Phase One has updated its Capture One advanced professional raw conversion and image editing software, with the sixth version offering support for more than 170 digital cameras.

The new software is available in two versions - Capture One Pro 6 and Capture One Express 6. Among the new features introduced in the Pro version is the ability to edit selected areas of an image non-destructively. The new version also features a black-and-white conversion mode, which allows photographers to adjust colour channels to create split toning effects when converting to grayscale. Keystone correction is also possible, enabling the reduction or elimination of perspective distortion while maintaining dimension integrity, claims Phase One. Finally, the update also brings new, "high-quality and simple to use printing options.

The basic version of Capture One, which is now called Capture One Express, shares many of the new features in Capture One Pro 6, such as enhanced metadata support, a Loupe tool, integrated movie import, viewing and handling, as well as a new search and filter technology that makes it easy to find, sort and organize images on the fly, says Phase One.

Some of the enhancements brought to the organisational part of the software come from Phase One's acquisition of Expression Media, a Microsoft digital asset management application used to catalog and organise images, videos and music files.

In an exclusive interview with BJP in May 2010, Henrik O Håkonsson, president and CEO of Phase One, explained that his company would let the two applications work more closely together, while introducing some of Expression Media's features within Capture One.

This latest version has also been built to support the upcoming release of a new iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch application, dubbed Capture Pilot, which will allow photographers to wirelessly view and inspect raw, JPEG and TIFF images from anywhere, no matter the camera used, as Håkonsson revealed to BJP in a September 2010 interview.

For more information, visit www.phaseone.com/features.