C1 DSLR... *wow!*

Petteri Sulonen

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Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought CaptureOne DSLR LE. After a bit of playing with it, all I can say is WOW! The control it gives, the easy with which it gives it, and the quality of the result is really sump'n else.

Almost makes me regret not shooting RAW until late last year. The guys who made it really knew what they were doing -- both from a usability/user interface design POV, and an engineering POV.

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
 
Hi Petteri,

I've been thinking about moving to shooting RAW full-time, too, but the software demands have been putting me off.

One option is to go for PS CS for its RAW processing capabilities -- have you used CS, and if so, how does C1 compare, and if C1 is better, in what way? Workflow? Controls?

ron
 
Hi,

started to use it last week and since then I am completly sold to the RAW, regret the fact that I used JPG for too long. My EOS10D is now set on RAW only! It's definately worth those dollars!!

Frank
Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought CaptureOne DSLR LE. After
a bit of playing with it, all I can say is WOW! The control it
gives, the easy with which it gives it, and the quality of the
result is really sump'n else.

Almost makes me regret not shooting RAW until late last year. The
guys who made it really knew what they were doing -- both from a
usability/user interface design POV, and an engineering POV.

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
 
Hi,
started to use it last week and since then I am completly sold to
the RAW, regret the fact that I used JPG for too long. My EOS10D is
now set on RAW only! It's definately worth those dollars!!

Frank
Ditto, I've been using excusively C1LE since May 2003. Results are stunning :-)

--
Shabok
http://www.nobrakes.ch - mountain biking shots
 
I find the colors to look more natural, and the controls are easier to manipulate.

Plus the ability to queue files makes it easy to process a large number of files.

I shoot RAW only and I couldn't do it with any other tool than C1 LE, not photoshop, which makes it too difficult to process many files.

PSCS has useful and interesting tools however, like CA correction, which I'd like to see in C1.
Hi Petteri,

I've been thinking about moving to shooting RAW full-time, too, but
the software demands have been putting me off.

One option is to go for PS CS for its RAW processing capabilities
-- have you used CS, and if so, how does C1 compare, and if C1 is
better, in what way? Workflow? Controls?

ron
--
http://lancelot.shutterpoint.com
http://www.pbase.com/ogilloire/
 
Hi Petteri,

I've been thinking about moving to shooting RAW full-time, too, but
the software demands have been putting me off.

One option is to go for PS CS for its RAW processing capabilities
-- have you used CS, and if so, how does C1 compare, and if C1 is
better, in what way? Workflow? Controls?
I don't have CS, and have no immediate plans to upgrade. Photoshop 6 does everything I need, and I disapprove of some of the things Adobe has done in connection with CS. So, I can't really compare. I've heard good things about it, though, so I think that both CS and C1 DSLR might be overkill.

C1 has a 15-day free trial, though. I recommend you shoot a bunch of RAW, download it, and take it for a spin.

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
 
I'll jump in here and agree. I hated the raw conversion process until C1 came along. I still shoot jpg occasionally but my raw shooting is way up. Fantastic results.
Hi,
started to use it last week and since then I am completly sold to
the RAW, regret the fact that I used JPG for too long. My EOS10D is
now set on RAW only! It's definately worth those dollars!!

Frank
Ditto, I've been using excusively C1LE since May 2003. Results are
stunning :-)

--
Shabok
http://www.nobrakes.ch - mountain biking shots
 
After using C1, you are spoiled. The other great thing about RAW is the ability (at least to some degree) to recover blown highlights.
Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought CaptureOne DSLR LE. After
a bit of playing with it, all I can say is WOW! The control it
gives, the easy with which it gives it, and the quality of the
result is really sump'n else.

Almost makes me regret not shooting RAW until late last year. The
guys who made it really knew what they were doing -- both from a
usability/user interface design POV, and an engineering POV.

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
 
After using C1, you are spoiled. The other great thing about RAW is
the ability (at least to some degree) to recover blown highlights.
Not only is it really pleasant to use, but the results are amazing! I've been re-converting some of my RAW stuff, and I'm totally flabbergasted:

1. C1 sharpening is fantastic -- hardly any artifacts, and as bleedingly sharp as you like (assuming, of course, a technically correct original).

2. NO stairstepping! There were occasional issues with this with very thin lines, e.g. a perfectly in-focus telephone wire against the sky; it came out with a "checkerboard" pattern from the demosaicing, sometimes bad enough to be visible in an 8 x 10 print. Not so with C1 -- such lines are perfect.

3. NO chroma noise!!! ISO1600 shots come out looking better than ISO400 neg shots -- the noise suddenly becomes very even and film-grain like. OK, I'd developed a nice Photoshop workflow to get more or less the same result, but C1 does it even better straight out of the box.

Bottom line: it feels like I got about 6 more megapixels of image to work with. Holy cow!

What the hell was I waiting for?

Petteri (sudden RAW convert)
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
 
Just my own way of doing things but I have had both raw converters for over 4 months to play with and I find I have totally stopped using C1 even though I bought it. I found ps7 and now cs allows me the freedom to process many files in different steps using automate.
For example if first convert all to tiff using automate.

