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Capture One Pro as an alternative/upgrade to Aperture
- Thread starter VirtualRain
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Probably a stupid question: but how committed is Phase One to Capture One? Can't imagine that it contributes much to their bottom line given they are a camera company. Just hate to pull the trigger on C1 and have them sunset it in a couple years. I don't like LR at all... but it seems like the safer choice to prevent going through another product migration soon.
Thoughts anyone? Perhaps users of Phase One camera systems have a different perspective as to why Phase One simply does not tell its customers to use LR.
Thoughts anyone? Perhaps users of Phase One camera systems have a different perspective as to why Phase One simply does not tell its customers to use LR.
Capture One is integrated into their camera backs system, its an integral part of their core revenue-earning business.
Never say never but I'll bet they would choke at the suggestion they change to simply recommending LR...
It's hard to say what the future has in store for Capture One Pro. I think there's definitely a bit of risk going with Phase One vs Adobe based on the fact they are smaller. They could change strategy, be acquired by a company with different priorities or they could go out of business (see the Future of Photography thread for why that might happen).
However, I will always choose the best tool available today and worry about tomorrow when it gets here. With Lightroom 6 coming next week (apparently) I plan to evaluate that to the same extent I have with C1 and then make a decision based on what works best for me now, not which tool is likely to be around in 5 years. Everyone's priorities are different though... so it's a good question to ask.
That's good to hear! Thanks for passing that along.
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It's hard to say what the future has in store for Capture One Pro. I think there's definitely a bit of risk going with Phase One vs Adobe based on the fact they are smaller. They could change strategy, be acquired by a company with different priorities or they could go out of business (see the Future of Photography thread for why that might happen).
However, I will always choose the best tool available today and worry about tomorrow when it gets here. With Lightroom 6 coming next week (apparently) I plan to evaluate that to the same extent I have with C1 and then make a decision based on what works best for me now, not which tool is likely to be around in 5 years. Everyone's priorities are different though... so it's a good question to ask.
Salient advise. Thx!
So just as an experiment, I selected no images or collections, closed down C1 and re-opened it.
It duly took ~80secs to open and opened with no images selected so this doesn't look remotely related to images selected. I'll submit a support ticket so they can be aware. I'm running the App off an SSD so the code itself should load fast.
With Aperture finally getting the old EOL from Apple, I was looking at returning to a seperate DAM and edit with PhotoShop setup like I used before Aperture. I checked out Phase One's Media Pro and they said it would no longer be supported after Capture One 8.1. This led me to finally read through this thread and Capture One seems to be a tool that will fit what I need.
VR, thanks for the extensive review.
Now all I need is either a new SSD or computer to run this stuff. Currently very limited in space on this old C2D MBP.
Note: I get email from Phase One. Do they have a list of Aperture users?
Dale
VR, thanks for the extensive review.
Now all I need is either a new SSD or computer to run this stuff. Currently very limited in space on this old C2D MBP.
Note: I get email from Phase One. Do they have a list of Aperture users?
Dale
I bought the Capture One Express, which was about the same but had a few less features I didn't need. I wanted the RAW conversion and It Was Good. Very shortly thereafter Phase One phased out Express. Chop. Upgrade cost was high enough to get me looking around, so I took my upgrade fee and bought: DxO Optics Pro. Bye C1.
Very happy; Phase One sorta did me a favor. I kinda liked it, but I like the new Optics Pro MUCH better.
Glad this has been helpful. As for them emailing you, I wonder if that's just since you signed up or contacted them some how? I actually haven't received any promo type mail from them at all which is a bit strange.
Glad you found something that works for you, but I'm surprised it's DxO... What are you liking about it? I tried it and found it lacking in photo management and the tools bordering on scientific and didn't like the way it rendered red tones from the RAW file (too much magenta)... See post #12... https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1845001/
Sadly No
After a lot of soul searching I have decided NOT to purchase Capture1 Pro - OR - any other new photographic software.
Much as I like C1 the cost cannot be justified for what is really only a hobby and now a small hobby at that.
So I'll stick to PS5 with whatever freebee plugins I can find a use for and LeaveAperture cooling its heals for the odd printing job that it provides excellent UI.
Sad but age will out.
After a lot of soul searching I have decided NOT to purchase Capture1 Pro - OR - any other new photographic software.
Much as I like C1 the cost cannot be justified for what is really only a hobby and now a small hobby at that.
So I'll stick to PS5 with whatever freebee plugins I can find a use for and LeaveAperture cooling its heals for the odd printing job that it provides excellent UI.
Sad but age will out.
