[pschlute]

It is a lot for the money, but keep in mind one must agree to a 1 year contract for this offer. If there was no contract it would be a lot more attractive imo.

So £120 for 4 programs that are constantly updated so you are always using the very latest tech. That seems like a bargain to me.

[mee]

So £120 for 4 programs that are constantly updated so you are always using the very latest tech. That seems like a bargain to me.

Btw it's less than 120 funny symbol dollars. I got it for 20 less and with sales tax included. Got to shop around though. Can even get it for 87ish USD through a office supply store here in the US with gift card 'work' haha.


Anyways yeah some people will appreciate it, I'm not telling you not to appreciate, just that it isn't a cut and dry scenario for everyone. I don't think it requires a defense.

[11GTCS]

So £120 for 4 programs that are constantly updated so you are always using the very latest tech. That seems like a bargain to me.

More like 120 per year, so 1200 per decade. Assuming I bought the software once now and updated it one other time during the decade (reasonable assumption for my use, I don’t need “the latest tech” to do photo management and raw development, and that it cost 300 each time to buy (accurate for capture one pro), I’m still 600 ahead doing it that way versus paying for a subscription. There are lots of reasons why people prefer to own a license of the software outright versus constantly paying a monthly fee.

[Class A]

They only recently added support for plugins, so there are very few plugins that work with Capture One right now.

The Capture One plugin architecture is rather weak, as only output-oriented plugins (such as "adding a frame") are supported.

Capture One does not support plugins that extend the image processing pipeline.

Having said that, integration with something like NIK Silver Effects is just as good/bad as it is with Lightroom. The RAW image is first exported (e.g., as a TIFF file) -- either with or without existing Capture One edits -- then worked on in the external software (e.g., NIK Silver Effects), and finally (automatically) imported back into Capture One. Like Lightroom, Capture One supports further edits on this file. In summary, there is decent integration and the downsides (having an extra file and a broken editing continuity) are unavoidable for any external software that cannot plug in into the native image processing pipeline.

Sadly, many people at Capture One (no longer linked to Phase One) do not properly understand HCI design (human-computer interaction). There are a number of missed opportunity to increase productivity, and starting around Capture One 11, the quality of interaction design seemed to drop and on top of that development resources were squandered on features that were of questionable use at best. The recent improvement to the use of brushes -- they call them "style brushes", even though it is just a better way of utilising "brush presets" that existed for ages -- was a very good move and made me upgrade again. Before that, I took a break and even considered switching because the product design strategy appeared to be doomed for a while. Completely unnecessary productivity brakes still exist, but C1's customisability and its "Skin tone" tool are really useful.

Pentax camera profiles are nothing to write home about. Not terrible but not good either, AFAIC. I am almost certain that they don't apply their much touted "hand-calibrated camera profiles for each camera model"-approach to Pentax models. There have been too many Pentax profile goofs in the past for this to be true. Try to create your own profiles or use profiles made for other cameras, would be my recommendation.

FWIW, Pentax lens information is not read correctly from RAW files in its entirety; basic shooting parameters are imported but you'll never see a proper lens name. There is no PixelShift support either, but Lightroom's half-baked support is not much better.

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Last edited by Class A; 05-03-2021 at 08:31 AM.

[Kendra59]

I now understand my potential software options much better than before.

I will stick with using Adobe Lightroom 6 for now, as my current computer can run it. Sometime in the next 6 months, I will either order a new iMac computer, or build my own Windows 10 PC. I am not a fan of MS Windows, but am not a fan of a 24" screen either (I currently use a 31.5" monitor with my 2nd computer, but that computer is a 2009 Mac mini, and is technically obsolete too).

I would love to get some feedback by the members of this forum regarding the computer equipment they are using. I didn't see a section for that, but in our digital photography age, we all need to use one. Here are a few questions:

Do you use Windows, Mac OS, or Linux?
How much RAM do you use?
What CPU do you use?
What video card do you use, or can at least recommend?
What are you using for a monitor?

I hope asking these questions here is okay; otherwise could the monitor of this forum move it to the right place. If there is no "right place" for these kind of questions, could one be added?

[mee]

Windows 10
32 GB
AMD 3600
I'm using a 1660 TI but if I were buying today I'd want a 3060 (but I also do some gaming)
24" Benq SW240 photo monitor

What I like though might not be a fit for you and my system is 2-3 years old now. I will say with the chinavirus and semiconductor shortage, mixed with the cryptocurrency boom, supply for videocards is very very very tight these days. Expect to pay double if you need something now, if you can even find it.


