Capture One 20 Released

Capture One 20 Released

Capture One 20, the newest version of the photo editing and organization software, has released today. Adopting a new, year-based naming convention, Capture One 20 boasts a number of improved features from Capture One 12, centering around refining the user experience.

According to the press release, developing Capture One 20 "focused on user feedback to deliver a refined design with new processing capabilities and significant workflow enhancements. Users can work faster than ever and more intuitively, meaning Capture One 20 is more useful and more efficient in everyday work, even easier for new users, more customizable, and still without compromise.”

Among the new touted features: a new basic color editor, crop tool, new high dynamic range tools, better noise reduction quality, greater layer functionality particularly with copy and paste, and added DNG support. The interface and appearance also received upgrades, including the ability to create pinned and scrolling sections for tools. A minor yet promising new feature particularly for event photographers, "Select Next When," automatically advances to the next image when applying a star rating or color tag to accelerate workflows.



Owners of previous versions can upgrade to the latest version at a reduced price. A 30-day free trial can be downloaded here.

Jordan Bush's picture

Fstoppers Writer Jordan Bush is a pro photographer focusing on commercial, editorial, and photojournalism work. He writes and photographs the monthly column, "Foodographer." A former Apple software trainer and hardware technician, he also has an affinity for retro video games.

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44 Comments

No free upgrades for those coming from their latest version Capture One 12, even when purchased less than 12 months ago.

That's the usual arrogance from Phase One.

There is no significant upgrade from 12, like every year that they do "Major" releases with minimal changes.
So you end up paying several times the cost of a license just because they want to exhaust you into subscribing.

It's a very arrogant, tricky way of conducting business and incredibly disrespectful of their long standing clients and evangelists who actively pushed for adoption in their workflow.

Over the years there has always been a fee for upgrading. That said, people who purchased 12 (upgrade or full version) from late October to yesterday receive a free upgrade to 20. Changing to a subscription is another option.

They roll out yearly updates anymore, every November. The switch to '20 year based naming solidifies that this is going to be how they go forward. Expecting a free upgrade from anything past 60 days ago would be absurd.

thats why you use subscription..

"No free upgrades for those coming from their latest version Capture One 12, even when purchased less than 12 months ago."

Yeah, there was - I got one.

they updaet every 12 months ago soo,,

They didn't really add much for their increased upgrade fee's

Yes I also expected more.

The upgrade costs less this year. I can't say for their non-Sony version, last year their Sony version upgrade was $109, now it's only $89.

If you're patient enough, and assuming they follow the same trend, you could wait until they have a sale. Early last year, they had a discount from $109 to $54.

The whole Sony/Fuji thing being 1/3rd the price is still a slap in the face to me. It's a $159 upgrade from12 to 20.

I run 2 keys and alternate upgrades and was able to do the 11 to 12 w/ the free upgrade to 20 for $104'ish on black Friday weekend.

Perhaps Sony/Fuji pay them to do discounted price. They certainly pay to have express version free to consumers.

I was always under the presumption it was to catch market share as Sony's sales are way up. But by the same rate they should offer a Canon / Nikon version @ discount

I don't think it is market share. The Sony version version cost less even back in 2014. Probably even earlier. The first upgrade I bought was in 2014 for $30.

It's vastly improved over previous versions.

I'll take better software over new gadgets every time,,,

You are the first and only person I've heard say that about v20, also I'm using v20 and I'll flatly say you are wrong

I must be the only one, but I like the subscription model, because I can update every time without sweating it. It's practically the least of my photo expenses overall.

I calculated it for me and it's the better option not to use the subscription model. In my case I can also use the software, when I'm not want to pay anymore.

Is there any meaningful difference with the new HDR Sliders compared to the old ones?

From looking at the video, they've changed the sliders to work in both directions the way they do in LR. But I don't know why. It makes sense that a highlight or shadow recovery slider would only need to go in one direction (the recovery direction).

