Help sorting through lightbox/gallery options

I could use a little bit of guidance in choosing the right gallery/lightbox solution for what we’re trying to accomplish. I’ve looked at a bunch of them, and between the similarities and the poor documentation, I can’t quite figure where to start.

We need X number of multiple galleries, each containing Y photos, with captions. Each gallery has different photos.

We need to be able to link to each gallery from a text link – click here to view gallery 1, click here to view gallery 2, etc. Need prev/next navigation within each gal.

We’re stuck on 2.6 for a while, so it looks like nextgen gallery won’t work. Is there something simpler/more elegant that I’m missing?