DNG - Capture One vs. Adobe RAW Converter

[Iron Flatline]

Hello all.

I just received my M8, and promptly joined the forums.

The camera ships with Capture One LE, but I've been working with the Adobe Raw Converter for a couple of years now. There's a bit of a learning curve, and I'd just as soon stay with the workflow I'm familiar with.

Are there any comments or opinions as to why I should dive into the Capture One system? I've known several photographers who swear by it, though most have said that they do so primarily because it took Adobe so long to come out with a good raw converter, and now their workflow is centered around C1.

Kind regards,

Iron Flatline

[carstenw]

I haven't used ACR for a while now, since I found I got much better results, PLUS a decent database, with Lightroom. However, Lightroom sucks for M8 DNGs, so for now I am using (or trying) C1LE. I have not tried ACR again... C1LE gets amazingly good colours with a decent profile and a simple white balance. I hate its workflow though, I must say, and I can't detect any database features yet.

[mike prevette]

The new version of ACR (cs3) is very similar to the one in the most recent Lightroom beta. I personally have had great results with both of them. Not saying I couldn't have gotten similar results out of C1Le but it would have taken literally 15 times longer. I would argue that that in itself would be the nail in the coffin. But I personally have not seen the advantages of the C1's math vs Lightroom's. None of the images I've passed through both programs look better in the C1 version. It's possibly my knowledge, but honestly I've been using C1 for a few weeks LONGER than lightroom, and so you'd think C1 would have the edge.

_mike

[carstenw]

Mike, that is weird, since it totally counters my experience. Specifically, for example when I take portraits in incandescent lighting with the auto-white-balance on, then I get these images which Lightroom will turn yellow with magenta skin, and nothing I do can fix them, since the blue slider of the white-balance doesn't move far enough to correct it. With such images, I just click the white-balance pipette on a white/grey area in C1LE and all is well.

[Iron Flatline]

From the Luminous Landscape:

Leica M8 Review

Capture One LE vs. Camera Raw 3.6

The M8 ships with a version of Capture One LE. Each DNG file contains a custom profile created for Leica by Phase One. But, coincident with the arrival of my review M8 I received a pre-release of Adobe's Camera Raw, V3.6, which contains a custom profile for the M8 created by CR's primary author Thomas Knoll. I was therefore very keen to see how these two programs would compare when processing M8 files.

The main difference lies in colour reproduction. Capture One LE has its own custom profile which does a really excellent job of colour reproduction. The new Camera Raw profile for the M8 does a much better job than previous versions or CR or Lightroom, but to my eye doesn't handle reds very well, with skin tones and especially reds too saturated.

I'm sure that as time passes we will see a see-saw, as new versions of raw processors come to market and each tries to do a better job of handling various maker's raw files.

[Iron Flatline]

I'm definitely encountering some extremely reddish skin (hyper-saturated) in Adobe.

All my DNGs from my M8 are coming up +12 Tint, unlike the CR2s from my Canon 5D.

[mike prevette]

Ha, good thing I shoot BW 90% of the time. I suppose thats why I haven't had any issue with it. I only see the color version for about as much time as it takes me to hit the BW button. Almost all of my color work doesn't have any skin tones in it. sorry for the false positive.

_mike