase One's support know. They are really good in listening, even if you are not a customer yet. They have endured a number of enquires from me before I acquired a license and have always provided helpful responses.

While you are at it: Why not let them know that you'd really like support for Pixel-Shift Resolution?

FWIW, I have been using Lightroom for years, really enjoyed it (save some really annoying bugs that were never addressed in uncountable updates), but got tired of trying to coax natural colours out of my K-5 II using Lightroom and wasn't happy with their product philosophy (everything going mobile, cloud, and subscription-based).

I'm rather happy with Capture One Pro now and cannot wait to get as proficient with my keyboard shortcuts (which are customisable(!), in contrast to Lightroom) as I am with Lightroom's.

Just a quick video, demonstrating the out-of-the box performance which should not be construed as a comparison of what the best possible output is after tweaking, but should also not be underrated as time saved in post-production can be spent in lots of useful ways.

You Tube

You Tube

[ScooterMaxi Jim]

Class A, while I probably live nearly as far away from you as is physically possible, you reflect my thinking precisely.

[cali92rs]

Capture One is much better than Lightroom in almost every facet. The only drawbacks are that it is pricey and that some of the LR plugins (like Topaz DeNoise) have to be run externally instead of a plugin.

[jatrax]

My main use of Lightroom is the database, keywording, search and retrieval functions. I'm not particularly concerned about the RAW converter, Lightroom works just fine for me in that regard. However, I share others concerns about Adobe's direction on this.

My question is does Capture One handle the database and keywording and uploading functions as well?

[godavari]

I have seriously contemplated to switch from Lightroom for the same reasons as "Class A" mentioned. However, two features of Lightroom that are holding me off are "HDR photo merge and Panorama" that are built in to Lightroom. I like to avoid hassle of external editors and seamless integration of these features is rather convenient. Wonder if Capture One has support for these as plugins.

[Class A]

My question is does Capture One handle the database and keywording and uploading functions as well?

With respect to keywording, etc. I believe Capture One is just as good. It supports hierarchical keywords, keyword libraries, both catalog-specific and global, for instance.
I never used keywording extensively in Lightroom so I'm not an expert on this matter. I just know that Capture One's keywording support hasn't been that hot for a while but that recent versions have considerably improved on it.

With respect to uploading, I don't think there is dedicated support for Flickr, Facebook, etc.
The image exporter is much more sophisticated, though, and you can create output recipes for various usages, specifying output formats and specific output locations, and then trigger the creation of multiple outputs in one go. All you have to do then, is to drag the contents of a respective output folder into the Flickr uploader, for instance.

I used Lightroom's integrated upload support and thought it was cool, but it was also inflexible and had limitations unless you were a Flickr Pro user. I don't miss it.

[virusn3t]

Something i do not like about C1 is the weird interface, i really prefer the Lr one, i hate the import/catalog thing so i really only use ACR; and Photoshop when i use plug-ins. Im really interested to see the ON1 Raw developer when they come

But yeah, when i tried both Lr vs C1, C1 gave better results.

[Class A]

However, two features of Lightroom that are holding me off are "HDR photo merge and Panorama" that are built in to Lightroom. I like to avoid hassle of external editors and seamless integration of these features is rather convenient. Wonder if Capture One has support for these as plugins.

You can nominate any image processing application as the recipient of output from Capture One and it is possible to pass multiple images along in one go. Results from the external application are imported back to Capture One.

I sympathise with the idea of having everything integrated but then a lot depends on how well those "all under one hood" tools work. For instance, the panorama stitching by ICE (Microsoft) is heaps better than the integrated functionality in Photoshop. In such instances, I prefer the specialists.

[mattb123]

Phase has said repeatedly that they will never support any MF cameras besides their own and I don't want to have different workflows for different cameras so I'll just stick with Lightroom for now. I'm also a fan of the keywording and database and would be lost without it.

[Fries]

Class A, my request to support the K-1 is on its way!

[acoufap]

You can work with DNG raw files of K1 in CO Pro 9.1.1 - I tested it - didn't realize any problems.

[Class A]

Class A, my request to support the K-1 is on its way!

Nice!

[Class A]

You can work with DNG raw files of K1 in CO Pro 9.1.1 - I tested it - didn't realize any problems.

First, that's awesome!

Second, you lucky bastard of a K-1 owner!

Third, I guess lens names are not shown properly, or are they? I submitted a respective bug report to Phase One and believe I am not the first to do so. Again, I guess if they only receive a few complaints, they may not be able to prioritise fixing the issue.

Fourth, I still think that dedicated support would be advantages. The first attempt by Phase One to support a Pentax camera with a dedicated camera profile may not be the best (the K-3's profile was just a badly tweaked K-5 profile at first) but when they do one properly, I find it works better than "Adobe Standard" or the profile embedded into Pentax DNG files.

[acoufap]

First, that's awesome!

Second, you lucky bastard of a K-1 owner!

Third, I guess lens names are not shown properly, or are they? I submitted a respective bug report to Phase One and believe I am not the first to do so. Again, I guess if they only receive a few complaints, they may not be able to prioritise fixing the issue.

Fourth, I still think that dedicated support would be advantages. The first attempt by Phase One to support a Pentax camera with a dedicated camera profile may not be the best (the K-3's profile was just a badly tweaked K-5 profile at first) but when they do one properly, I find it works better than "Adobe Standard" or the profile embedded into Pentax DNG files.

ok - some answers ...

first, I was lucky to get hands on that camera. A really nice camera - in tradition of K5 and its successors.

second, unfortunately until now I don't own one. But I was at the Ricoh Pentax Roadshow that was started. I was allowed to use my own memory card with the K-1 and took some shots in jpg and dng file format.

third, lens names are not shown as in the past - only the focal length ist shown in CO. It's caused by the fact that pentax stores the info in pentax specific meta data that are not supported by CO by now. I also asked for better support of pentax.

fourth, an ICC profile "DNG File Neutral" is used. It fits quite good IMO. Really no complaints from my side.

[ogl]

No need any petition...Capture One will have support of K-1's PEF soon, no any doubts.