For those interested, a full review of Capture One Pro 11 is available at Capture One Pro 11 Review
Thanks, that's the best C1 11 overview I've seen.
Have you noticed any improvements regarding the often
poor quality of C1 previews?
Apparently, not all users seem up in arms about this issue but it has popped up multiple times (e.g.,
on the C1 forum as well) and any discerning user should take issue with the lack of micro-contrast at low magnification levels.
Working at 100% magnification (which would address the preview issue) is simply an unworkable proposition as many image adjustments require full view of the image for context. Using the "Proof" feature is a workaround but implies a very distracting "Proofing" label and makes editing too slow.
Independently of the fact that the previews are often unfit for editing, they shouldn't look so bad in the first place. With many shots, it looks like they should be discarded as being too blurry to be useful, but zooming in a couple of magnification steps (or using the "Proof" feature) reveals that they are perfectly sharp and only require adequate rendering at the viewing size when shown at "full size".
I believe the problem is the following: C1 generates a preview image at a user-specified size (-> Preferences | Image | Preview Image Size). This size is typically much larger than a typical rendering size which means that the image has to be downscaled. We are thus talking about a second-generation downscale (1. from original size to preview size, 2. from preview size to viewing size). C1 simply does not sufficiently counteract for the softness introduced by the second downscaling.
If one sets the preview size to 640, thus forcing C1 to custom-generate a preview for any viewing size that exceeds 640px, the generated preview is fine! I would live with the small delay this causes (although it would be much better if C1 simply stored additional previews for low viewing magnification levels) but when I edit images with this low preview size setting, the experience is very jarring, as C1 apparently uses the 640px preview image instead of the just-in-time custom-generated image for showing adjustments.
Long story, short: C1 10 has a preview quality issue that is the result of an engineering compromise. The fix is easy and could be made optional, i.e., not mandatory for those who do not want to pay the price in increased preview storage or slight re-rendering delays. If C11 does not address this issue, I most likely won't pay the increased upgrade price to get C11.
