Thanks Justin. I've just given this plugin a spin.

On the plus side, it's fast, with good options both in the main panel and within the block. Toggles are intuitive, and you can switch between the different gallery formats within the block itself (very useful).

There's a lot of potential here, but it still feels like a beta product, at least with my theme. One showstopper for me (and my theme) was the poor lightbox settings out of the box, with vertical images not fitting to screen, and horizontal images being displayed too small (strange, for such a photo-centric plugin).

It might be usable with some themes, and for showcasing smaller images.
Looking forward to trying this again in 6 months.