Nikon Capture NX

[diver46]

Hi,

I am shooting with a Nikon D200 and currently using CS2 to process my photo's. I would like to know if using Capture NX as a raw processor would be of any advantage to the workflow?

How will this work with CS3?

Thanks

[cyclohexane]

NX won't offer an advantage to your workflow; at least, not using 1.01, which was the last version I used to use. The program provides great output at the expense of your time. Personally, I've never liked what Photoshop CS/CS2 puts out with Nikon NEFs, but I ended up switching to Phase One's Capture One LE instead, as it provided a much faster and more manageable workflow.

I hear NX 1.1 is better, but I haven't updated NX yet; I intend to update to 1.1 by next week.

[blumesan]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

. Personally, I've never liked what Photoshop CS/CS2 puts out with Nikon NEFs, but I ended up switching to Phase One's Capture One LE instead, as it provided a much faster and more manageable workflow.

May I ask, what is it that you don't like about the results with ACR/CS2? And in regard to Capture One, are you referering to convenience, speed etc. or image quality differences?

Cheers/Mike

[cyclohexane]

The Color. No matter what I did, it never quite matched what I was getting from Nikon Capture. I used ACR extensively for three months last year in an attempt to get it right (and I still dabbled with it occasionally up until the end of the year), but it never got to where I wanted. Capture One LE's color is close to Nikon Capture NX. Also, ACR doesn't read the white balance meta data quite right, and I end up being forced to correct for color shifts that aren't there using other converters.

I mostly used CS1, but CS2 didn't look any different in the time I spent with it.

As for my preference of Capture One, the number one thing it has going for it is convenience and speed (50 files in 15-20 minutes is manageable if necessary, provided there are sufficient system resources), but it produced a better file than ACR, and in some ways even better than Capture NX. While the colors weren't exactly like what the Nikon software (and camera ASIC for JPEGs) produce, the output was the cleanest of the three programs (ACR, NX being the other two).

[riha]

The advantage that i see is that NX gives better colors and more accurate colors from your nef files, compared to ACR.

Also, v.1.1 of NX is much faster than 1.0 and 1.01 were.

I bought an new PC with Core2 Duo CPU:s and 2 Gb ram and it takes no more than 2 secs to open up my D70 nefs in NX, much faster than on my older AMD 3200+ system.

For older machines, ACR or Capture One is still much faster to use (the same goes on newer systems as ell, but it differs much less).


I would recoomend to download the 30 day trial version and use it for the 30 days and see shat it can do for YOU.

We can only report what we think and it might differ very much compared to what you think in the end.

[cyclohexane]

I bought an new PC with Core2 Duo CPU:s and 2 Gb ram and it takes no more than 2 secs to open up my D70 nefs in NX

I'm assuming you mean NX 1.1; if that's the case I might give NX another chance, as my system's dual core with 2 GB of RAM as well.

[RForshey]

NX is a bit unorthodox in the interface department, but once you get the hang of it, I've found it to be relatively fast and easy. In my opinion, no other raw converter does colors like NX does, and I use it almost exclusively because of this. I shoot 'scapes, so I'm not batch processing or having to meet a deadline, so take it for what its worth!

[riha]

Originally Posted by cyclohexane

I'm assuming you mean NX 1.1; if that's the case I might give NX another chance, as my system's dual core with 2 GB of RAM as well.

Yes i mean 1.1 becuase i finished building my pc just 14 days ago and at that time 1.1 was the version to download.

On my old PC 1 only had the chance to test 1.01 on my AMD 3200+ ysstem and sure it was much slower, but even then, NX was my preferred RAW editor. I like the option to resave the NEF files with the changes insside them and still be able to get back to original version.

[cyclohexane]

Sweet. I'll pick up my CD key when I go home and download the update. The interface sucked, but it didn't bother me as much after a while; it was mostly rendering and saving that drained time.

[blumesan]

Question:

1. Will Nikon NX handle DNG files? My workflow involves converting the NEF files directly to DNG on transfer from the card to my hard disk.

2. Many of the comments posted about NX mention the better color rendition. Is it possible to duplicate this feature in ACR by adjusting the sliders in the Calibrate tab?

Thanks
Mike

[riha]

no dng support what i know.

Probably you can do that, but in NX, the settings used in camera are used to correct tune your image when it is opened, you do not have to do that yourself.

In ACR there are plenty of controls to do whatever you wan´t, but still, even if you manage to get the same colors it is still worse quality (MY opinion), at least with my D70 images.

[cyclohexane]

No DNG support.

Is it possible to duplicate this feature in ACR by adjusting the sliders in the Calibrate tab?

My experiences with ACR using the Calibrate tab from March to June and July to September would indicate a resounding "No". I found a setting that I thought I liked, but then I realized it only worked for that batch of images....