not doing near as much photography as I have in years past and I'm having a harder and harder time justifying that adobe subscription. I still need to edit the occasional photo and when I do, I still want something that is going to deliver quality results.
Ive been using adobe products since the late 90's.
I strictly use Fuji cameras now. I have some with x-trans sensor and some with the Bayer.
I know some software apps have issues with fujis x-trans sensor so getting fuji RAW files right will definitely be a deal breaker.
so far im looking at a few options...
Capture One Pro (I really don't like how you can either pick ONE camera file type or pay extra for "ALL" types)
Skylum Luminar 4.
Exposure X6
DxO PhotoLab 4
ON1 Photo RAW
I have not done any deep-dive research on any of these yet, just looked at some brief overviews and user reviews....which may or may not have been biased.
I don't mind spending $150 or so if it's a legitimate lateral-ish move from lightroom and can handle fuji's RAW files well. i mostly just want to knock out a recurring monthly expense.
so hit me with your best LR alternatives!
You can have Capture One Express (Fuji) for free. Add to that Affinity Photo on sale right now for $25.00 and you're up and running. C1 Pro is excellent but $$$$.
DXO PL4 does not support your Fuji X camera.
Luminar is from Skylum. Treat Skylum like they are the plague. They are a plague.
On1 is good software and will do the job for all your cameras and they just released new version 2021 and it's on sale for $65.00 which is a bargain for sure -- good software & good company. Still add Affinity if you want more in depth raster editing.
There's always DarkTable which is open source for raw processing and add to that Affinity for $25.00.
Dang... That's a shame about DxO. That one was actually at the top of my list.
What's wrong with Skylum? I have never heard of them before.
Any experience with Exposure X6?
It may come down to simply getting capture one pro but I'll do a little more digging when im not on shift. On1 did look pretty good too.
It is indeed a shame about DXO. I use DXO for some work with my non-Fuji cameras and it is excellent software. They do have a problem with hidden costs. You purchase the raw converter and eventually you bump into a missing feature that you'd swear should be there and it's not like adding a vignette. Then you find out it's available just pony up another $50.00 for the the film pack. However the software does an excellent job.
Skylum is out of control. Their software is poorly conceived and engineered. For example we expect by now that a parametric raw converter functions 100% non-destructively. LR does. C1 does. On1 does. PL4 does. DarkTable does. Luminar does NOT. They get a product to beta stage and release it. If ever there was a company that uses it's paying customer base to debug their beta products it's Skylum. Then before they finish the debugging job they get distracted and head off in another direction with a new beta product. Product support is poor.
I'm not qualified to say much about Exposure X6. I downloaded a trial last year. It seemed like reasonable software but it was obvious to me fairly quickly that we have very different approaches. I want a raw converter to hand me full control and otherwise stay out of my way. Exposure X6 is built around supplying the user with canned effects. It may be possible to ignore all that but I didn't see anything in a few days to keep me interested and I removed it.
Given the current sale with the new release of On1 2021 that's a tough choice to pass up. I switched from Adobe to Capture One back in 2012. My reason was then what it is now. I want all my editing done parametrically and non-destructively. I want nothing to do with a raster editor if at all possible. Back in 2012 it looked like C1 was the best choice to realize that goal and now in 2021 I'm convinced of that. I process hundreds of photos using only C1 before I encounter a task for which I have to break out a raster editor. If I have a stubborn photo in which C1 can't get the keystoning/distortion correction right I move to DXO PL4 and back to C1. C1 is more expensive than Adobe if you upgrade each new release. Of course you could invest in a license and then skip further upgrades bringing the price down over time.
I keep current versions of a number of other editors/processors like On1, ACDSee, SilkyPix, Affinity, etc. so I can help my students. However the pandemic seems to be bringing that to an end.
Good luck.