With that in mind I'd recommend buying a system instead of parting one today. And 6 month window means an entirely different generation of parts and supply for those parts could be present. So I'd wait until the month of to check.

[pepperberry farm]

I now understand my potential software options much better than before.

I will stick with using Adobe Lightroom 6 for now, as my current computer can run it. Sometime in the next 6 months, I will either order a new iMac computer, or build my own Windows 10 PC. I am not a fan of MS Windows, but am not a fan of a 24" screen either (I currently use a 31.5" monitor with my 2nd computer, but that computer is a 2009 Mac mini, and is technically obsolete too).

I would love to get some feedback by the members of this forum regarding the computer equipment they are using. I didn't see a section for that, but in our digital photography age, we all need to use one. Here are a few questions:

Do you use Windows, Mac OS, or Linux?
How much RAM do you use?
What CPU do you use?
What video card do you use, or can at least recommend?
What are you using for a monitor?

I hope asking these questions here is okay; otherwise could the monitor of this forum move it to the right place. If there is no "right place" for these kind of questions, could one be added?

I run a Mac mini (2014) with 16 Gb of RAM and an Intel 2.6 Ghz i5 CPU, all driving a 30" Acer monitor....

I recently had to switch image-editing solutions also, as the last two updates to Luminar 4 were horribly unstable and their tech support was found wanting....

I moved to ON1 Photo RAW 2021 and, while still early yet, am loving it....

[3by2]

Running on Windows 10 pro 64bit

Intel i5-7500 3.4Ghz with 8Gb of Ram
Asus GT710-SL-2GD5 2GbDDR5 graphics card
MSI B250i mATX motherboard in a Coolermaster case
M.2 SSD and separate 2.5 inch HD
BEnq BL2420PT 24" 1440

Arguably deficient on the RAM front, though I'm careful not to overburden it, not found any advantage to a more powerful graphics card for running LR6 and Photoshop CS2, have thought about dual monitors but I prefer a more streamlined desk. Future upgrades will include RAM, possible bigger SSD and both of those done together as the SSD m.2 needs the board removing for access, disadvantage of a small case and probable future upgrade to LR and Photoshop, timeframe uncertain.

[bscott]

I also use Lightroom and export DNG to HeliconFocus and DNG back to Lightroom. Are there other photo processing programs that can do this operation?

[subsea]

I just replaced my 2010 Mac Pro with a 2020 27-inch iMac running Catalina. I've maxed out the RAM at 128GB and have 2TB of internal storage, along with another 4TB of external storage. I upgraded the processor to a 3.6 GHz 10-Core Intel Core i9 and upgraded the graphics card to an AMD Radeon Pro 5700 8 GB. The main display is a 27" Retina 5K display, but I also have the 21" display that I used with my Mac Pro attached to the iMac. And before anyone comments that I've gone a bit further than necessary for image processing (true!), I'll mention that, since retiring, while I frequently have multiple image processing apps open simultaneously, I also do consulting in the area of engineering R&D and that was the largest impetus for the system upgrades. I also have a 15-inch MacBook Pro with 32GB of RAM for my portable image/data processing needs.

When I bought the new iMac, it was out of necessity due to the 11-year old Mac Pro failing and not being worth effort to repair. I had been hoping to wait for the new M1 processor to show up, but could no longer wait. Now that the new iMacs with that processor are here, I haven't figured out, yet, how to compare the capabilities of the 2 architectures in terms of my needs. While the new machines are intriguing, I'm not sure how the performance of the 16GB RAM (current maximum) compares with the performance of the 128GB RAM in my current machine. I assume I'll be able to figure that out in the future, but it will be a while before I see the need to replace what I've got. I suspect that the 16GB machine (with a larger display) might serve if all I was doing was image processing, but I just don't know!

[mee]

I also use Lightroom and export DNG to HeliconFocus and DNG back to Lightroom. Are there other photo processing programs that can do this operation?

I'm not sure. Not seamlessly like that.


Affinity Photo (Photoshop clone) can load multiple DNG files and stack them (called 'Focus Merge'), but I don't think one can select them in LR and load them as a stack into AP. Rather one must open AP, select the Focus Merge option, click on the folder where the DNGs are located and select them.

Gotta move on

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