francwoods

I've been watching videos of LightRoom and it looks like ViewNX has pretty much the same features. I "planned" on going to LR and PS once I upgraded my computer but is it worth it? What features am I missing by staying with ViewNX? Also using GIMP for touchup... and PhotoMatix Pro for HDR.
Has anyone done a true head to head comparison of ViewNX and LR?

JR45 Loc: Montgomery County, TX

NX-D is the new version

francwoods

Capture NX-D seems to have similar features without the ability to add some of the meta data (keywords, copyright, etc.). Haven't played with it yet but will check it out.

Ernie Misner Loc: Lakewood, WA

Nikon's software will open with all of your camera settings intact, and it is free software. Also, it instantly gives the best color rendition. You can save the result as a tiff and process that further in Lr of so desired.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

While both programs have a wide array of edit functions (and Photoshop even more), understand that one of the main purposes of Lightroom is to help organize your images as well as enable some editing.

If you have a method of naming and storing your digital images with which you are happy, this may not make a difference, and LR may not "bring anything to the party". But if you aren't yet organized and have difficulty finding those vacation shots with Aunt Irma in them in your current setup (and this kind of thing is important to you) then LR allows you to do that kind of organizing (facial recognition, keywording, etc.)

So it's really an apples-to-oranges kind of comparison, again, unless your only concern is with the editing functions.

rayr

Does anyone else use DigiKam for organnizing your photos, it's a great program and has a lot of useful tools. https://www.digikam.org/ , and then Lightzone to edit raw files.

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

And the price is right $0/month View NX2... can you pay that in one yearly lump sum?
RIP Adobe; their day has passed... last gasp was the monthly rental when outright sales sagged down the drain.

f8lee Loc: New Mexico

Hmmm - methinks thous dost pronounce their death prematurely...

First of all, nobody "buys" software; they pay for the license to use it. The subscription model you so despise, where the right to use payments are made periodically rather than a lump sum, is actually the direction being taken in the software industry in general...Microsoft (you've heard of them ,right?) is pushing business customers to the cloud which is also a subscription model. And while I'm no great fan of them either, they are the 800 pound gorilla in the industry. In great part, it's about allowing the software company to recognize revenue on a more consistent basis rather than the whims of quarterly sales.

Being a customer of the subscription model means updates are provided routinely, and since the system needs to "check in" with the mother ship monthly (or thereabouts) .. no more "for a mere $29 upgrade to version Super-X!" which leads either to more expenditure or getting left behind with an old version that eventually must go through a "forklift upgrade".

Shareware and free stuff is nifty, and some of it is truly great, but the persistent question of whether it will still work or be supported in 5 years can nag on some folks' minds.

So while you may bristle against the subscription model and do everything you can to avoid it, don't think it's the demise of Adobe or any other software vendor doing it today...

Pine Warbler

I learned a tough lesson on free software. I used Picassa for many years, and thought that since it was a Google product, it would be supported for years. I had built many albums to create my organization. About 5 years ago, they "updated" and "improved" Picassa...it was about the same time I bought a new computer. When I tried to transfer to the new computer...all my info was lost. My fault I am sure, but all my albums were not metadate stored. I tried to contact Picassa for help...none was available...no responses to my emails. I also hated that Picassa was constantly running in the background, slowing down my computer.
Needless to say, I decided to go the Creative Cloud route...best decision. Picassa isn't supported and was changed to Google photos...
Remember...sometimes you get what you pay for...

dpullum Loc: Tampa Florida

For the normal shade tree mechanic it is foolish to buy or lease "SnapOn Tools".... When Harbor Freight wrenches will do the job quite well.
As for not owning software... for all practical purposes I own Office 2007, have the disk... use it for ever... upgrade? for why? To write a letter? If I were starting out, a free office act alike would do fine.
Editing... Affinity is going to give a one pay path to many people who do photo editing. The elitists will stick with adobe until it becomes an Abandon Ware like NIK. Google now gives it away free... no upgrades... So? Hey, it works fine as is.. what changes are really needed.

You f8lee will be saying... "Alas Poor Adobe I Knew Him Well." I hear the church bell ringing one... "going once, soon going twice.... "