I’m Leaving Capture One for DxO PhotoLab 9: Here is Why!
In 2019 I wrote an article about leaving Lightroom for Capture One.
Well, here we are, six years later, and this time I’m announcing another change: I’ll be leaving Capture One for DxO PhotoLab 9.
First off, let me be clear: my time with Capture One has been excellent. It’s a fantastic piece of software, and I never once regretted switching from Lightroom. If you’re sticking with Capture One, you’re still making a solid choice.
Why am I leaving?
Before we start, it’s worth remembering that Capture One supports Fujifilm cameras because Fujifilm pays them to. That’s part of their original agreement. So if you’re happily editing your Fujifilm files in Capture One, thank Fujifilm, not Capture One. And that’s totally fine — just business as usual.
What really bothered me, though, was Capture One’s handling of the free Express version. They announced its removal, but in reality, they didn’t actually discontinue it for Fujifilm shooters — they simply hide and renamed it.
Instead of openly saying “Capture One Express is closing, but Fujifilm users still have access to a free basic version,” they didn’t tell us about it and made it complicated to find. The probable goal: push Express users into upgrading to the paid version. Luckily, on FujiRumors we figured out the not-so-intuitive way to still access the new “Fujifilm RAW Converter (FRC)” and shared it with the community.
Legally, it’s all fine. I assume (but that’s just a guess of mine) their contract with Fujifilm might oblige them to offer a free basic version, and if so, they would have technically respected that. But from a customer-relations point of view, it felt a bit disingenuous. A little transparency and clarity would have gone a long way.
The turning point
Now that I own the Fujifilm X-E5, I had to make a choice. As a perpetual license holder, I would need to pay Capture One full price just to get support for my new camera. At that point, I asked myself: do I double down on Capture One, or finally make the switch to something else?
And the answer was clear: it’s time for DxO.
Also consider: while Capture One won’t support the X-E5 in older standalone versions, DxO added X-E5 support also the PhotoLab 7 and 8.
So this makes me confident that if one day I’ll treat myself with a Fujifilm X-E6 or X-T7 or so, I guess I won’t be forced to pay the upgrade to DxO PhotoLab 10/11 to use its RAW files on DxO.
Why DxO?
Over the past two years, DxO has impressed me more and more. The new PhotoLab 9 is a powerful, feature-rich editor — with great tools like AI Masking. I’ll be pairing it with FilmPack 8, which unlocks all Fujifilm film simulation profiles.
On top of that, DxO PureRAW 5.3 now supports DeepPRIME XD3 for all X-Trans cameras, delivering outstanding noise reduction and detail retention.
So, from now on all my editing will be done with PhotoLab9.
What About You?
Since I’ve shared my own quick editing software journey, I’d love to hear yours. What software are you using now, and how did you get there? Feel free to share your story in the comments below.
