CAPTURE ONE PRO 23 VS DXO PHOTOLAB 6: WHICH IS THE BETTER RAW EDITOR?

Hello ! Is this comparison between C1 and photolab 8 now still with the same conclusion as in here ? I'm on the lookout to get one of these editors for general photography (landscape, family, pets ) which one would you suggest for it ?

Thanks

Bought DXO elite 7 simply for low light high iso denoising on my canon 7d mark ii. Incredible. Want to learn more should try control point masking. As usual, great video and channel. Always learn something

How does caoture ones use of masks and adjustments combined together like a 'preset' then applied to hundreds of images(like a night time star timelapse) hold out?

The reason I ask because early in this video it was casually mentioned that LR has very good AI masking. Well I use LR and it's AI masking. And for individual adjustments, image by image - it works fine. But if you use LR AI masks in your presets, it will turn into a disaster - That's why I am here - Looking for an alternative to LR to batch processing images.

For example like I already alluded to(night time time lapse), I had taken just over 1k shots and the only thing that changed from image to image(which were shot one after the other all night long) - is the movement of the stars, i.e. No extra lighting coming along to change the scene.

However, making a preset on one or any other image, then applying that preset as a batch for the remaining 1k images, only works for about 85% of the images. There's about 150 images that are totally blown out(not minor but major), so I had to decide whether to rework manually each of those 150 images or take them out of the sequences altogether.

Adobe staff couldn't help in the matter either.

Excellent review, very concise and well explained.

Capture One for colours mainly. Especially the icc profiles.

Very good review indeed. Perceptive and clearly presented. Thank you for it.

What a fantastic review! Thanks. You have got a new subscriber. :)
I currently use ON1 Photo Raw 2024, combined with Photo Mechanic Plus and Topaz AI suite. Would love to hear your assessment about the ON1 product.

Excellent review very well detailed and presented. Thanks to you I now have a clear understanding of those RAW editors. 👍🏻

You pointed out some factors I haven't seen being considered by other comparison reviews, so that was helpful to me. I don't know how much programming the software would cost the developers but I am puzzled that a stacking function is not more prevalent in these programs. In particular, Capture One. It has tethering which and where do people use tethering?– in studios. I see many professional photographers with YT channels where they use C1 in studio for product photograph = image stacking to my needs but C1 doesn't have it.
I struggle with C1 Express screens but that's down to my inexperience with it. I can see it has the organizational tools that will really help me so I think I'll bite the bullet this year for the fixed price offer, not the subscription.

Thank you for your review. I like photolab's approach but I feel that the "bold colours" can also, or even better, be achieved via Nik collection. So, I end up using capture one for preparing the raw file and then i either edit it in Nik or, if i want more natural colour result or masking, complete the process in capture one. My two cents... and thanks again.

Another strength of Photolab is that you can enhance it with FilmPack, giving the choice of traditional film styles as well as digital camera styles. I have a Canon EOS R, but often I prefer to use the Fuji Provia and Velvia styles. The ViewPoint add-on provides perspective and volume deformation adjustment - particularly useful for architectural photos and photos taken with wide-angle lenses.

Well done channel!

My photo editing experiences with both tools overlay yours. But I chose C1 instead as my main photo editor.... with a twist...
I also give some money to DXO for the NIK suite.... primarily for Dfine "fire-and-forget" noise reduction sufficient for the hardware in the backpack. If using different camera gear, I would certainly have to consider Deep Prime.

Some notes...
The recent addition of AI Masking also seems compelling. (I have Augmented C1 with a focus stacking add-in.)

opinion, bothperspective,

Thank you ever so much for this profound and to the point comparison! I use CO 22 still, because I don‘t appreciate the price policy and I‘m thinking about buying DxO as an addition for the purposes and advantages you focussed on. Kind regards from Germany, Martin

Actually, there is a quick method to make the dehazer work: You just have to re-adjust the black- and whitepoints using the Levels tool. I just use the auto-adjust on Levels (which i do on default with my pictures anyway). Then, after applying dehaze, click auto-adjust Levels again. Surprising results! (Note: You can also choose, in the settings, if you do the auto-adjust on RGB, or on the individual channels)

DXO photolab 6..switched from C1

I'm really pissed at the new price structure of Capture One. I am a perpetual license owner and used to always upgrade each year. Now, they decided to push everyone towards subscription.

The main thing that I have trouble is the skin tool in Capture One. Anybody working with headshots and portraits a lot... this is a life saver for evening out skin tones. Doesn't seem like DxO have something similar, unfortunately.

WRONG Conclusion. I'd rather have DXO + ON1 + Affinity than some uber-expensive program I know nothing about!

