Nikon Capture NX reviewed

At Vincent Oliver's photo-i.

Thank you, Dierk. I've gotten NX because I fell for the U-Point technology. But it is slow. I rarely do more than one photo at a time, so I'm not affected by its incredibly slow batch processing that the reviewer and others have mentioned.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see what the Raw Shooter input will do to Adobe Lightroom. Raw Shooter was my very favorite converter mostly because the work flow was so smooth. It made me do more than one photo at time because it was so easy and fast. I hope that it has a real impact on AL.

Joel

I had my hands on the Nikon NX Program for about some hours last week. One of my workshop parcipants told me he had it and I asked him to bring it with him. I checked it out and really liked the U-Point idea... But its so slow... as Dirk writes in his review, like jelly.... The idea behind is is great, the performance is not.

Frank

For ease of use I repost further investigations I originally post[ed] on photo-i:

Since Capture NX's UI is much more complicated than called for - ATM I am working on a LightZone review, a program with a very similar concept, which is much easier to learn - there will be more points to report on. Let's use this thread for any questions coming up.

1. I was not going into batch possibilities, simply because the program is already quite slow. Another major drawback on batching is the impossibility to process a large number of images with individual settings á la RAW Shooter. In Capture NX you have to define a settings file for batching, then you point NX to a directory containing suitable files, tell the program where to save the results, and off you go. This works well for studio photography with the ssame lighting but different objects, it does not work at all with landscape, evernt or journalistic photogrpahy.

2. If you have a batch of photos for which you know the white balance (or any other parameter) but other factors will definitely be different, you can save any setting in the stack to recall it later. This - the stack metaphor and the save feature - is very good.
Stacking settings gives very high flexibility, you can instantly compare how the picture looks with a setting applied or not (they are checkable), and how the interact with each other.

3. Tying into the comparison by checking or unchecking is a well hidden versioning: in the bottom bar of the stack palette are two icons, one is two interacting cogs, the other a flag. The cogs have now been recognised universally as a symbol for batching [although I have no idea why]. The flag is one of the poorest decisions taken by the UI designers of NX, it stands for versioning.
A very good feature in itself, it is not as good implemented as RAW Shooter did it; with RS you created tabs easily switchable, NX wants you to choose any saved version from a menu under the flag. Not to mention that creating a version in RS is just a simple click, in NX you have to find the right icon and use its menu.

Two things:

1. A reader informed me that Capture NX is actually able to open and work with NEFs from Nikon scanners. I am verifying this with Nikon Germany but they take their while.

2. NX has been updated to 1.0.1, now supporting the D80. What other issues are addressed Nikon is being silent about.

Some day Nikon will learn that openness and communication is better than keeping shut on a 'need to know' basis.

Dierk,

I don't know about NX opening NEF's from scanners, but when I opened NX yesterday, the Nikon Message Center let me know about the 1.0.1 update. When I was taken to the Nikon USA site, it said that the update included support for the D80, but nothing else that I remember. When I used it, it seemed a bit faster.

Joel

Official word from Nikon Germany and Europe: NX does not support scan-NEFs - but it does, for the LS-5000, LS-50, and LS-400.

> What’s with colour management? There’s something very odd with Capture NX’s colour management. Yes, it is there and you can choose your profiles. It’s just, Capture’s list is missing a lot of my profiles.

Dierk,

You have to install the profiles. Photoshop e.g. lists all profiles, installed or not. Capture NX just those installed.

Herman

'Installed' meaning all used profiles have to be in the appropriate profiles directory - which is the case with me. I am printing with loads of different profiles - including many good ones from Epson, which are nstalled by an InstallShield routine - from various programs, mostly QImage.

I haven't found any place in NX to tell the program to "install" further profiles.

Tell me what I am doing wrong and I am happy to report it over at photo-i.

> 'Installed' meaning all used profiles have to be in the appropriate profiles directory - which is the case with me.

No, just right-click on the profile and choose 'Install Profile', see http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=14035

Herman

Good one!

That's one thing about Windows I really like, you learn something every day. In this case that installed profiles, usable for many programs, may actually not be installed at all.

Thanks!