A better job

[gavinlg]

No, its not. Sorry. Try shooting some high-iso work and see the difference in fine detail resolution. Capture one doesn't even come close to Lightroom. I can get rid of the noise in LR without losing fine detail, where in C1 is gets smeared. This is a well-known weakness of C1. Even at low-ISOs, the sharpening and noise reduction in C1 is primitive compared to Adobe, but the images are good looking since they have no noise to begin with.

I've compared them extensively, and its itsn't even close. C1 also renders colors too warm with my camera. Some people like what that does to skin tones, but I prefer accurate color that I can choose to adjust.

I completely agree with you. Capture one has the most incredible user interface and tools at its disposal, but high ISO noise/detail rendering trails lightroom by a long shot with my Fuji X files. Not only that, the stock colors out of lightroom using the inbuilt camera profile presets like classic chrome absolute destroy Capture 1's inbuilt profile, which is disturbingly oversaturated and overcontrasty with my Fuji X files. Trying to make a custom profile proved to be way more difficult and I could never quite match it to the Lightroom colors. The detail rendering is amazing compared to lightroom, but not enough to void the horrid colors in the inbuilt profiles.

 

[Bill Pierce]

Bill, Would you share your thoughts on the sharpening settings you employ in Iridient Transformer Fuji-X raw conversions? I am having trouble making Iridient Transformer match the detail/sharpness look of the Photo Ninja default settings for Fuji-X raw files.

First, Photo Ninja is one of the good programs for Fuji files that seems relatively undiscovered. I'm not so sure that there is any realistic gain in using Iridient in combination with Lightroom or Photoshop if you like the overall look of Ninja.

Secondly, in general I use the Transformer "smooth" setting for people and pictures at high ISO in Lightroom. The "more detailed" setting gets used for low ISO shots that aren't portraits. But, if I'm making a big print of a picture that depends in part on holding fine detail, since it doesn't endanger the original raw file, I'll try a range of settings and judge on the monitor which I think is the most effective. That said, it's not something I do that often and even then I know I am succumbing to pixel peeper syndrome.

 

[pluton]

Agree that there is no gain or advantage from Irid. Transformer + Lightroom over Photo Ninja, except Photo Ninja (like Iridient and many others) is a "dumb" raw converter whose sole functionality is making tiffs and jpegs. As many do, I want the non-destructive cataloging/DAM/process/print system of LR with the [Fuji-X] raw conversion of something better, like PN.