So I decided to finally settle this adkr vs dv debate myself after seeing endless arguments online. Grabbed my trusty laptop – same machine I’ve used for three years now – and got ready to run them head-to-head.
Getting My Testing Ground Ready
First I cleared out my messy desktop folder. Seriously, it looked like a digital landfill. Downloaded both tools straight from their official sites – didn’t wanna risk sketchy mirrors. Installed them on my Windows 11 machine, nothing fancy, just clicked through the setup wizards.
Test Drive Time
Fired up dv first since everyone raves about its speed. Imported 15GB of vacation photos. Holy crap it processed everything in under three minutes! But then I tried cropping this beach panorama… total disaster. The preview looked like Minecraft blocks until I saved it. And exporting? My screen froze for solid two minutes.
Switched to adkr. Felt slower opening folders – progress bar actually moved like it’s counting individual pixels. But then I messed with color correction on sunset pics. Real-time changes showed up instantly without lag. That “auto-fix” button? Magically fixed my underexposed sushi dinner photo without washing out colors.
The Feature Showdown
- Batch work: dv crushed resizing 800 wedding pics while I made coffee. adkr made me wait like five minutes longer
- Handling screw-ups: adkr’s undo history saved me when I accidentally deleted family photos. dv? Three undos max then it forgets everything
- Weird file support: dv opened my buddy’s drone footage fine. adkr choked and showed me spinning beach ball of death
The Crashing Moment
Decided to really break them. Opened 40 RAW files in each. dv processed them all… then promptly crashed when I hit save. Had to restart and pray autosave worked (it didn’t). adkr slowed to crawl but didn’t crash. Took forever to save though.
My Take
This ain’t one-size-fits-all. Need power user features? adkr’s your guy. Just wanna bulldoze through basic tasks? dv gets it done before you finish your coffee. Personally I’ll stick with adkr because that undo history saved my marriage (wife would’ve killed me if I lost our anniversary pics). But I’m keeping dv around for quick jobs – just won’t trust it with anything important anymore.
