Capture One Reviews 125

I agree completely with a previous reviewer who said, "Lazy programming, Lazy design & Arrogant Self-indulgent Company".

After trying to import pictures from Lightroom to capture one a few years ago it took 6 months before Capture One had finally completed the import. It left me with 20k duplicate images due to errors by Capture One. I deleted the duplicate images and ran their catalog verify and it said my catalog was corrupt. I clicked on the "Repair" option and it told me it couldn't repair the problem!

Tech support really sucks. It used to take one to several weeks to get a reply from them. Now it takes months - if you get a response at all. There are several issues i wrote up months ago and haven't gotten a reply on.

The latest issue regarding a Capture One upgrade deleting all of my masks - tens of thousands of them - has been acknowledged by Capture One as caused by several bugs in their software which caused the loss of all of my masks. Thousands of the files that store the masks sre still there out on my disk but Capture One. I pointed this out to them and sent them some questions about the problem and have received no reply to my questions.

I have now have exchanged -16-emails with four different tech support people on this case. I have had zero responses to my questions. They keep switching tech support people on me without notice and i seem to have to rehash the entire history of the case with each one. Apparently they are unwilling to read the case history. From my interactions with tech support, i would say that most of them are untrained and in over their heads.

After getting jacked around by all these tech support people who are either (or both) unable or unwilling to help, i asked to have management contact me - four times ive asked. No one from management has contacted me.

So now, ALL of the masks i have created over the years are missing in Capture One. All of them! GONE. Years of edits- GONE.

This is what you can look forward to using Capture One.

Beware - They are trying to scam you!

Had a student subscription, canceled it trough the subscription manager, got an email saying the subscription was successfully cancelled and also the status was „canceled“.

6 Days Before the subscription period ended i got and email saying that 220€ for the next year should be charged on 19.05.2023 even though the status in the system was still „subscription canceled“.

Contacted customer service and they told be student subscriptions can only be canceled by the customer service solely. There was never a word of that.

If i had not seen this mail, i would have had to pay full price of 220€ for another year thinking my subsription was canceled.

Capture One is very good software but it is also very expensive and the customer support is woeful. Tickets can stay open for weeks without a response. It's almost as though they've given up trying to help but can't admit that they're unable to work out why a particular bug or conflict is happening.

Perhaps if the developers were able to focus on actual patching the litany of bugs and problems instead of developing new products then we might actually get to work with a solid and stable piece of software. Instead the bean counters only seem interested in getting us to upgrade to new versions with slapdash and poorly developed new features, new bugs and old bugs that haven't been addressed! Apple Silicon computers have been out for over 18 months and Ventura over 6 months - when are we going to see a stable version?! Or are you hoping that we'll all pony up for version 24?

My experience with Capture One has left me with mixed feelings. While I value the software's impressive capabilities, particularly its unparalleled ability to tether shots quickly and efficiently, as well as its exceptional colour adjustments and skin tone controls, I have encountered some issues with its stability. Specifically, the application has proven to be somewhat glitchy and unreliable at times. Furthermore, I had a negative experience when I was unable to access the application during a client's shoot due to a server outage, which was frustrating and disappointing.

A total lack of customer care and the fact that there is no online contact to get answers in a timely manner is unacceptable as a professional. The software is great the customer care is awful! On another note personally as a professional who switched from using Lightroom most due to there tethering issue I don’t understand why CO will not also write to the card as an extra measure of safety. What this requires is having to have 2 drives to have redundancy when the card is all one needs!

I was directed to articles on you website that deal with my issue but they do not completely address my questions. I feel that I need to talk to a support person and yet I see way to be able to do that.

It is difficult to recommend Capture One. Whereas I find the quality of the image processing superb, and contrary to online reviews, the interface natural, this is offset by the problems I have encountered over eighteen months and the poor support.

Over an eighteen-month period I have used both versions 21 and 23 (I skipped v22) on Windows 11 laptops; initially an AMD motherboard machine and latterly an Intel. During that time, CO has reported Database Verify FAIL on more than fifty occasions on half a dozen Catalog and three Session databases (all from an original, single database). CO took one of the Catalog databases and ‘repaired’ it, only for me to have it fail within a week.

