Quote Originally Posted by Mark Elberson
Daniel

What do you use for RAW conversion?
Mostly Lightroom. It has a ton of quality problems. Underexposed (high ISO) shots are especially poor. It lacks basic features such as nonlinear EC. The downsampling algorithm corrupts the image with aliasing artifacts. It applies different amounts of hidden exposure compensation for different cameras (e.g. you have to set -0.33 EC for the 5D2 to get counteract their hidden +0.33). There are plenty of other quality issues as well.

But for all its problems, I still prefer it over all the others for one single reason: ease of use. I can get on the computer, process hundreds of photos with various adjustments here and there, and get back off in a short amount of time. The plugins and integration with other software save more time still. Most of my photos look "good enough" with Lightroom, so I put up with the quality issues just to be able to zip through a pile of raws in less time. Before Lightroom 2 came out, I was using Bibble for the same reason: easy. But it took extra time to integrate with the DAM. Lightroom has the DAM integrated directly, which I think saves me some time (at a loss in flexibility).

When I am concerned about quality, I will take the time to load up a different converter. My favorites are RPP, DxO, but sometimes I try Bibble, DPP, or a dcraw derivative. I develop astro shots in a variety of more specialized programs such as IRIS, DSS, and MaxIm DL. I haven't used C1P, Aperture, or SilkyPix, but I hear good things.