Importing library
I set up a test library using my regular library format: folders for each year, with a project for each event, and sometimes albums within each project. C1 seems to preserve this format, but it creates a new album within each project that duplicates the contents of the project. If the Aperture project had sub-albums, the albums are preserved, but there is also a new album containing all the photos. Have others experienced this or found a work-around?
I set up a test library using my regular library format: folders for each year, with a project for each event, and sometimes albums within each project. C1 seems to preserve this format, but it creates a new album within each project that duplicates the contents of the project. If the Aperture project had sub-albums, the albums are preserved, but there is also a new album containing all the photos. Have others experienced this or found a work-around?
Are you creating the structure in the catalog or in the User Collection area? This, of course, is different in that if you are creating folders in the catalog you are creating "real" folders on your hard drive and moving files. If you are creating folders and such in the user collection area it's all "virtual"...if you will.
I haven't experienced what you did but it seems Aperture did something similar if you used Smart Albums. A project would have all the files and Smart Albums would duplicate certain sets. I believe Capture 1 works the same way.
So far I'm experimenting with using just Folders and Smart Albums in the User Collection area and maintaining a single Capture 1 Catalog. It's working ok and if you are diligent with using keywords it gives you a lot of flexibility in how to create Smart Albums. I'm a little concerned with a single C1 catalog but that's how I had Aperture set up and it was fine. One thing that's a bit annoying with Smart Albums is that you can't use the Edit With function (send to NIK for example) when you are in a Smart Album. Not sure why, but you have to go to the image in the Catalog to use the Edit With function.
All I did was to run the Aperture import. From the training video on the Phase One website it looks like this only works as referenced, but can be moved into the catalog after import. Is there a way to import Aperture libraries directly into the catalog? If I move the files into the catalog does it eliminate the extraneous album? Managed files are certainly easier to deal with. Has anyone had issues with the stability of the managed catalog?
I use DxO with Lightroom. Or standalone. It has a browser, but that's about it. C1P has essentially a grafted on media organizer (I can't remember its name) with their RAW processing features, so it's apples to half apples, sort of.
The DxO workflow with LR is superb, especially the DNG option. Gives you much more control. And the standout features for me are perspective controls, lens adjustments (you only have to download the stuff for your equipment), and the haze, noise and lighting controls. It has a better de-hazer than anything else IMHO.
Hey, the reason you got an extra album in each project called "ProjectABC Images" is because in Capture One, Projects cannot contain images, only albums can. Thus it moves all Project Photos into an album. If you already have all your photos in albums as well, you can delete the new album it creates since it's redundant. But a lot of people only stored photos in projects, so C1 needs to do this to ensure nothing is lost.
And, yes, your images are referenced from the Aperture Library by default. However, in the folders area in C1 you can move them from their Library folders, to the C1 Catalog which is a "move" operation... not a copy... so make sure you have a backup of your Aperture Library before you do this in case you want to go back to Aperture for some reason.
This will bring your images into the C1 Catalog and make them managed, just like they were in the Aperture Library. Then you can cut ties with it (delete the Library).
Note that anything under the "Folders" section in C1, like the Catalog, is the physical storage container on your hard drive. The "User Collections" area (projects and albums) are just organized views into the catalog (database views and queries). So the act of moving your images from the Aperture Library to the C1 Catalog won't change anything in the organization of your Projects and Albums in the User Collections, it only changes where the physical files are stored.
Here's my recommended workflow for migrating:
- Backup your Aperture Library
- Clean up your Aperture Library - If you have Aperture syncing with iCloud, all your iCloud photos from your iDevices will end up in C1 so if you don't want all these photos, cut ties in Aperture with iCloud and delete any iCloud/Photostream related folders before you import
- In Capture One, run the import
- Albums and Smart Albums will carry over in-tact.
- Photos stored in Projects will be put into an album called "ProjectABC Images"
- If "ProjectABC Images" is redundant with your existing albums, you can delete it
- If you want to have the same managed experience in C1 that the Aperture Library offered, with all your photos in the C1 catalog, then go to the folders area in C1 and move all your photos from the Aperture Library folders to the Catalog (drag and drop). Then delete the unneeded Aperture structure.
Good info VR. I'm so close to pulling the trigger on C1 Pro. My only beef left really is the extra work it takes to get images to Zenfolio.com (my online storage) vs Aperture or Lightroom who have uploader extensions. I have 14 days left on the trial and I'm hanging on to see LR6 (though perhaps it won't make it by then). I think eventually they might build a uploader for C1 Pro.
