I’ve been using DxO v4.5 with good results but the problem is that DxO 5.0 remains quite unstable. In a side-by-side comparison, Lightroom came off as the most decent, but it doesn’t have distortion correction. Almost means I have to stick with Canon’s own DPP which has distortion correction.
Apparently DxO 5.1 is now out and at least “Misiriou”:http://luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25760 reports it seems a little faster althought it still has bugs. And at least some are finding it easier because it is a more dedicated tool that Lightroom plus Photoshop CS3. I had lots of issues with 5.0, so maybe it is time to give 5.1 a chance.
Adobe Lightroom is the most consistent. It has a nice set of tools and features, solid results and few weaknesses. It’s integrated features allow the photographer to do all their work, from start to finish, in one program, in many cases with no need for Photoshop or other tools.
DXO is a mixed bag. It produces great colors, especially for nature and its geometry correction tools are a real life saver. On the other hand, it’s very slow, rather very unstable and just not great in terms of processing details. [Edit: I’ve thought initially that there must be something wrong with my computer but then I’ve found out on forums that many people complain about DXO 5 stability issues; for me, it crashes 80% of the time, when doing simple things like zooming in or applying sharpness.]
Capture One seems like a very nice “quick” tool. Even though it’s a beta, it’s fast in all areas (UI, workflow and processing), polished and stable. The pricing is also very attractive – just $130 compared to about $300 for the competition
