While Capture One was developed principally in support of Phase One's digital backs, Bibble Labs, as an independent software company, had no installed user base.

Be that as it may, for raw workflow, Bibble has a reputation for superb conversion quality. Indeed, Bibble's raw conversion engine has been licensed by third-party developers including JASC (now Corel) and Kodak.

Like its Phase One rival, the Pro version added extra functionality such as tethered shooting with pro-grade DSLRs (Canon, Nikon and Kodak), support for a second monitor, and advanced colour management options, based on Kodak's Colorflow CMM and ICC Input API.

New to Bibble 5 Pro (a Lite version is slated for release later in the year) are asset management tools, hyper-threading for multi-core and multi-processor computer systems, using, it's claimed, all 16 virtual cores of the latest Intel Xeon processors such as the Nehalem in the Mac Pro. But it's not just high-end systems that can benefit, the developer maintains.

The most significant feature of version 5 is the addition of selective editing tools using layers. Regions can be selected using Polygon, Circle, Curve or Brush tools, and are both quick are easy to select. Thanks to the addition of an intuitive Layer Manager tool, layers and regions are easy to keep track of. Selections can be made to raw, JPEG and TIFF files, and easily moved, inverted, and feathered.

This Photoshop-like Adjustment Layer versatility means, for instance, advanced colour correction using multiple selections can be kept within Bibble prior to making other adjustments, thus helping speed up your workflow. All selections, as with any of the adjustments, are made non-destructively (they're simply previews, with sidecar files) and are not accessible to other apps until exported as JPEGs or TIFFs.

Another major new feature is the asset management option. Unlike rival offerings, you don't have to use it if you don't want to - Bibble 5 Pro retains the traditional hierarchical file-system-based method of earlier versions. If you're a freelance assistant or retoucher on location, for instance, this unique feature allows you to seamlessly switch between your own catalogued files, while working on a client's single session.

Asset management requires you to import the images into a library within Bibble 5 but it will also allow referencing to a network or external drive to save your computer's drive space, much like Aperture and Lightroom. This gives some additional functionality such as access to the immensely powerful Metadata Browser.

Catalogues are easily searched using a wide range of IPTC and EXIF metadata as well as keywords, but one very welcome additional feature is the ability to access the catalogues over a network of multiple Bibble 5 applications.

It's straightforward if the masters are stored within the application, but even if they're referenced and not found automatically, you simply have to point the app to the root path. Aperture users have been asking for this functionality from day one, and it's hoped it will be included in version 3.0.

Bibble 5 (which needs to run on Intel Mac running OS X v10.4 or later, Linux Fedora Core v6 or later, Ubuntu v6.06 or later, Windows 7, Vista or XP) has several minor, though no less user-friendly improvements over version 4.

There's a dark-grey interface now that helps improve colour perception, while the new zoom control is simple yet very effective. It allows you to check files at 100 percent actual pixels with one click, while a second click can allow pixel peeping up to 800° - you can choose the zoom level as a preset.

As with the move from version 3 to version 4 of Capture One, the upgrade to version 5 has meant some well-established features have not been included. The most obvious omission is the sophisticated Spot Heal Tool, which is due to be added in v5.1, promised this month.

Also initially missing are the black, grey and white point pickers from the Curves tool (although they should now have been added in an update, v5.0.1), the option to output to a web gallery, and the Perfectly Clear one-click contrast and colour optimisation function from Bibble 4.7 (also due to appear in the v5.1 update). Even without these features, version 5 is easily worth the upgrade just to benefit from the new Layers tool and asset management options.

From my tests, 5 Pro is noticeably quicker in use than v4.10a, and speedier than Aperture v2.1.4 when it comes to raw conversions, by around a fifth on the latter and at the least half on the former. With a competitive pricing structure, great asset management and selective adjustment tools, Bibble 5 Pro (priced $199, or $99 as an upgrade from v4) has made choosing your next raw workflow solution a little harder.