RetiredPhotog Loc: South West Ohio

I tried the free trial of Capture NX2 about a year ago and of course it is expired now. Thinking about it and curious what some of the users feel about it. From what I recall it is very similar to View NX2 with additional functions. $179 is a lot of money for an ol retiree.

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

Personally I did not like it, I used it when the D7100 came out and LR did not initially support it. Maybe I was to used to LR & PS

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

Capture NX2 is a good software but it is not perfect. It is kind of slow and it is necessary to compliment it with Photoshop.
There are certain features I like especially the fact that it was designed by Nik with Nikon to edit Nikon files. The color points are a nice feature and sharpening works very nicely.
I would not pay $179 for it and instead I would go with Lightroom 5, especially if you have Photoshop. Now that Nik has been sold it is unknown if there will be new updates or a new software to replace the old one.
I have both, Lightroom 5 and Capture NX2 and the former is cheaper and more versatile.

RetiredPhotog Loc: South West Ohio

Thanks for the input. I have been looking for an alternative. When I tried Capture NX2 I didn't think at had that much more than View NX2. I also have Photo Shop, an older version but it has way too much for what I need and it is slow for me.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

Capture NX2 is arguably the best raw converter for Nikon files. It has some great features but its not very intuitive. Quite frankly, the interface sucks.

I believe release 2.4.4 came after Nik was sold.

Its not as comprehensive as CS6 but I would not be without it even though it has a steep learning curve..

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

I bought it a few years ago to do my post-processing. Then, I found LightRoom, and bought it. I uninstalled CaptureNX from my machine over a year ago. I've never looked back.

Wizdasher Loc: Grants Pass, Or

I've been using NX2 for several years. I love it! Yes, there are a few idiosyncrasies, but I got used to them. I edit about 25-30 photos and close NX2, and then open again to clear memory. Otherwise, it will freeze up and you lose the edits on the one file you were just working on. That is the only problem I've had. I almost always spend no more than 2 minutes on a file. If I were using Photoshop to do the same thing it might take 20-30 minutes. I don't have a lot of patience, so I like this program. It is way different than most, so if you've been using something else it might take a little while to learn. For me it is much easier than anything else I've tried . . . but to each his own.

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

I used it for a long time with my D3, D2xs and D700 files. It was ok.

I replaced it with Lightroom 3 at the time, and have not looked back since because Lightroom is just an overall better piece of software to use for me.

If you enjoy the trial, you will enjoy the retail version. Its a matter of worth for you.

Wizdasher Loc: Grants Pass, Or

Musket, I noticed you list a d900 in your signature. I'm curious, is that a typo, or is there a new Nikon out there of which I'm unaware? . . . Ha ha. . . . or perhaps that is all a "tongue in cheek."

Musket Loc: ArtBallin'

Hasselbad should be a dead give-away.

Wizdasher Loc: Grants Pass, Or

Yea, well after going back and taking a careful look . . . All were a dead give-away. But going just from a glance and memory of just the d900 -- you had me going until I took another look.

Ozzie :thumbup:

selmslie Loc: Fernandina Beach, FL, USA

I use NX2 along with others like PS Elements and Picture Window Pro. I do not do a lot of editing on my images - mostly spotting, leveling, cropping, exposure and contrast adjustments.

NX2 has the nicest spot healing tool but seems to be missing a clone tool. It also does not handle B&W images unless they are saved as color images. Otherwise, it is a very nice program with only a couple of drawbacks. For me, it is easier to use than PSE or Lightroom.

PWP does not do spot healing but it has a decent clone tool. It is also easier for printing. The default is to save major edits under a different file name.

PSE seems to have all of the tools but it is not as easy to use. The other two programs make leveling easier and they crop automatically (why not).

RetiredPhotog Loc: South West Ohio

Thanks for all the informative replies. Some nice suggestions for some other software that I will probably look into.

I wish when I down loaded the free demo of the NX2 I had played with it a little.

klaus Loc: Guatemala City, Guatemala

To each his own.

I do pretty much all my editing with Capture NX2 even though I own Elements 10. In my opinion Capture NX2 is more intuitive and, used right, can be a very powerful program.

It won't do any of the Photoshop tricks (like turning a pig into a swan) but works great if you want to brighten, darken, sharpen, soften, remove power lines, color casts and noise in parts (with control points) or all of the picture. It also does b/w conversion really well and let's you apply color filters.

It recognizes all aspects of the NEF (RAW) files that come out of your Nikon. It brings over all your camera settings (white balance, picture control, noise reduction, D-lighting, etc.) which can then be modified in the software. It can also apply automatic lens corrections (if so desired) for many newer Nikon lenses.

The one thing I really like is the non-destructive editing of NEF (RAW) files. It retains every step you made during editing in addition to the original RAW file. This feature let's you alter or remove any step you made during the original edit at a later point in time without any loss of quality to the picture. The best you can do with Elements is to keep the original and then start from scratch again.

britlnut

Does LR 5 only work with RAW or can it work with .jpeg?