The CO support is woeful; I previously only got what felt like meaningful responses when I wrote an old-fashioned letter (paper, envelope, stamp) and sent it to the CEO (which received no direct response). The time between customer service responses is weeks at best and often more than a month. Each contact is usually from a different agent who generally display their lack of engagement with the problem by asking questions that have already been answered or making suggestions that have already been made, tried, and failed.

Questions asked by me have not received a response: Why does it happen; Is it me or a CO bug; Will the corrupt database become terminal and result in the loss of every one of my thousands of image adjustments.

I was offered a free upgrade to v23 (which I accepted, of course) but before I had activated the trial, the v21 case had been closed. The identical problem persists with v23 so I had to raise a new ticket, with a new agent, with new (actually old) suggestions. Groundhog Day! Victor has not responded now for around a month and in that time, I have had a further four failures.

Check out the recent interview on youtube between Paul Reifer and the CO CEO. For me, there were two take-aways for the non-professional photographer: that new features needed to bring value (presumably to CO) and that the non-professional photographer would continue to benefit from the trickle-down of features. Both comments suggest a move away from solo, non-professional photographers.

CO charge more for an upgrade than all their competitors charge a new customer so this is not cheap software. They have recently changed their pricing model to encourage Customer Loyalty … but I suggest that loyalty should work both ways.

[Edit 16JUN2023 following Kristina's response]

I have been in touch with the Head of Customer Success but this customer has had no success whatsoever. Capture One has formally informed me that they intend to spend no further resource on my two problems - this was a surprise to the extent that I have no evidence of them having spent any resource apart from pro-forma apology emails. I still have the original problem - with a failure rate now approaching seventy occasions. In addition, I have now discovered that a feature I used in v21 became unavailable in v22 so is also not available in the v23 I am using - so, I am worse off.

Capture One was good enough to take my money off me; they have upgraded me to v23 at no cost to me (but at no cost to them) and that has left me worse off. My money was good enough to take off me on 'day one' but not good enough to provide ongoing support to a problem that has existed now for very many years (it existed a long while ago and was supposedly fixed). Very, very unhappy and there is not a thing I can do about it.

So ... as the Latin phrase warned us - Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware.

Fast response.

I ask about a licence and only have discout for suscribing. Last time with this program. If I have to suscribe I prefer adobe. All the best programs finish because the subscriptions.

I am very satisfied with the support provided. SLA times are very short and on-site solutions are offered.

Super helpful support - got my issue solved within 24 hours. Got a really sweet mail alongside it. It doesn't get any better than this. 5/5 :)

a precise answer for my problem

I love to use Capture One to edit my photos. Having a 65% educational discount it's the best editor I can get for this price. I'm very happy with the tools they offer, it's especially the colour editing tools that I find incredible. There are some points missing in order for it to be called "Perfect":

-There's no real AI masking as I know (subject/background recognization, etc.), but I'm okay with that. Instead you have a so called "magic brush" which selects areas with similar color, so in my opinion a good alternative.
-I found the system/structure to save photos pretty incomprehensive. It's not simply creating a "file-hierarchy" and uploading the photos there, as I would have prefered. It's quitly different as I have experienced it and I stil haven't figured out the best way.
-I don't find the purple defringing very effective.

The solution for my problem came within minutes on a weekend. Really perfect.

As usual, my messages are addressed swiftly with the most professional intent. Always satisfied.

This company is a world leader in client care, you'd have to be "one of those" to come here and write negative reviews about them.

Ok, they'll have a stupid CA take on ways to service their product, but that's life and no brand goes around this. Plus all brands have things done for us to dislike, nothing is perfect, but this product is really close to perfection!

CO responded in the latest case within 4 hours, normally within 24 hours.

Capture One responded to my inquiry within 24 hours. Great customer experience.

Capture One support responded in less than 48 hours with a comprehensive answer to my request. Very pleased and satisfied with Capture One support.

I was having issues with tethering and slow upload but I emailed them my issues and they emailed back quickly with a comprehensive list of solutions which worked.

Capture One is a fantastic product. Their current license structure is confusing, and even their page explaining it left me confused.

I was having an issue with my license and submitted a ticket to support. They responded within a day, but their response I also found confusing. I wrote back for clarification, and their response came three weeks later. The response did finally clarify my situation, but three weeks is far too long to wait.