Capture One VS Lightroom editing - Morten Albek Photography

3rd edition with full updated review and video at the end of the article.

Left a picture sample from Capture One, and the same (right) in Lightroom. I tried to match them as much as possible, but not being scientifically precise. Just doing what I normally do, but same white balance setting and black and shadow levels for example.

This is the third version of the original article. I added more thoughts and some samples. The added content is in boxes, allowing you to compare it with my initial impressions from 2025.

Capture One vs Lightroom:

Which One Brings Out the Best in Your Leica M?

I also added Sony and Fuji at the end of the article.

I have been an avid user of Lightroom for many years, and like everyone else, I have been kind of lazy and just used this software for my editing. I know Capture One has been around, but until recently, I was satisfied with what I got from Lightroom. Until I tried Capture One. Here is a breakdown of some of the important features and differences between Capture One and Lightroom based on my experience.

When you’re shooting with a Leica M, you’re not just taking photos—you’re capturing moments with one of the most iconic cameras in the world. But once the shutter clicks, the next step is just as important: how you process those files.

There are IA tools in both L. and CO., but I avoid those as much as possible and prefer what comes closest to good old manual craftsmanship. Capture One and Adobe Lightroom both are powerful, but they handle your Leica files (+ Sony and Fuji) workflow very differently.

Let’s break it down.

Colour Science: The Soul of Your Leica

Capture One: Known for its exceptional colour accuracy, Capture One builds custom colour profiles for supported cameras. Leica M files retain their signature tones, contrast, and micro-detail, making your images look as close to the real thing as possible, right out of the gate.
Lightroom: Adobe’s profiles are solid, but often generic (update – The Leica M9 handling in Capture One is also generic). Leica colours can appear flatter or cooler, requiring more manual tweaking to get that signature Leica “pop.”

RAW Processing: Detail, Depth, and Dynamic Range

Capture One: Delivers crisper detail, better highlight recovery, and more nuanced tonal control. Leica M files—especially from the M10 and M11—shine with Capture One’s rendering engine, but I also find a much better tonality from the Leica M9 files.
Lightroom: Still excellent, but tends to apply more aggressive noise reduction and sharpening by default, which can soften fine detail. It can be corrected to a certain extent within Lightroom, but not as pleasing as Capture One, which creates a more “soft” film-like feeling.

Workflow & File Handling

Capture One: Offers both Catalogues and Sessions, giving you flexibility whether you’re managing a full archive or a single shoot. Ideal for professionals and project-based workflows. I only need the catalogue for my kind of work habit, but it’s there.
Lightroom: Uses a catalogue-only system. Great for long-term organisation and cloud syncing, but less flexible for one-off or client-specific sessions, as stated above, enough for me.

For flexibility and image quality, I find Capture One is the best. The winner for cloud integration and ease of use is Lightroom.

Capture One: Built for pros. Offers deep control but has a steeper learning curve and isn’t as intuitive to learn as Lightroom. However, the big advantage, if you’re like me and have used Lightroom, is that you can change and rearrange how the different actions and palettes are displayed on the screen, making it customizable and closer to Lightroom. Nevertheless, there are some functions that you simply must learn by using them for a while.
Lightroom: More intuitive and beginner-friendly. Seamless integration with Photoshop and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Final Verdict: Which One for Leica M?

If you’re a Leica M shooter who values colour accuracy, RAW fidelity, and professional-grade control, Capture One is the clear choice. It brings out the best in your Leica files—preserving the soul of your images with minimal effort, I find.

But if you’re looking for a simpler, cloud-connected workflow, or you’re already deep in the Adobe ecosystem, Lightroom still delivers excellent results with a gentler learning curve.

Addendum · March 2026

Capture One vs. Lightroom Classic, one year on (and why I’m leaning Capture One now)

A year ago, I wrote that Lightroom felt faster for my street and everyday portrait work, while Capture One gave me the truer colour and micro‑detail I like for more considered files. Since then, both apps have moved on—but Capture One has made the bigger, more practical steps for my kind of editing. Here’s what’s changed, what actually matters in use, and a short note on why we edit at all.

What’s new in Capture One since mid‑2025

Negative Film Conversion (built‑in) — direct, batch‑consistent conversion of camera‑scanned negatives without plug‑ins. If you scan or copy film, this removes an entire round‑trip.
Masking & retouching got deeper and tidier — Combine Masks (add/subtract/intersect as groups), Retouch Eyes and Retouch Teeth, Include Neck Area for skin tools, Clothes Masking, PSB support, and a simple Contact Sheets creator for quick client PDFs.
Layers to Photoshop: better hand‑off — export your masks as alpha channels in PSD/PSB, plus small but welcome UI touches like mask thumbnails per layer; some AI tools now use Snapdragon NPUs on supported Windows laptops.

I stay away from AI as much as possible, but I may rely on masking, which by hand would take an awful lot of time, by using AI to do the job. But any altering, removal or amendments to a photo is strictly forbidden in my world, where honesty and art must go hand in hand.

