Customer Reviews

Nikon Capture NX 2 Full Version

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(31)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

As a long-time user of Photoshop, I was frequently disappointed with the colors in my digitally-manipulated photos. It's possible that it's because I'm not savvy at creating masks in Photoshop. After looking at demos on the Nikon website, I decided to give Capture NX2 a try and was very impressed with the color controls like D-lighting (simply shadows/highlights in Photoshop), and the ability to easily make local changes. One of the best features of Nikon Capture NX2 is the auto-retouch tool, which replaces a selection with something else in the picture with similar surroundings. I can't tell you how this has saved many wedding photos. To me, this feature alone is worth the purchase price.

Although I like this program a lot, the interface is extremely clunky. It's hard to browse the edit list on the right-hand side as the list gets longer. Capture NX2 is slow, even on a powerful desktop. I can't see it becoming part of a regular workflow unless performance is improved. One of the nice things that it allows you to do is copy the edit list from one file and apply it to another, but this is also painfully slow.

If you're looking to give this program a try, download the 60-day trial from Nikon before making a purchase decision since it won't appeal to everyone.

I have always been a hardcore Photoshop user and Canon shooter so I never even bothered to check out Nikon's software. After a recent photography expo in NYC, I picked up a 60 day trial of NX2. This was probably the best thing I could have ever done for my photography! The interface is easy to use and appealing to the eyes. Every tool is right in front of you and can be combined with key strokes. Plus, every edit you do is nondestructive and you can easily go back steps or even all the way to the bottom without compromising your images (this is especially important when working with JPEGs)

NX2 is a lot easier to use than Photoshop and the price is definitely significantly less. I think I have found my new favorite software!

Those who don't use NX simply won't get the same quality out of better DSLRs, such as the D300 or D700. Compared against lightroom or Photoshop, NX will always do a better job, especially with RAW conversions. Almost every complaint about it's slowness is from people with slow computers. It's quite fast on my system, quicker even than the old Elements. For batch handling, NX is clumsy, but it's still the best way to work on Nikon files bar none. If you have doubts do some research in forums like DPreview. Good luck!

While I was a big fan of Capture NX, it had its shortcomings.

Long live Capture NX 2! This is far and away the easiest software I've ever used.

I can put a color control point on any area of the image to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and color.

Now I can do the same thing for any effect. When I want to sharpen the eyes in a portrait, I can select them with 2 selection control points.

The auto-retouch brush helps me remove dust and other problems with my images.

The highlight and shadow recovery makes toning my images a snap.

The new browser allows me to rate and filter my images and the shortcuts let me get to my images fast.

This is the one tool I use more than any other whether I shoot RAW with my D80 or JPEGs with my other cameras.

I strongly suggest it for anyone-not just Nikon users and not just RAW shooters of Nikon.

First let me warn you folks. This is NOT Photoshop. For those who are interested in post processing digitized photographs whether they originated from a digital point and shoot or slr or they were scanned in from film prints or slides, this product is well worth the money. It is even worth the price Nikon charges at their web site.

I have been using GIMP and ACDSee for the last eight or so years and after using Capture NX for a month in the trial period I am convinced if you want to have a program for post processing you cannot do better. If you are rolling in money and have lots of time for the learning curve, go get the newest Photoshop and Lightroom CS4. I will check back in a year or so to see how you are doing.

If you are a professional (read: you make your living taking pictures and selling them, you are not someones Uncle Freddy who shoots birthdays and weddings because you own a "professional" camera) photographer Capture NX will probably not meet your needs but it would be worth the trial period to see. In these days of tight budgets, upgrading to CS4 is still twice the price of this software for not a whole lot more functionality.

My main reason for buying this is so that I can do selected areas of photos that have too much exposure or not enough exposure and not have to mess around with layers. I am old and tired and not even remotely interested in manipulating layers in a program that costs more than some very, very good digital SLRs.

I use a Nikon digital SLR and digital Point-and-Shoot and I use an old almost worn out Nikon FE film camera. This software does not care where the images came from. You can import from your camera if it is digital or you can import from a CD/DVD if you have your slides scanned during processing.

My only caveat regarding scanning slides is to tell your lab to scan the images at 16-bit and in TIFFs. You can accept 8-bit if 16-bit is not available or too costly. You need to have the scans done in TIFF though because it is lossless and Capture NX processes them perfectly. For post processing TIFFs do not get smaller and worse looking as you save and change and save again because there is no compression and no loss of data. JPEGs lose data with every save. You will have banding and unusable images if you have your images scanned in as JPEGs.

