You liked PART 1 ? Already curious about PART 2 ? OK, as promised last week today I would like to follow up with PART 2 of my X-Trans RAW converter evaluation by sharing ALL the results - wish y'all an interesting read, please check it out below !
Behind the House ...
But in order to allow easy comparison, I've used the same RAW image as last week, a house façade in Buitrago del Lozoya in Spain ...
the following 4 main X-Trans RAW converter (Windows only) options were analysed:
- Picture Code’s Photo Ninja 1.2.4, with post processing in Lightroom
- Phase One’s Capture One Pro 8.1.1 (all-in-one solution)
- Adobe’s Lightroom 5.7, with embedded ACR (all-in-one solution)
- Silkypix’s Raw File Converter EX 3.2.22, with post processing in Lightroom
Please see below the results - click on the images below to see an enlarged version:
Photo Ninja
LIghtroom
Capture One Pro
Silkypix
And here (finally ;-) the detailed evaluation of the various (windows only) RAW converters & post processing (if needed):
1. Photo Ninja & post processing in Lightroom:
Delivers the best detail & highlight recovery, but colors are difficult to manage & a bit more noise reduction is needed in LR (details, please see my previous Post here and integrated Photo Ninja / Lightroom workflow here):
2. Capture One Pro:
More natural colors (less corrections needed) but vs. PN less sharp detail rendering & less highlight recovery, see "Capture One Crop 1". Don't need additional noise reduction, but tendency to show conversion artifacts (see door bell panel in "Capture One Crop 3"). Advantage is the "All inclusive" integrated workflow !
3. Lightroom (using built in Adobe Camera RAW converter):
Main issue here, from my point of view is still the well know "smearing effect" (albeit better than previous versions) and lower detail rendering, see "Lightroom Crop 1". Like Capture One also this one has an "All inclusive" integrated workflow !
4. Silkypix & post processing in Lightroom:
Also here less highlight recovery and lower detail rendering, see Silkypix detailed crops. Apart from this Silkypix from my point of view has a complicated user interface which needs some getting used to ...
Photo Ninja Crop 1
Capture One Crop 1
Lightroom Crop 1
Silkypix Crop 1
Photo Ninja Crop 2
Photo Ninja Crop 3
Capture One Crop 2
Capture One Crop 3
Lightroom Crop 2
Lightroom Crop 3
Silkypix Crop 2
Silkypix Crop 3
As you can see (recapping my last week's conclusion in PART 1 of this evaluation), from my point of view Photo Ninja has the best detail rendering and highlight recovery potential, followed by Capture One Pro, Lightroom and Silkypix !
But I'm sure some of you out there will come to different conclusions, better fitting & optimized for your way of working, so looking forward to an interesting discussion !
Hope you enjoyed the read, please let me know by entering your comments on this page, or by sending me a message via my contact page if you've any questions - I'll be happy to answer them !
many thanks, Hendrik
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