None

Mentioned above

Unfortunately for a commercial photographer, Capture NX is next to useless.

As Ernest T mentions, most of the extremely useful aspets of Capture 4 have vanished or been severly crippled.

No more can we open several images in the same window, and compare them to one another and make adjustments iteratively.

No more can we stack up our own prefered tools and effectively systematise our workflow.

Nor can we copy and paste our changes between images open in the window (you now have to save the settings, and then apply them to each new image you open, which is extremely clumsy).

Nor can we use the hot keys we've grown used to with Capture 4. One of the most usefull hot keys used to be the L key - you could see your highlight clipping and rapidly toggle it and adjust your base exposure very quickly... no more!

Nor can we save multiple images and have them automatically queue to be saved while we do something else.

Capture NX i set up to do individual pictures one at a time. Its laborious and incredibly slow, and you end up working only with your mouse, because the shortcuts have all been removed.

Nik software has made many mistakes with this sotware.

They are trying to replace the need for Photoshop, which in an of itself isn't such a bad idea - but at the same time they have thrown out all the wondeful useful and useable tools from Capture 4. They haven't "built on" Capture 4, they've thrown it away, and disenfranchised loyal users.

U Point is a gimmick. If you are an amatuer, and you like playing around, but don't have a deadline to meet, maybe it will fascinate you for a while - the critical thing is, in effect it's no different to using layer masks and adjustment layers in photoshop, but its slower and less precise.

As a commercial image finisher, I want a tool that will help me quickly and efficiently turn my flat NEFs into consistent, high quality, vibrant TIFs, and then I can do the Photoshop stuff in Photoshop, its way quicker (esp when you have been learning PS over many years and it's ingrained in you).

All you actually NEED to do in Capture is:

Exposure (levels)
Contrast (curves)
White balance
Colour Balance
Re-size (if you want)
Noise control (if you want)
Save as TIF

And then you have a series of good, consistent controlled images to further retouch in PS.

If you are a professional, it will stop you wanting to buy the D3 or any newer cameras that need NX.

I have a bunch of D3 files I want to process and I simply can't. I can't open them in Capture 4, I can only open them one by one in NX, and I can't compare them to my Reference image, or to each other. I can't easily use the tools I'm used to in Capture 4 - they are still there, but they are in strange places in the drop down menus.

Don't get me wrong, Adobe Camera Raw is no better . But Capture NX is completely useless for commercial photographers, and Nikon is shooting itself in the foot as far as I am concerned.

Customer Service

What customer service? Where?

Similar Products Used:

PS CS3
Capture 4.4
Lightroom

Brilliant image quality (when procesing NEF)
U-Point technology
and lots more....

May be a bit slow.
Needs a bit moe work on UI design.

I have used Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Aperture etc and they all have their strengths and weeknesses. However, when it comes to the QUALITY OF IMAGE when processing Nikon's NEF files nothing comes close to Cpature NX...Period.

Whilst Adobe and Apple have some of the smartest engineers...I am sure Nikon knows a thing or two more about their NEF algorithms......And that shows in the quality of images you get out of Capture NX.

Similar Products Used:

Adobe Camer Raw
Adobe LightRoom
Apple Aperture

~ Simple, elegant, and (mostly) intuitive design

~ processes NEFs better than any other software, hands down.

~ U-Point tools are outstandingly simple and powerful.

~ layer masking is painless and efficient

~ Serious memory hog

~ occasionally crashes (but doesn't any software on a PC versus a Mac?)

~ file browser needs some work ... there is no "delete" button to delete files in the browser! I had to experiment and found that the "Delete" key on the keyboard does the job. Strange, and distracting.

~ No idea how it works on other RAW formats.

I purchased this software for because I converted to shooting NEF over JPG, and what a difference. I tried CS2, Lightroom (beta), and RawShooter, but none of them gave me satisfactory results for my Nikon-proprietary files, especially handling the cameras settings. The "free" software Nikon gave out was slow garbage that I found useless for any kind of efficient workflow.

I shoot mainly stock for a stock website, so I have to be extremely conscious of digital noise or artifacting. Before I shot NEF using Capture NX, I had a 30% reject rate on my stock website due to artifacting; now I never get rejections for artifacting / digital noise. Capture handles NEFs better than any other software, period.

I love this software! It reads the camera settings for the NEF as if I took the image in JPG, but then I can adjust those settings as if re-taking the picture. No other software does this, and makes me waste my time re-creating the starting point that my in-camera settings gives me. The U-point technology is superb and powerful. The ease in which you can make layer adjustments such as sharpening or noise reduction and then brush in or out the areas you want to apply the adjustment to is far easier than CS2, which I have read 3-4 books on, browsed numerous websites, and even went to some NAPP classes to try to learn that beast. Nikon Capture NX was immediately usable, I hardly had to read the instructions.

