" It’s much cheaper than Lightroom "
That's not true for the full version.
That's not true for the full version.
Regardless, I tried Capture One and Lightroom Classic side by side, and I liked Capture One a lot better. Even though it is more expensive for people who intend to upgrade regularly, it is worth every penny in my opinion, but I also think a lot of people will be able to get along fine on the freeware license. Capture One handled importing new batches of photos surprisingly better than Lightroom Classic, which actually locked up for long periods of time, and all sorts of other operations seemed faster, as if the underlying engine was not ancient. I don't remember all the details as I did this comparison about a year ago. I did not consider Lightroom CC to be a valid option for various reasons.
I also strongly appreciate being able to have a perpetual license, instead of being forced to subscribe for the rest of my life if I want to be able to continue accessing all of my RAWs with the adjustments I make, and not just the exported photos.
The one thing I disliked about both Capture One and Lightroom at the time is that neither supported proper, end-to-end HDR workflows. I have HDR displays. The RAW files contain a stunning amount of dynamic range. Even the common iPhone captures HDR photos (and I don't just mean HDR processing that gets stuffed into an 8-bit JPEG, I mean an actual HDR photo in 10-bit HEIF with an HDR curve). I want to be able to edit and view my RAW photos with extended dynamic range, not be limited to viewing an 8-bit SDR image while editing, and not be limited to exporting crappy 8-bit JPEGs that are missing so much dynamic range (or gargantuan TIFF files that have limited use cases). Adobe has started adding some HDR stuff this year, and that's the only thing Adobe offers that Capture One lacks that I'm even remotely interested in.
Incidentally, I'm also upset that Chrome removed JPEG XL, which promises to be a common format with proper HDR support.
That’s not an “even” thing; the iPhone has the /only/ end to end HDR still photo pipeline.
Other cameras can do HDR video but not stills. The newest Sony and Canon cameras do support an HDR still colorspace, but not sure what image formats work with it.
Regardless, the RAW files have plenty of range that I would expect modern RAW processing software to be able to emit HDR photos from them.
My use of the word “even” was really meant to be a reprimand of the camera industry. If even an iPhone can do this, a “proper” camera should be able to do it even better. Extended dynamic range is incredibly important to make images photorealistic. Being limited to SDR should be pretty embarrassing for any photo-related company in 2022. But, that’s just like my opinion.
I suggest Lightroom 6 for those who has older camera, otherwise discounted standalone version of Capture One (often goes in discounts). DAM feature is great in Lightroom; but this can be resolved by using some other app Can not wait to ditch Lightroom though. C1 is great for tethered sessions.
Rethinking DAM, i think i need just a good filemanager, i am already organizing my folder by myself.
If you are working in professional environment as a photographer, Capture One is a quite gold standard for photographer. In anycase, retouching is done in Photoshop.