Hi Christilou,
I've been using Raw Developer for a long time. Raw Developer is the baby of Brian Griffith, and I'm amazed that he has been able to make such an amazing product.
Great things about Raw Developer:
- Awesome demosaicing - preserves as much or more of the original detail in the file than any other RAW processing app I have used (many, many) and renders with a natural appearance. This is the core purpose of a RAW processing app, and here RD excels
- Fast, lightweight, and stable
- Updated frequently to handle the latest cameras
- User friendly interface with powerful controls for all basic RAW processing needs
- Excellent sharpening options
- Doesn't correct geometric distortion (sometimes I want the uncorrected file, and that is not an option in Lightroom)
Less great things:
- Doesn't correct geometric distortion (usually I want the corrected file, and this is handled automatically in Lightroom)
- Doesn't automatically correct color fringing (I'm not 100% sure, but I think this is the case)
- Less effective noise reduction options (in my hands) than some other apps (although none of the RAW apps natively handle noise as well as some of the plugins available for PS/LR/Aperture)
- None of the advanced, selective editing tools that are found in apps like Aperture and Lightroom
RD does a heck of a job at developing the RAW file, but it stops there and doesn't take over much of what is traditionally done in Photoshop. It isn't a soup to nuts solution like Aperture or Lightroom, but it arguably does the basics of RAW conversion better than either. I'd say a similar thing about Capture One (C1), which is more fully-featured than RD (C1 does distortion correction, for example) but less so than Lightroom/Aperture.
I find myself using Lightroom for most day-to-day photography, but if I have a special file, I often use RD to get the most out of it and then finish off in Photoshop.