GUI: I like Capture One's new GUI. I think it is a big improvement over the 3.* series GUI. There is a text based tool and menu bar running across the top of the GUI and an icon based tool bar just below that. The tabbed image editing tool sets are available on the left side of the GUI and arranged left to right for proper workflow order. If you aren't a fan of tabbed tools you can float the individual tool sets anywhere on the screen or rearrange their top to bottom order in the docked format. Capture One Pro has support for multiple monitors so you could move some or all of your tools to your second monitor.

The image browser shares the rest of the GUI area with your preview image/s. You can select the browser to run below or on the right side of the GUI. With my 'small' 20" monitor I find it most useful to drag the boundary of the image browser to where only one row of photos is showing. This method maximizes the editing area for the preview image and I can scroll through my image thumbnails. 'Grid' mode is the standard film strip or light box type of view of your thumbnails. If you run the image browser at the bottom of the GUI you can alternately select 'list' view, which shows a smaller thumbnail and all pertinent shooting data for that image to the right of the thumbnail.

When you open an image folder into the browser C1 Pro puts a new folder into your original image folder that has sub folders that operate as a cache for previews and image settings. You can also work in what C1 Pro calls 'sessions'. When you open a new session you are asked to name the session and set a main folder and certain sub folders for your current project. This is basically the way I arrange my own workflow except that C1 Pro keeps track of your folder locations by the 'session' name. You can also work with 'albums' which are virtual folders. The following is from C1 Pro's PDF help file "Album folders are virtual collections. Albums is an easy way to compare images from different folders, without having to place the images in the same folder. In addition to this, Albums only references images from folders, it doesn't copy them. Making changes to images in Albums will however affect the source image". You do not have to make an 'import' of your images or folders to work on them. All you need to do is use the folder tab to navigate to the image folder of your choice and open it. Your images will be thumbnailed and in very short time you are working.

Capture One Pro has a provision for rating your images as 0 to 5 star or color tagging them. There is no database type of search for keywords or metadata but you can sort the thumbnails by ratings and certain meta data when you are in the 'list' view. Capture One has nearly unlimited before and after views by using the variants feature. Edit an image and then ask for a new variant of that image and you have 'before and after' images in the main preview window.

I found the workflow and productivity features in Capture One Pro to be outstanding and relatively easy to discover and use. Understanding and using the program is made easier by the excellent searchable PDF help document that opens when you click 'help' within the program. You can see a screen capture of Capture One Pro's GUI toward the bottom of this page.

Editing Tools: Capture One has professional level image editing toolbox. There is enough depth and flexibility to do just about anything you need to prepare an image for output. Capture One Pro does have 'shadow fill' and 'highlight recovery' smart tools and they work properly.

You can copy and paste editing tool adjustments from one image to another or into a group of images. When you select to copy image adjustments from one image those adjustments are placed in the 'adjustments clipboard'. You can then select or deselect the individual tool parameters in the adjustments clipboard before 'pasting' the adjustment set into another image or set of images. Slider and numerical input adjustments are available for every image adjustment tool in Capture One's toolbox. Slider type adjustments provide seamless and continuous adjustment throughout the range of the tool. Capture one has infinitely adjustable image preview magnification from 'fit in window' to about 400% of actual image size. At the newest release (4.7) C1 Pro's editing tools can be used to edit TIFF and JPEG files too.

Color management: Capture one uses your operating system's default monitor profile. There is currently one profile available for each supported camera. You can apply one of four different initial contrast curves to the camera profile for the default preview image. You can save the output of the 'Advanced Color Editor' as an adjustment preset or as an ICC profile for the camera being used at the time. If you have other software that can make camera ICC profiles for C1 supported cameras, you can use those profiles in C1 Pro by installing them in the proper ICC profile folder for your OS. You can work in any ICC color space and apply any profile that is contained in you computer's color profile folder.

Output:: C1 Pro Pro will convert your RAW file to TIFF 8 or 16 bit or JPEG. C1 Pro will also output to DNG file format. You can individually name single file conversions. C1 Pro has excellent batch processing including background batch processing. This means your computer can be converting RAW files and saving them to image files while you are making adjustments to another images. The entire conversion process is controlled by what C1 Pro calls a 'recipe'. The recipe contains all the output requirements: file type, color space or profile, scaling if desired, file naming and destination folder. Recipes are saved and you can have unlimited recipes for output. This is a very handy feature and saves having to reset all these parameters every time you process an image or a batch of images. You can process one image with multiple recipes too. As an example you can process one image or a group of selected images into one TIFF and 2 JPEG's in two different sizes. All of the recipe parameters can be changed on the fly too. So, you can tweak anything you like in a recipe if you don't want to make a bunch. I just have two recipes: TIFF 16 bit aRGB and JPEG sRGB.

Capture One Pro has a provision for a very nice JavaScript based web 'contact sheet' so you can get your images up on the web for customer viewing without having to work in a separate web site development program.

Printing: There is no printing option in C1 Pro

Comments: This was worth the wait. I was beginning to despair that Phase One, Capture One's parent company was going to leave the DSLR market and concentrate their software efforts on their digital backs. I believe Capture One 4 and Capture One Pro demonstrate that Phase One is committed to continued support of digital SLR RAW format. This program has been updated to include new camera models at least twice already in 4 months.

The first thing I noticed when opening a RAW file in C1 Pro 4.6 was the absolutely excellent image quality. The quality of the Bayer demosaicing is top notch and color and tonality are nearly perfect in most default conversions. If you are a pro doing color critical work or you are in need of the highest quality enlargements, you should seriously consider Capture One Pro. Capture One Pro has all the necessary tools, flexibility and enhancements to satisfy the most demanding imaging professional.

C1 Pro has been flawless on my PC XP Pro platform. The only gripe I can come up with is that it takes nearly 30 seconds to fully open, even after it has been previously opened. This is like 1990's program load speed. It's not my computer; I have a nice new Core Duo running @ 3 gigahertz with 4 gigs of system RAM. Photoshop CS4 loads in less than 3 seconds after the first load of the day. In any case, that's the best I can do complaint wise. The program is certainly not slow to respond once it is open. Editing and processing speeds are as good as or better than most of the other RAW converters.

You can see a list of supported cameras and the differences between Capture One 4 and Capture One Pro here. Use the '4 vs Pro' link for features comparisons and the 'Download' link for a list of supported cameras.

Capture One Pro's GUI (Graphical User Interface) with the 'Color' tool tab opened

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