Came with my D700. Does a very good job with raw pictures from the camera, but I didnt think much of it until I hit the color control point and then WOW..... incredible control without manually creating masks.
Pretty slick. I'm bumping it down to 4 stars because the interface is a little clunky, but I think if you take time to explore its features (which may not be entirely intuitive) then you will find it very capable.

I had always resisted shooting in the Nikon raw format (.nef files) since 1) the files saved were very large, and 2) I didn't understand the advantages that would be gained by using this format. While this software doesn't address item 1 it certainly made me gain an appreciation for item 2.

The quick example changes that the package walks you through give an immediate understanding of what sort of manipulations can be made non-destructively to the image file - and for me, thaat is a key point. Rather than changing the image file itself, the software records a script of each edit made and then applies those when the image is opened later. Once a desired result is obtained, the image can be saved as either jpeg or tiff format for use in other programs or printing.

The manual provided is sometimes a little obtuse in explaining how the effects work but there is an excellent book that gives a better explanation of how to use the software in a consistent workflow mode to achieve the desired results. I would highly recommend buying "Real World Nikon Capture NX2" by Ben Long at the same time you purchase the software.

NX2 is intuitive with very little instruction needed to publish. The other software I have used were the cream of the crop. Many photo labs have done away with many of the tools it took months to discover and learn to use with precision so that my prints looked perfect at 4x6 or 16x12.
Having A Nikon DSL I didn't usually use raw, because there wasn't much difference in the outcome. Now I only use raw. The difference was so obvious when I downloaded my pics to my computer. I knew I was really missing out.
Capture was designed to be used with Nikon DSL RAW. photos Best I have ever used.

I shoot my Nikon D90 in RAW mode for almost all my shots. The good news about RAW is the camera captures the image and does a minimum of processing on it. That is also the bad news as you must tune that image up.

As we know, a RAW shot, right off the camera is typically blah and really must have post processing to make it get up and bark. Capture NX2 does this in spades.

As this program is made by Nikon, it knows all about the Nikon products I use. It makes tuning up the images a really fun and effective process. For example: Using Nikon's F/2.8, 10.5mm fish-eye lens there will be some chromatic aberration. The software recognizes this lens and issue and executes an automatic correction.

For super sensitive color shots, I use the "Whibal" card and Capture NX2 provides a fast, easy way to get the white balance dead on the money.

The "Edit Point" approach it uses to make many changes is super easy and quite effective. In most cases you just don't have to go through tedious object selection to make the edits you want.

I really like the "Double Threshold" mode to set black, gray and white. (When appropriate for a given shot) That step alone makes many of my shots just jump off the screen with fabulous depth, sharpness and definition.

If you want to do many "Photoshop" tricks then this program needs help. It can do some low level "corrections" and "repairs" but I feel it is weak when selecting objects for tricky sorts of edits. I use Photoshop Elements for that as it is much better suited to those sorts of tasks.

The edits it does with the RAW images is guided by an external but related file to the shot. This makes all edits non-destructive to the original shot. You can play to your hearts content and always have a clean file if you want to go in another direction

Bottom line: If you shoot Nikon and RAW, you gotta get this thing. 95% of the time it will get your shots where you want them, all by itself, with a minimum of messing around.

I've been a Nikon shooter for the past 30 years and have been using their digital gear for a little over two.

If you shoot NEF (and you really should if you're serious) Capture NX2 can save you a lot of grief. I downloaded the trial version a few weeks ago after not being satisfied with the NEF conversions that I was getting from Bibble and ACR.

I didn't even wait for the trial period to expire and I ordered the software today. No, I didn't activiate the trial download as I want the actual disk. Call if my security blanket, if you will, but that's just my preference.

Not only did I order the software, I have been reading Real World Capture NX2 (highly recommended) which is a lot more understandable than the manual supplied by Nikon. I also ordered a new PC last week just so that I would be able to make the most efficient use of this software.

Yes, I think that it's that good. No more fooling around with what other software publishers "think" Nikon has in mind. Capture NX2 is designed to merge seamlessly with Nikon NEF files and it does just that. No backwards engineering and guesswork. Just the cleanest files possible from NEFs.

OK, if I love it so much, why not the fifth star? Simple. Nobody seems to be able to print from the damn thing. After I convert from the original NEF, I open Photoshop and print from there. It's a PITA and something that should have been fixed in beta.