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Capture One beta 2

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
I just started to play around with it --- Initial impressions are:

1) I like the User Interface --- a lot like ACR/LR, even uses some standard Adobe shortcut commands, while retaining the C1 feel.
2) Better color than ACR/LR (significantly)
3) Better detail --- I needed to dial down the default sharpening settings to 125, .04, 1, NR at default. The good news here is you get a lot of added detail; the bad is you can generate artifacts more easily later --- you might need to dial my sharpening action down a bit, from 150% to around 100%.
4) Had to set the film curve to LINEAR under the "Quick" menu, then build a custom curve for proper contrast under the exposure menu as any other default settings blew highlights on an otherwise proeprly exposed file. My custom curve settings were simple, the upper 1/4 tone to input 195, outpt 204; lower quarter tone to input 60, output 55. With this setting, the local contrast is comparable to the ACR/LR settings we used in the workshop
 

James

Workshop Member
I just started to play around with it --- Initial impressions are:

1) I like the User Interface --- a lot like ACR/LR, even uses some standard Adobe shortcut commands, while retaining the C1 feel.
2) Better color than ACR/LR (significantly)
3) Better detail --- I needed to dial down the default sharpening settings to 125, .04, 1, NR at default. The good news here is you get a lot of added detail; the bad is you can generate artifacts more easily later --- you might need to dial my sharpening action down a bit, from 150% to around 100%.
4) Had to set the film curve to LINEAR under the "Quick" menu, then build a custom curve for proper contrast under the exposure menu as any other default settings blew highlights on an otherwise proeprly exposed file. My custom curve settings were simple, the upper 1/4 tone to input 195, outpt 204; lower quarter tone to input 60, output 55. With this setting, the local contrast is comparable to the ACR/LR settings we used in the workshop
Hi Jack,
Thanks for the update... Jim
 

woodyspedden

New member
Just started to use it (I had been doing some playing around in Beta ). I'll post my impressions after some real usage

woody Spedden
 

Terry

New member
Jack,

I haven't used C1 at all. When I got the M8 I was already using Lightroom. Are you using both C1 and Lightroom? If you are using both, do you have one central repository for all of your images? If you catalog through Lightroom, what do you save C1 files as for import into Lightroom? I have so much to learn!

Thanks,
Terry
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Hi Terry:

I've had my own cataloging system for images in place since day one and it works quite well for me, so I don't use LR for that. As for converters in general, I've usually used whichever converter gave me the best conversion from a detail standpoint, followed by color being the second priority --- unless the images involved people, then color comes first and detail second. For the last year or so, I've used LR for batch processing and ACR for one-off images since both have had essentially the same processing engines.

Now with this release of C1, I think both the detail and color are better than LR/ACR, AND the UI has improved significantly, actually incorporating many of the Adobe standard short-cut commands. The downsides are 1) it actually appears to over-sharpen at all but the lowest settings and needs some finer control at the lower levels, and 2) in the beta there is no option to save a group of settings as a preference. I suspect (hope) both of these will be resolved in the final product releases and in short, if they fix those two nits I like it enough I will probably upgrade to the new full "pro" version when it ships.

Cheers,
 

cmb_

Subscriber & Workshop Member
The downsides are 1) it actually appears to over-sharpen at all but the lowest settings and needs some finer control at the lower levels, and 2) in the beta there is no option to save a group of settings as a preference.
In the Mac version of 3.7.7 there is a feature called "Styles" which I believe saves a group of preferences (I am using Windows so cannot confirm this). Rumor is that this feature will be available for the final release of the PRO version, both Mac and PC. For now, we can save presets and use the Adjustments Tab.

Jack - Is your evaluation of sharpening detail based on the preview in the Capture One viewer or after processing in CO and opening in PS? In the CO4 Beta2 viewer, detail is considerably softer unless the viewer is at 100% (or to fit seems ok on my machine also). 50% seems very soft compared to 100%. Check it out.
Also, are you saying the default setting over-sharpens both M8 files and 5D files?
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Jack - Is your evaluation of sharpening detail based on the preview in the Capture One viewer or after processing in CO and opening in PS? In the CO4 Beta2 viewer, detail is considerably softer unless the viewer is at 100% (or to fit seems ok on my machine also). 50% seems very soft compared to 100%. Check it out.
Also, are you saying the default setting over-sharpens both M8 files and 5D files?
My evaluation is only preliminary and based on the actual conversion and openeing in CS. While 50% appeared somewhat softer in the C1 preview to me, it didn't appear that much less so after being opened in CS? Dropping to 25% seemed to show no artifacting, hence my comment that the granularity of the sharpening should be a bit more fine. It is not un-usable as-is though, just a bit counter-intuitive. FWIW, I only processed M8 files and have not opened a 5D file with it yet, so no comment there --- might need 200% with them :D

I am sure they'll have the setting sticky's in the full release --- but I'm guessing maybe one of the attributes they leave out of the light version...

Cheers,
 

cmb_

Subscriber & Workshop Member
JacK - RE: Blowing Highlights
After reading Number 4 in your post yesterday, I took a closer look at files in Beta 2 and I do think it has a tendency to blow the highlights. I compared a file in Beta 2 and 3.7.7 Pro and it was much better in 3.7.7 (both set to Film Standard). However, I processed the same file in both Beta 2 and 3.7.7 (Film Standard) and upon opening in Photoshop I could not see a difference (there may well have been one,though), so possibly the preview in Beta 2 is not quite exact. Of course your eyes are more acute than mine and you have vastly more experience. Today, I looked on the Phase One forum and someone was pointing out the same problem. Here is a link: http://forum.phaseone.com/viewtopic.php?t=4362

I also learned that Beta 2 does not start rendering the preview until 66%. So that explains the lack of sharpness at 25%, 33%, & 50%. I wonder if this affects the highlights (and other settings) as well, I will have to take a look.

BTW - Just to set the record straight, I am pretty much a novice with just a couple years experience but am eager to learn and always try to be helpful when I can.

Best,
cb
 

Attachments

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Either way, as respects the blown highlights, I've built the custom tone curve as indicated and it solved the problem. I think they need to pull the total of the film curves down a bit, and maybe they will in the final release.
 

Terry

New member
I spent some te yesterday afternoon with David from Dale Labs. We were looking at some work on Capture One and it seemed quite fast and nice. I think I am going to take the plunge and load the beta version and try to get up to speed on the program especially if we will use it in Moab.

Is there a good Capture One book? Is the beta so different that any book is essentially useless? If no book is there a good way to tackle the learning process.
 

Maggie O

Active member
I'd like to try it out, but the file browser refuses to allow me to open the folders containing the files in my iPhoto library. Guess I'll just stick with the C1 LE I got with my M8.
 

jaapv

Subscriber Member
It does not work for me at all; I download it, it will open once from the download window, and after that, when I start it up it will only generate an error report...:(:thumbdown:. So I'm sticking with C1 LE
 
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