Leica and Capture One

[vaphoto]

As a Leica M (240) and X2 user should I be concerned about using Capture One since Leica now ships with Lightroom not Capture One? Is Phase One still committed to fully supporting the Leica brand?
Bob

[allegretto]

FWIW am fully committed to switching from LR5 to C1 and after a few fits all is going smoothly

However I just picked up a 240 and what LR and Leica have collaborated to do is just remarkable. I mean simply gorgeous, balanced files from the jump in full preset. So it looks like I will keep LR around for that one use.

[richardhagen]

I've been using COP up to the current version for my Phase dbacks and my Nikon D800e but since getting the Leica M 240, I've been using LR5 because of the lack of Leica lens profiles. i really wish Phase One would update their Leica lens profiles for this camera.

To everyone: Happy New Year!

rh

[Harald L]

As a Leica M (240) and X2 user should I be concerned about using Capture One since Leica now ships with Lightroom not Capture One? Is Phase One still committed to fully supporting the Leica brand?
Bob

I don't understand why a small camera manufacturer like Leica doesn't co-operate with another small manufacturer like CO. The corporate culture of those greedy Adobe guys doesn't fit to the Leica brand. (Just my option)

Harald

[Schewe]

I don't understand why a small camera manufacturer like Leica doesn't co-operate with another small manufacturer like CO.

Correct, you don't understand why Leica would choose to hook up with the "greedy guys" from Adobe...

By hooking up with Adobe, Leica gets the advantage of not having to develop their own raw file format (they use DNG) and by supplying Lightroom as the OEM software for their raw captures, Leica gets the advantage of an already huge installed user base.

You may think of Adobe as a bunch of "greedy guys" from Adobe, but in fact they are a bunch of really talented guys developing state of the art software that Leica is taking advantage of.

Not sure why you don't understand the advantage to Leica...pretty clear to me.

[mirekti]

I've recently switched to Capture One, and even it has much less than LR, one thing is surely better. It's RAW converter, and colors are great. If wasn't for LR organizational benefits, I would have erased it already.
I hated M240 colors with LR, and even the custom profiles didn't help.

I wish C1 included Leica M lens profiles. That's the only thing I really miss.

[Paul2660]

Doesn't Lecia write a raw file as a DNG?  I am not familiar with their raws but I do know C1 is not DNG friendly not with just Lecia but anyone's DNG.

There are many instances when I would have liked to use a DNG file with C1.

Paul

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

I would say that if you use Photoshop it makes a lot of sense to use Lightroom, they integrate well.

Best regards
Erik

Correct, you don't understand why Leica would choose to hook up with the "greedy guys" from Adobe...

By hooking up with Adobe, Leica gets the advantage of not having to develop their own raw file format (they use DNG) and by supplying Lightroom as the OEM software for their raw captures, Leica gets the advantage of an already huge installed user base.

You may think of Adobe as a bunch of "greedy guys" from Adobe, but in fact they are a bunch of really talented guys developing state of the art software that Leica is taking advantage of.

Not sure why you don't understand the advantage to Leica...pretty clear to me.

[mirekti]

It does, and C1 has profiles for Leica M240. There are actually two profiles Generic, and GenericV2. Not sure what the difference is.
On the other hand, there are few files (out of many) which end up being recognized as ICC DNG File Neutral, and they look decent, but when I change it to Leica ICC profile they end being messed up. Maybe that happens due to the file being DNG. However, 99% of the files look fine and get the Leica profile by default.

Here is an example of Leica vs DNG ICC in the described scenario. Leica looks really bad.
In all other cases (as already said 99%) DNG, and Leica Generic V2 ICC work great together, and much better than LR per my taste.

[john beardsworth]

Doesn't Lecia write a raw file as a DNG?  I am not familiar with their raws but I do know C1 is not DNG friendly not with just Lecia but anyone's DNG.

I think C1's problem is handling DNGs which have been produced from raw files - it's happier when the DNGs are camera-generated.

[Doug Peterson]

C1 does great with dng files if they are the native raw file from a camera which C1 supports. In the case of the 240 it not only supports it's native dng file, but does a better job (in my biased and subjective opinion) than any other raw convertor.

[mirekti]

In the case of the 240 it not only supports it's native dng file, but does a better job (in my biased and subjective opinion) than any other raw convertor.

Exactly!!
I wish Leica could recognize this, and provide free Capture One instead of LR. 
I truly hope Capture One will give more thought on this as well, and include lens correction profiles for all Leica M lenses. I was really disappointed with the colors by using LR, and thought the problem was in the camera FW. Capture One persuade me it was the raw converter, not the FW.

There are still many things that could be improved in Capture One, however, the most important thing IQ shines IMHO.

[allegretto]

C1 does no a nice job… however he new DxO 9.5 operates as a LR plug-in and also does a beautiful job. It is one more export-import but pretty seamless and quite intuitive. Presets are beautiful and local touching in LR is very good indeed.

If you export a .dng from C1 to LR the thumbnail is all farked up and you may think you lost the image at first. But it straightens itself out once you pull it up on its own

[mirekti]

Thanks for the tip. I actually tried DxO, and I like the step in process when one can use LR as a catalog.
Still, Capture One gives best results IMHO.

On my scale 1-10:

LR 6 
DxO 7
C1 9

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi,

To add some perspective, I guess that our mileage may vary, I hever never used any of my images processed in C1. That said, it is a fine converter, but just doesn't fit my needs. I the film days we had D76, HC-110, Rodinal, Promicrol and many other. I was typically a HC110 junkie.

You can get fine results with any tool, taking the effort to learn it.

As a side note, LuLa has a set of great tutorials on LR with Michael Reichmann, with Eric Chan as a welcome addition. Jeff really knows that stuff. 
 
Best regards
Erik

Thanks for the tip. I actually tried DxO, and I like the step in process when one can use LR as a catalog.
Still, Capture One gives best results IMHO.

On my scale 1-10:

LR 6 
DxO 7
C1 9

[SecondFocus]

Doug and anyone else….

What do you think of the Leica S files with Capture One?

Thanks

C1 does great with dng files if they are the native raw file from a camera which C1 supports. In the case of the 240 it not only supports it's native dng file, but does a better job (in my biased and subjective opinion) than any other raw convertor.