Software options and best raw converter for Sony a7rII?

[Julie Brown]

Last August I entered the mirrorless world with a purchase of the 24MP APS-C Sony a6000, and used it alongside my Canon 5D MKIII during a landscape workshop in October. My usual processing workflow involves Lightroom, NIK, and Photoshop, and the Sony files looked great. I was so taken with the features of this camera that I added the 42MP full-frame a7rII to my kit. With three landscape workshops planned for 2016, I want to be able to access the full dynamic range of the files from this camera. How many of you use Capture One? I understand that Capture One Express 9 is a free download, with the upgrade to the Pro version being $50. Although I have read some reviews that gave Capture One the edge over Lightroom, I wanted to get some opinions and feedback from experienced Sony shooters.

Thanks!

[Don Lacy]

Hi Julie, I do not have any experience with either the AR7 or Capture One but from what i have read it is an excellent converter that takes time to learn to fully get the most out of it. Also I believe that Sony and Capture One have a partnership and they have full access to the cameras with excellent profiles. I have a strong interest in getting and working with Capture One the Sony cameras not so much:S3:

[arash_hazeghi]

Julie,

I use capture one pro 8. I haven't upgraded to 9 and probably will not. I don't use Sony but I have Fuji XT1 camera. I use capture One because LR cannot handle Fuji RAW files properly resulting in poor color rendition and grainy files just like my Canon. However I find the Capture One interface really awkward with many bugs, performance issues and just dumb integration. It has way too many useless settings. It eats up disk space by creating catalogs and libraries with hundreds of nested files and folders, it's easy to lose files if you aren't careful. The conversion quality is excellent though, for my Fuji at least. It generates clean sharp files even at high ISO and the shadow detail is also clean, you don't need to do profile adjustments as it can decode the native WB and the colors are usually spot on. You can also mask and apply selective adjustments such as selective NR. It also has basic lens correction that can remove CA. Overall my opinion of this software is mixed, I wouldn't use it if I didn't have to.

Where did you get your pricing information ? Is it a Sony deal? The express isn't free it's actually $100 and the pro is $399 USD standalone. $100 if you upgrade from Pro 8 or $250 if you upgrade from Express.

Good luck

[Julie Brown]

Thank you Don and Arash for your input.

My first impression was that Capture One is not very intuitive, and I'm certainly not eager to undertake a steep learning curve with a new program if the results are not noticeably superior. Photoshop will forever be challenging enough! :S3:

Somewhere I read that Capture One was a better RAW converter for Sony files than ACR, so I decided to download a trial. The Phase One website is where I saw that Capture One Express 9 is free for Sony users:

Capture One Express 9 (for Sony) is a free imaging application for Sony cameras

https://www.phaseone.com/en/Products/Software/Capture-One-for-Sony/Sony-Express.aspx?

It does appear that the upgrade to the Pro version for Sony cameras is only $50.

[arash_hazeghi]

The price is certainly much better for Sony, maybe since Sony don't have a native RAW converter they have this deal with Phase One , at $399 it's not really worth it but for 50 bucks you can't go wrong. I think you will get more feedback if you ask on a landscape photography forum where these kind of cameras are more popular