They probably only did that to make C1 more familiar to people jumping ship from LR.

"Recovery" isn't a completely fitting name for what it's doing though. Makes more sense to have it go in both directions when you think about how it's adjusting the mid-low and mid-high end exposure range.

For me I use "negative" highlight recovery in LR (pushing the highlight slider to the right) to blow out backgrounds more (ie: a high key portrait) vs using an adjustment brush to brush in additional exposure. LR used to do the sliders the same way IIRC, and to me this makes more sense for those times when you do want "negative" recovery.

By having the white and black taking control of the bright and dark side of the histogram, being able to pull back somewhat with the shadow / highlight sliders helps me to bring back some contrast in that tonal ranges, so I don't have to fiddle with the curves tool to have some contrast in there.
It gives me more pleasing landscape images than the previous recovery only toolset.

They added blacks and whites to the tool too and it looks pretty powerful.

Isnt that not just another way of adjusting your levels?

I don’t think so, have a watch of the video, it seems to be just giving more control to the highlights and shadows, but in a different way to how levels would.

No, it adjust the very low/high end of the curve. It's not a black/white point tool.

You're asking questions for which the answers are already available - maybe do your own research, rather than expect other people to do your work for you?

Yes.

I'm still using CO10, I was expectig a healing brush, a proper healing brus not a healing via new layer.

Why? Did Phase One give you the impression a "proper healing brush" was in the offing?

Thanks but no, I am tainted by Adobe's subscription model and cannot justify it. Perhaps I'll go back to upgrading every other version. Is anyone else turning away from the "latest, greatest" addiction?

?

So don't subscribe, Capture One still supports the one-off payment model.

Heard C1 is very good from many, but too costly at this point since I'm still learning Photoshop. Does it just do photos only or also videos?

I actually like the upgrades. Yes, they are minor, but convenient which can lead to a faster workflow...for me at least. Particularly with the HDR tool and copying layers. I like the new Whites and Blacks sliders on the HDR tool. I used to in combination with the tool also use levels and/or curves and/or luma layer and maybe some masking. Now, looks like I'll have everything I need in one spot. As for the copying layers, definitely could use the ability to copy just the specific layer(s) into the other images that have existing layers.

I was going to skip this version. I'll most likely upgrade.

No-go without a better healing brush/clone stamp system. One instance per layer is a PITA and inferior to pretty much EVERY Raw editor out there right now. That's why I can't seem to vibe with C1 - it doesn't feel completely cohesive or logical to me, like the designers are super smart, but lack a little sense. They have some amazing tools, and then completely crap the bed on some of the basics. LR is still my choice for quickest workflow, even if it does annoy me sometimes.

I can still use my v12 styles in v20, if you that mean.

Capture One for Sony and Fuji: $129.
Capture One for everyone else: $299.

I don't think so.

Nobody's trying to force you

Who said they were? Odd response. The added "I don't think so" should be indicative that I don't feel they're trying to "force" me.

I'm still looking for a digital asset management system that allows for batch export of metadata. Surely I'm not the only one out there that needs the ability to plot the locations of photographs in a GIS (Geographical Information System)? So far the legacy Aperture product is the only seamless tool that does the job.

I managed to get a pre-release registration for a - having problems to receive the activation license-key with a pre-release voucher-key.
I'm hoping Phase One support can help me thru (a first test for their support i assume).
It's a weird procedure they have - with their pre-release vouchers, we'll see what happens next.
Never had problems upgrading or installing before. I'd like them to explain a little bit more about the dotnet-background so i can make it work on wine under linux (so i can "dump" windows10 - i <censored> that OS)...

Yeah it was a paint and took me 30 min to sort through, they actually poof'ed one of my keys and i had to reinstall and enter it in C1 11 to push it back online so i could then re-order with a 100% voucher. It was clunky

It's buggy, I mean sooooooooo buggy that my debuging report did not get a responce.