I then sharpen the ones I want after tweaking levels and whatever again using automate.

In some cases I can go from raw to tiff and sharpen and then save a jpeg or tiff, again using automate.

I set up a series of actions to do all of the above how I want and when I want and I am not limited as to how many files I can process with each action. With all this capability and flexibility I find my self never using C1 and I have concluded after many end picture comparisons, neither one blows the other away so I stick with all the automation, action and much faster raw conversion of CS.
Don
 
Speaking of low noise, here is a ISO1600 shot converted with C1.
I was and still am amazed...



original:
http://www.pbase.com/image/24117972/original.jpg

Somehow I don't like the idea of taking a lossy compressed (.JPG) image from the camera, manipulating it, and saving it again as another lossy compressed file (I know, I could save it as TIFF). It seems so much "cleaner" to process the RAW image data directly.
3. NO chroma noise!!! ISO1600 shots come out looking better than
ISO400 neg shots -- the noise suddenly becomes very even and
film-grain like. OK, I'd developed a nice Photoshop workflow to get
more or less the same result, but C1 does it even better straight
out of the box.
 
Petteri Sulonen wrote:
[snip]
What the hell was I waiting for?

Petteri (sudden RAW convert)
Welcome to the club :)

I was lucky enogh to start shooting RAW. You can probably appreciate my reaction when I saw my D60 shots taken early 2002 been processed through C1. WOW!

Second to the pure quality of conversion is in my C1's workflow. This is probably the most overlooked "feature" of C1; it is the only program that I know, that really facilitates work in the "Digital Darkroom". Cull, adjust, convert, enjoy. Brillant.

What I also feel is so exciting, is the fact that the software processing of RAW data probably will evolve further. After seeing the gradual enhancement from FUV, ARC/ARC2 and C1, I think we will be for more "suprises" in the future.

--
  • CT
 
yokozuna wrote:
[snip]
Welcome to the club :)

I was lucky enogh to start shooting RAW. You can probably
appreciate my reaction when I saw my D60 shots taken early 2002
been processed through C1. WOW!
Only downside is that it makes my technique look like cr@p. Camera shake, missed focus, etc. all over the place, on shots that looked just fine before. Argh. :-p
Second to the pure quality of conversion is in my C1's workflow.
This is probably the most overlooked "feature" of C1; it is the
only program that I know, that really facilitates work in the
"Digital Darkroom". Cull, adjust, convert, enjoy. Brillant.
That's actually why I got it, and being in the IT world myself, I know how hard it is to design a really usable UI. And this one is pure art.
What I also feel is so exciting, is the fact that the software
processing of RAW data probably will evolve further. After seeing
the gradual enhancement from FUV, ARC/ARC2 and C1, I think we will
be for more "suprises" in the future.
I wonder... it sure feels like there's not a whole lot that can be improved about the way C1 does it.

Damn, what a rush!

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
 
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=6922739
Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought CaptureOne DSLR LE. After
a bit of playing with it, all I can say is WOW! The control it
gives, the easy with which it gives it, and the quality of the
result is really sump'n else.

Almost makes me regret not shooting RAW until late last year. The
guys who made it really knew what they were doing -- both from a
usability/user interface design POV, and an engineering POV.

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
--
MAC
http://www.digi-pictures.com
 
Been reading this whole thread and just had to say welcome to the C1 club as well. I've been using it for nearly 6 months now and well, I just keep loving it more and more. I still use PS for those shots that's I'm doing something "artistic" with, but frankly, I find RAW conversion through C1 to give me nearly all the final output I could need.

Kind of pisses me off that I bought CS when it came out thinking it would be cool to have RAW conversion built into Photoshop. I don't think I've even used it much after initially fiddling with it other than for some christmas card photo's these past holidays!

C1 all the way!!!!! 8-)
Well, I finally bit the bullet and bought CaptureOne DSLR LE. After
a bit of playing with it, all I can say is WOW! The control it
gives, the easy with which it gives it, and the quality of the
result is really sump'n else.

Almost makes me regret not shooting RAW until late last year. The
guys who made it really knew what they were doing -- both from a
usability/user interface design POV, and an engineering POV.

Petteri
--




Portfolio: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/index/ ]
Pontification: [ http://www.seittipaja.fi/ ]
--
Steve
 
If I did this for a living and shot thousands of pics a week, would probably use C1 as you can set the white balance, contrast, white point, exposure, and sharpening and output the result as a 16 bit file in batch mode. In my testing, I found that PS CS Raw converter produced more accurate colors using Al Pacheo's recommended settings as a starting point:

Exposure +0.05
Shadows 0
Brightness 50
Contrast +42
Saturation +18

And under the Calibrate Tab, changed only...
Red Saturation -10
Green Saturation -15

--
MOLON LABE!

Regards,
John
 
C1 much better then CS
Hi Petteri,

I've been thinking about moving to shooting RAW full-time, too, but
the software demands have been putting me off.

One option is to go for PS CS for its RAW processing capabilities
-- have you used CS, and if so, how does C1 compare, and if C1 is
better, in what way? Workflow? Controls?

ron
 

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