Comments on: Just in: Nikon Capture NX2

By: Nikon D90

Nikon D90 — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:49:10 +0000

Nikon D90…

One of my favorite photography quotes is very philosophical: Why is Form beautiful? Because, I think, it helps us confront our worst fear, the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore our suffering is without meaning. – Robert Adams…

By: EvertJan van Loon

EvertJan van Loon — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:52:20 +0000

I use Lightroom because I produce NEF’s and CR2’s. Its as simple as that.
Imagine the workflow having to switch between apps.
I would hesitate (and try out) if NX2 would be more alien-friendly.
Canon software? Haha! CR2’s out of Canon G9 arent even read bij their own Raw converter in DPP. I don’t take Canon serious if they don’t take their own Rawfiles (pro)serious. At least Adobe does.

By: Adrian Gailor

Adrian Gailor — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:48:03 +0000

Tim Robinson is right that other tools do RAW conversion of Nikon files, but (presumably because of Nikon’s attitude to IP) they aren’t able to determine much from the camera data about the shot so the initial conversion generally requires a lot more work in terms of colour, sharpening, exposure. I’ve tried most of what’s available (ACR, Lightroom, Bibble, Capture One, etc) and have been frustrated by this. Capture NX’s plus point is that the starting point requires far less work to get to a finished shot, and the U-point approach is more userfriendly than having to understand and set masks. Unfortunately up till v1.3.3 that benefit has been offset by the software itself which is nowhere near a “workflow” solution and has felt somewhat unfinished, particularly in light of its cost. Hopefully v2 addresses some of that. It’s just infuriating to be stung a further USD110 upgrade cost on top of the v1 software cost. The camera (D80) is very good, but when asked for info by friends looking to buy a DSLR I’ve been warning them off Nikon for exactly this reason – without spending the extra money on poor software they will hinder their own efforts to get the best results from the hardware.

By: Peter Hotham

Peter Hotham — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 09:13:05 +0000

As a long time satisfied Nikon film camera user, I went into digital with a D80, which is a good camera, but Nikon’s software is dire. Picture Project which came with the camera has excellent easy to use simple editing tools, especially ‘D lighting’. But on an old Athlon XP computer it was too slow to be practical (too resource hungry?). On a new Vista machine it resolutely refuses to work in spite of more than 6 months of work with Nikon Europe Support, who have now effectively given up and recommend BUYING Capture NX …. well well well. Their website used to be even less responsive but seems to work now, so software clearly has not been their forte.
There is a plug in for the GIMP that works OK for Nikon RAW files; I have used it successfully, although it is all much more complicated than PictureProject was.

By: Tim Robinson

Tim Robinson — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:06:14 +0000

Well, I don’t want to get into a bash or praise Nikon thread, but several products can do RAW conversion of Nikon’s NEF files, for example, Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom and the excellent DXO Optics. It’s worth pointing out the connection between Nikon’s Capture NX and Nik Software. The latter’s own software appears to have many of the Capture NX features, particularly the U-Point technology, which really makes this app stand out. The Nik software product is called Viveza. I have not tried it and I don’t know what RAW conversion it does, but it’s available for a 15-day (a bit mean) trial: http://www.niksoftware.com

By: rowan

rowan — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 06:06:06 +0000

I am a long-time user of Nikon – I bought my Nikon F in ‘67.

So it is with experience that I can say that Nikon – like Sony – treat their users like sh*t.

Nikon – since the day of the first D1 – have:

1. Treated their RAW format as IP – to be guarded at all costs – thus preventing third-party products from manipulating Nikon RAW files. NB: This may no longer be true – I haven’t bothered to check; and
2. Charged for the file manipulation software.

Guess who doesn’t use Nikon digital cameras …

– r