Hi all,
I think this is a good question. Unfortunately, there are many aspects to consider. Here's another opinon:
Bibble seems to be the winner for non-destructive work on files. It always writes a side car and makes NO changes to the RAW file. Alas, Bibble 4, soon to be replaced by a much more comprehensive program Bibble 5, has no real organization tools. I'm really hoping it will add the needed organization features.
Lightroom 1 is a great organizer and very easy to use. BUT, it does not write side car files for DNGs from M8, and if you save the changes made in Lightroom to the DNGs, Lightroom writes a bunch of stuff into the EXIF data of the RAW files. So, something is going on... Will other programs be able to read this? Given Adobe's track record, soon they will introduce complicated upgrade procedures and licensing, etc. Basically, Adobe, IMHO, is not to be trusted for the long-term. I did buy Lightroom 2, by the way, but am still using Lightroom 1. On big advantage with Lightroom overall others is the ability to read DNGs created by VueScan. This is really cool for people like me who still love film.
Capture 1 is a program I looked at, but it never really floated my boat. It seemed like a kind of advanced iPhoto, in which everything is imported into a proprietary database. Also, the EXIF support was insufficient for real sorting like in Lightroom it seemed. Albeit the pictures looked good like the other RAW converters.
Aperture would be my last choice. Apple tried to tie interpretation of the RAW data to the operating system. This meant mandatory upgrades just to deal with new cameras! Come on Apple usere!!! Don't be so stupid!!! At least enough people complained that they issued an "update." I use a MAC but I would never TRUST APPLE with my RAW data.
Basically, I'm hoping for Bibble 5, which I have good experiences with for the conversion.
That's my 2 cents.
JP
Nikon FM, Leica MP, Nikon D100, Leica M8
Mac OS X 10.4.11