Can you make raw edits in dxo and then embed those edits when you bring it back to Lightroom? I worry that it’s going to be a 16 bit tiff and my computer will just freeze. I used to use dxo optics pro back in the day. Really miss it and only stopped using it because LR mobile is so convenient but I am getting back into photography again and will definitely get photolab 6! I still want to keep my Adobe subscription for some reason… I know it’s silly but it is just so easy to sync to cloud and tinker your edits on iPhone.

Great review. Thanks!! for me, I refuse to pay a monthly prescription or annually for that matter for a program I don’t use every day. So DxO is a clear winner for me personally

I've been using Capture One for a number of years. It is, in my experience, buggy and crashes and iocks up frequently. The last upgrade I did trashed all of the masks on 20k+ photos. Capture One's response? "Sorry, we can't do anything to help you". That was the last straw for me. All of my masks, gone, and Capture One says, "too bad". Oh, and they told me that there might be a newer version sometime that would fix my masks. So, I pay $300 for the tool, they trash my masks, and I pay another $300 for a new version that will (allegedly) fix my lost masks. That sounds too much like paying mafia protection money to me. I've just had too many problems with Capture Ome and this was the last straw. It may be a good editor but if it isn''t reliable then what good is it?

this is very helpful for a guy looking to swap lol tyvm mate

That was a fair and thoughtful comparision. As someone that is new to Photolab but have used Capture One and other editors , no other editor seems to get images so close to finished right out of the gate. I feel like the default corrections do an amazing job and all is needed is a small bit of tweaking.

Nice video. One thing that most people misunderstand about DxO v Capture One v Lightroom is that they are entirely different tools even though they overlap.

Lightroom is a file manager primarily
Capture One is a tether shooting RAW reader primarily
DxO is a RAW post-processor primarily

Lightroom and Capture One give you a starting point to begin post-processing.
DxO PhotoLab gives you the end result straight out of camera without the need to post-process (and this is not me making this up, this is what the founders stated in an interview). Put in other words, you only need the post-processing tools if you are not satisfied with your exposure as you captured it in camera.

That’s why DxO lab goes thru the trouble of analyzing hundreds of thousands of images with their respective lens profiles. Capture One does not care to do this.

Personally, this is why I use DxO PhotoLab. I don’t want to edit as much nowadays, and I am happy with my exposure skill for the most part. My Tray Ratcliff days are behind me.

One important feature that you missed and I do not know of any othee software has id VOLUME DISTORTION IN DXO. This is very important when using wide angle lenses particularly with people toward the side of the photo. Who wants to see a distorted face or body to the extreme left or right side of the photo ?

An interesting and thought provoking video, just when I needed it. I have at long last been able to rid myself of Adobe and committed to DxQ but have have the thought about Capture One. I was with it from the word go however they soon found that price was something they could keep upping and have done. That is a shame as I far prefer their realistic colours! Having listened to you I may just stay as I am and improve the suite of programmes rather than signing up with Capture One again. Looking now to watch your next video!

I use both as I use 2 systems, Lumix and Fujifilm. But I update only when I really need it (there are good offers around black friday).
DxO I mainly use for Lumix, but I upgraded to use it for Fujifilm also. Sometimes Caputure One doesn't cut it for me.
Capture One I use for Fujifilm and to import all images. I also like the colour. My last upgrade I did to have stitching (which you didn't mention).
Good comparison though, I can't live without DxO for Lumix low light shots, but since I have both, I do most of my work in Capture One.

Capture One is severely lacking in lens profiles. They don't even have Viltrox listed and they don't have the newest Fuji lenses like the 56mm f1/2 WR and 33mm f1.4 WR. That is the deal breaker to me. I use DxO Pure Raw 3 as a plugin to LrC because I can add Viltox lens profiles they don't already have listed, and Adobe has all the newest Fuji lenses faster than anyone else. Capture One needs to figure that out, because that price is way too high not to have all available lens profiles out there.

Thanks a lot for the naming of advantages and disadvantages of Capture One Pro 23 and DxO PhotoLAB 6.
I personally use both and agree to your comparison. Generally I prefer PureRAW (3) as first step for photos with high ISO and then further working with Capture One Pro (23)

A fine comparison! I used Capture One for years, but the company (Phase One) has gotten so greedy that I'll never use it again. Have you seen how they're cutting off updates for loyal users? It's shameful!
And I don't care for the user interface in DxO products, so have never bought them.
I get better results now with a combination of cheaper products: Luminar, ON1, and Affinity Photo.

Lots of really good, pertinent info!!!