This is going to be the shortest review, so I might as well get it over and done with.
LightCraft’s LightZone (version 3.8 tested) is advertised under the slogan: Photo editing for professional photographers who like things made simple. Version 3.9 is available now, but I seriously doubt that it will magically differ from the version tested.
Professional looking box with poo inside!
And it simply doesn’t work on my machine. What will earn it a big sweaty and hairy pair of bollocks as a verdict is the fact that it requires a processor with SSE2 support and the only way to find it is to go through “Help” section on LightCraft’s web page. It simply isn’t mentioned anywhere else.
While the SSE2 support requirement is not entirely unreasonable, it isn’t essential for running any other RAW processing software including, believe it or not DxO Optics Pro! Furthermore, it is appalling that the setup does not halt if CPU doesn’t conform to the requirement, as you can clearly see in the series of the screenshots as follows:
Ok, files are extracting...
Maybe tell user now that the system doesn't match the requirements?
Ok, how about now then?
Maybe now then?
Not even now?
Whaa..? So my system is ok? Let's run the software then!
BANG!
Also, none of the digital medium format cameras including CaptureOne’s P65 or P40, Pentax D645 or (no, I didn’t even expect that one, but still) Leica S2 are supported. And LightCrafts still dare to claim “Photo editing for professional photographers..”
So, LightZone you say? No thank you!!!
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