I've been testing how I want to migrate from Aperture to C1 Pro. The import function works pretty well but I think I'm going to do it all manually. It will take a lot longer but it will give me time to really methodically go through the Aperture library and clean it up. I plan to export the RAW files and .jpgs of each album to a folder and then import them into the C1 catalog. This will give me time to clean up, add keywords for my organization scheme in C1 and make any C1 re-adjustments that I want to. I'm afraid that if I dump them all in at once I'll never get around to all that I want to do.
I've been testing how I want to migrate from Aperture to C1 Pro. The import function works pretty well but I think I'm going to do it all manually. It will take a lot longer but it will give me time to really methodically go through the Aperture library and clean it up. I plan to export the RAW files and .jpgs of each album to a folder and then import them into the C1 catalog. This will give me time to clean up, add keywords for my organization scheme in C1 and make any C1 re-adjustments that I want to. I'm afraid that if I dump them all in at once I'll never get around to all that I want to do.
Aren't there 3rd party tools to automate the uploading to Zenfolio?
Although this deserves it's own thread, I switched from Zenfolio to Flickr for a number of reasons... (migrating took a while but it was worth it) and your Zenfolio page looks a lot like how Flickr presents photos now
Nice. I've decided to leave everything in Aperture except my most recent shoots.
I used the Aperture "Export Projects as Folders", then imported into C1 as referenced files. Worked a treat. Gives you a referenced folders structure that (obviously) reflects the Aperture Projects you previously had. It made my conversion quite easy - although as I reprocessed on import (because I think C1's RAW processing is better than Apertures), the import took about 30hrs on a ~600GB library.
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Seconded
I haven't found any uploader extensions for C1 so use a small system of output recipes to send the images to a named folder by upload service, then it is easy to run a standalone uploader on the folder contents...
Hey, VR any chance of running through Corel Aftershot? You said you would if you had time. If not, pm me and I will see about doing it.
It's not likely going to happen.
thought that might be the case given you impression of C1Pro.
I am loading up after shot now to see if it is useful.
Aren't there 3rd party tools to automate the uploading to Zenfolio?
Although this deserves it's own thread, I switched from Zenfolio to Flickr for a number of reasons... (migrating took a while but it was worth it) and your Zenfolio page looks a lot like how Flickr presents photos now
Nice. I've decided to leave everything in Aperture except my most recent shoots.
There may be some generic uploaders that will upload from a folder but you can basically do that from the Zenfolio upload page in your gallery. In Aperture it was perfect because you could right click an image (or a bunch) and upload directly to a gallery. C1Pro basically adds another step and that's exporting to a folder. Not a super big deal. One thing I like about Zenfolio is that they are always adding new features and improving. I wrote them about a C1 uploader so maybe someone will take it up.
I have a Flickr account but I've never gotten into it. I should, but I find the interface mind numbing. I like the control with Zenfolio (and you can store RAWs).
Catalog structure
Thanks for all the responses -- this is a very helpful group.
Am I correct in thinking that albums function in C1 the way projects function in Aperture, meaning that photos must be in albums in C1 the way that photos must be in projects in Aperture, but can optionally exist as well in other containers? If so, it's odd that C1's importer does not swap every instance of album and project from Aperture to match its structure.
Thanks for all the responses -- this is a very helpful group.
Am I correct in thinking that albums function in C1 the way projects function in Aperture, meaning that photos must be in albums in C1 the way that photos must be in projects in Aperture, but can optionally exist as well in other containers? If so, it's odd that C1's importer does not swap every instance of album and project from Aperture to match its structure.
No.
Capture One stores all photos in the Catalog... One big database. You could just import files there without using any structure. This is unlike Aperture that required photos be put into Projects... many small databases.
Albums in C1 are just views into your catalog. You create these views by either assigning images to an album on import or by dragging and dropping them into an album later. It's key to note that.. Photos are not stored in Albums... Just assigned to them. And thus can be assigned to many different albums anywhere in your org structure without any duplication. This is the same way a song is assigned to a playlist in iTunes without creating a copy of the song for every playlist it's in.
Projects in Capture One still play a role, but slightly different from Aperture. They don't contain images like Aperture, but instead, group albums together. Why does this matter? The key advantage to this is that Smart Albums within a project (say all 5-Star photos) work across all albums in that project and only those albums. In other words, the Project defines the scope of Smart Albums.
When you import from Capture One to Aperture, it's not storing any photos in albums... It's storing them all in the catalog and then creating views to match what you had in Aperture. Once you get the concept of the Catalog being the database where all your photos live, and Albums just being queries/views into that database it all makes a lot of sense. In fact, C1 storage scheme is both simpler and more powerful than Aperture was. As I mentioned above, it's actually very similar to how iTunes manages music and playlists. Smart.