Sessions and on‑set organisation — Session Builder can pre‑create a complex folder structure before the first frame; Retouch Faces gives quick, natural slider‑based clean‑up that carries forward during tethered “Next Capture Adjustments.” (I still keep it subtle.)
Mobile is finally workable — sessions on iPad/iPhone, external‑drive backup on the go, and People Masking on mobile. It’s not the Lightroom cloud, but it’s now useful when travelling.
Performance & quality‑of‑life — faster exports, quicker People Masking, keystone loupe for precise alignment, and cloud‑sync of styles/workspaces/presets across your own machines.
Tethering & camera support — continued day‑one support for new bodies (including Leica M EV1) and meaningful tethering upgrades (Fujifilm focus tools, Live View tweaks). Panasonic LUMIX joined the official tethering club.

What’s new in Lightroom Classic (2025 → early 2026)

Speed & handling — better preview responsiveness while hovering presets/History, smoother crop, and (importantly) GPU‑accelerated preview generation if you have a decent card.
AI‑assisted culling & stacking — early‑access Assisted Culling, Auto Stack by time/visual similarity, and an Auto Dust Removal mode in Remove. Great for volume shoots.
Local edits & HDR — Detect Objects now includes shadows/reflections (better object removal), HDR Limit slider for headroom, improved Reflection Removal, and eight Adaptive Landscape presets.
Colour — tiny but useful: Point Colour → Variance to widen/narrow colour influence.
Ecosystem‑type wins — PSB support on “Edit in Photoshop” and export, some Leica tethering additions, plus continuous improvements to Lightroom Desktop/Mobile (crop/masking speed, share links/QR, etc.).

Lightroom left – Capture One right.

In this example, I dragged down the highlights a lot, and both colours and the edges of the hand are crushed in Lightroom. In Capture One, doing the same, the colours stay true, and the highlights keep the colours intact.
This is the same in many other adjustments, where Capture One is much gentler in handling colours and contrasts. This is my verdict, and others may find it different, and at the end of the day, it is about personal preference.

At the end of the day, it matters what you are doing and why

After making more one-to-one comparisons, I will add that Capture One and Lightroom each have their strengths and weaknesses.

Capture One is great at colour rendering and is now even better than I experienced before, and when looking closely, it handles colours better. If you are a portrait photographer or shoot commercials, this might be the go-to tool. And, now, also as a street photographer, I will lean on CaptureOne (video at the end with more examples and explanation).
This part is a major game-changer for me. They may have been focusing too much on speed and didn’t really look at the big differences. On a past street shoot, I experienced a huge difference, which made me shift towards Capture One.

As a street photographer and photojournalist, I have found it difficult to edit with Capture One on the fly. I didn’t need that extra care about colour rendition for my kind of work. I needed speed, I needed good highlight and shadow handling, and to my surprise, Lightroom did a far better job on that than Capture One did. Until now.

Lightroom Classic vs. Capture One in 2026: what actually feels different

Below isn’t a spec sheet—it’s where the two still diverge when you’re at the desk with real files.

Color & tonality
Capture One keeps its edge for clean, camera‑faithful colour with the control to nudge it exactly where you want—why product and portrait people swear by it. Many comparisons still call out C1’s colour editor and profiles as a practical advantage.

Watched some details on low-light shots in the Copenhagen Metro, and how C1 made a big difference.
Lightroom’s Point Colour with Variance helps for targeted tweaks, but it’s still a different rendering philosophy out of the gate.

In general, I also found that simple pictures with close to no editing stand out in Capture One more pleasing than in Lightroom.

Masking & local edits
Lightroom’s object/people/sky detection and AI Remove tools are mature and fast, and Assisted Culling is useful if you want the machine to pre‑sort.
Capture One’s 2025–26 cycle closed a lot of the gap for precision edits (Combine Masks, region‑specific face tools, clothes masking, and PSD/PSB alpha export for finishing in PS).

Capture One

Lightroom

It takes a little time to adjust the workflow in Capture One, but as with everything else, it’s a matter of repetition, and it gets easy to work with. Less intuitive when compared to Lightroom.

Fujifilm Cameras

Capture One is widely regarded as the superior choice for Fujifilm RAW files, especially those using the X-Trans sensor (like the X-T2, X-T3, X-Pro2, and GFX series):

Sharper detail: Capture One avoids the “Adobe worms” artefact that Lightroom sometimes introduces when processing X-Trans files, which influences the look.
Better colour rendering: Capture One seems to retain Fujifilm’s film simulations more accurately and delivers richer, deeper tones than Lightroom.
Dedicated version: Capture One offers a Fujifilm-specific edition, optimised for these sensors, which may be a clear benefit.

Lightroom, while improved over time, still struggles with fine detail and can produce a slightly soft or smeared look when zoomed in and looking at details.

Sony Cameras

Capture One also excels with Sony files, offering:

Cleaner noise handling and better fine detail, especially at higher ISOs, this shows..
Offering a Sony-specific version of Capture One, tailored for Sony’s colour science and RAW formats
and also shows faster preview generation and export speeds compared to Lightroom.

Lightroom supports Sony cameras broadly, but its default rendering may require more manual tweaking to match Capture One’s clarity and tonal depth.