Camera Labs

Hi everyone,
forgive me if there is already a thread started on this subject, I was trying to find Bobs' initial alert on the launch of capture nx2, but couldn't.
Not having used any serious pp software before I wondered if,
1) It's worth the extra money to Adobe elements 6.
2) Any of you kind soles have an honest formative opinion of the choices.

I am 30 days into the free 60 day trial and am quite impressed, but as this is a demo download I think not every function available in the full version is included, eg HDR software??
kind regards John

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Nikon D80, D40 and various lenses.

You mean this thread: http://www.cameralabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6295

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GEAR: Nikon D40 | AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II | AF-S VRII Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED | AF-S VRII Nikkor 105 f/2.8G IF-ED micro | SB-400 Speedlight | Lowepro Slingshot 200 AW | Manfrotto 676B monopod

I've just installed the Capture NX 2 demo. I've not looked at it properly yet but I must say the quality of it's RAW conversion is light years ahead of Lightroom's RAW capture. Certainly for my D300 images anyway. Lightroom always makes my images look dull rather dull and I always have to tweak them a little. I've just looked at a few to compare and it's quite something to be seen. Capture NX seems to import RAW files sharper, more vivid and generally higher quality than Lightroom does. I'm going to work out a workflow for capturing images from my camera into Capture NX and then store them in lightroom for organisation and any additional image editing I might want to do.

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

Welly, I think the dull images by default are to be attributed to they Lightroom handles RAW files by default. It seems to strip the image of all saturation, sharpness and any other optimizations done in camera.

I still haven't found a way around this though. Perhaps somebody else knows?

But back to CNX2, does anybody know if it integrates with Lightroom as well as Photoshop does? For example, if I choose to edit an image inside my Lightroom database in Photoshop, when I save the image in PS it is automatically updated in the Lightroom database. Can CNX2 offer this same kind of thing?

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Graham
Flickr

You can integrate CNX2 with Lightroom. You can go to preferences and add an additional external editor. But note that it generates a TIFF file that is edited within CNX2 as opposed to the original RAW file. So that kind of spoils the party a bit.

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

Oh right, that's much use then. Thanks for the info Welly.

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Graham
Flickr

Yeah, that's only half-integration. I use the "show in explorer" from lightroom to identify the correct NEF-file then press enter to start CaptureNX. It's two clicks but still fast enough for me. Unfortunately Lightroom does not decode all the changes to the NEF you did in CaptureNX, so you need to generate a jpg and stack this with the original in Lightroom so that you can see all changes. This is the tedious part
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Update: CaptureNX just gets updated to 1.3.4. I assume with D700 capabilities, as the D700-files didn't load in CNX. Nice we're not left alone in the dark...

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Capture NX2 rocks

I love it. though its a little bit slow. or maybe its my pc's specs

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Camera: Nikon D40
Lens: 18-55mm kitlens & 55-200mm VR
Manfrotto Tripod

http://www.jdfotos.tk

Correction: There is no mention of the ability to load D700-images in the CNX 1.3.4 update. And I cannot test it either. So don't assume you can manipulate D700 NEFs with CNX 1.3.4 unless otherwise proven

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

I've been having a bit more of a play with Capture NX 2 recently. It's got some really useful features for Nikon users however it really is damn slow. Everything responds a few seconds later and I find the user interface to be a little ugly. I'm going to persevere with it but even on my top spec macbook pro (2.4ghz/4gb ram/7200rpm drive), it's just very sluggish.

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Nikon D700 | 20mm f2.8 | 28mm f2.8 | 50mm f1.8 | 70-300 f4-5.6 | SB800 | flickr | serial photography

Should've bought a Windows PC.

Zorro

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http://zorrofox4.deviantart.com/



Various lenses, SB800 & Manfrotto 190 with 460MG head

Yeah, zorro. It's funny that the famous Björn Rörslett does also complain about his copy of CaptureNX running on his Macs.
My 2GB 3GHz Core 2 duo Win XP plattform runs CNX a-ok!

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Wow! I just tried CNX2 and it's amazing! I remember trying CNX about a year ago and being unimpressed but either my needs have changed or this is just a whole lot better!

The workflow is very good and the editing is second to none. No complaints about the speed on my Macbook Pro(2.4ghz Penryn), it's faster than any other image editor I've tried on the Mac (CS3, Lr and Aperture).

I'm now trying to think of ways to integrate CNX2 with Lightroom. I still feel that the management in Lightroom is better and that it's more convenient for minor adjustments and still superior in a few areas. Any ideas on how to use the two together? I might start using CNX2 if I can find a way.

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Graham
Flickr

It depends on what you shoot:
- If you shoot just fine/larg jpeg the only integration-ipoc is starting CNX from the Lightrrom database via open explorer and right-click
- If you shoot RAW+jpeg you should (auto)stack all jpgs to with the corresponding NEFs and never forget to update the jpeg when manipulating a RAW in CNX. So that's another two steps added

in light of all these deficiancies in LR I'm shooting only RAW/NEF today and then decide:
- if the image needs only minor manipulations (brightness, contrast, crop, dust-removal) or is not worked upon at all I go with developing the NEF in LR
- if the image needs heavier developing I do this in CNX and generate a jpeg from this to include in LR (there is NO other way for LR to show what you have done with the NEF in CNX!)*
- If the image is printed I always use CNX

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* I'm not sure whether LR2 has improved upon this situation.

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Thomas (beware: Nikon-fanboy and moderator!) My Lens Reviews, My Pictures, My Photography Blog
D800+assorted lenses

Thanks Thomas.

Part of what I want is for the D80 to be developed with the in-camera settings, which CNX can do and LR cannot. I shoot RAW only btw.

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Graham
Flickr