Capture NX 1.1 is simple, smooth, and elegant, but is a major memory hog, even more than CS2. The very thing I love about it - being able to use brushes to brush an adjustment layer exactly where it needs it - takes up an incredible amount of memory. I also use a separate hard drive for the scratch disc for these types of programs, and upgraded to 2 GB of memory, but if I have more than 7-8 adjustments - including U-Point adjustments - it bogs down considerably. Maybe on a PC with 4-8 GB it runs more efficiently.

It also crashes once in a blue moon, an improvement over version 1.0, but still an occasional occurrence.

For my use, it is only missing clone stamp and healing tools. If it had thses, I would rarely use CS2.

Customer Service

Not used

Similar Products Used:

Adobe Photoshop CS2 / Adobe Bridge

Pixmatic RawShooter Pro 2006

Gimp (before shooting with NEFs)

quailty of processing NEFs

colour managment is still a bit clunky

With the introduction by Niokon of version 1.1. of this software it is now much improved. Performance is considerable better and most bugs and issues with version 1.0 have been resolved

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Photoshop

U-control points
Layout of the program (except for the browser window)
Only Nikon programs account for all in camera settings applied to NEF files

Poor multi-image and batch processing capabilities
Very slow and requires lots of memory and a fast machine to work well
Costs over $100 for a program that adds little and actually takes away from prior versions.

For individual photo editing Nikon NX is significantly better than the previous version of Capture 4.4. NX has all the individual features found in 4.4 plus the new control points, which are really great for bringing the most out of individual photos.

The interface is fairly easy to use, but the browser window is not all that helpful, and a waste of desktop space IMO.

Unfortunately, if you need to manipulate large numbers of images, you will find that NX has actually taken away some of the useful features found in the earlier version of 4.4. Gone is the very functional multi-image window. Batch processing is clumsy, and when I compared batch processing speeds using the exact same settings between Capture 4.4 and NX, I found that NX was significantly slower.

Most photographers that need to edit individual photos already have programs like Adobe's Photoshop or Elements, and would not find the few additional features in NX worth the cost.

Photographers who need to process large numbers of NEF images will be sorely disappointed to find that NX has crippled batch processing features found in earlier versions of the software.

Customer Service

N/A

Similar Products Used:

Nikon Capture 4.4
Adobe Photoshop CS
Adobe Photoshop Elements
Paint Shop Pro

Excellent control over image enhancements.

Fast and easy and fun to use.

Fast learning curve.

Opens 16 bit or 8 bit TIF or JPEG files

Proprietary RAW file requirements. Only works on Nikon NEF files

In converting to CMYK will only save as 8 bit tiff files

Occasional crash

Does not support Intel Macs

This year the photo community has seen the introduction of NEW software products addressing the workflow for post processing digital images. These new software tools attempt to help the photographer in their task of editing, organizing, and digital enhancement. Apple has "Aperture" and Adobe has "Lightroom". These two products while similar are robust with organizational features to push images through the post process workflow. Nikon has introduced a new software package call Capture NX which is yet another software package to help Digital Photographers push their images through the post process and get them organized. While Capture NX does not have the capability to open and process RAW files other than Nikon NEF files it does have the ability to open 16 bit files such as TIFs or JPEGs. This brings the question to mind why would someone who shoots with a non Nikon digital camera haves any reason to look at or use Capture NX.

While Aperture and Lightroom steal tasks that would have been taken care of in Adobe Photoshop, Capture NX has taken this process a step further. Capture NX has a new technology called U Point which is comparable to dodging and burning in a traditional analog Darkroom where you work on a specific area of an image using Control Points. U Point technology allows the user to adjust and control multiple aspects of an image by applying a control point and making the adjustment on a pop out slider. For a tutorial and quick lesson on using control points go to: "http://www.popphoto.com/howto/2442/nikon-capture-nx-nikons-answer-to-photoshop.html"

I was working on a catalog shoot that involved a large number of images shot in a short period of time. The client was on a tight deadline and anxious to get their catalog off to press. I used a trial copy of Capture NX along with Photoshop to post process all the images. Capture NX allowed me to make adjustments where necessary and save the image as a 16 Bit tiff file. The speed at which Capture NX performed along with the types of adjustments I was making was easily three times faster than doing the same type of work in Photoshop. I used Photoshop to do the CMYK conversion allowing the images to remain in the 16 bit mode. Capture NX when converting to CMYK will only save an image as an 8 bit tiff.

The trial version can be downloaded at: "http://support.nikontech.com/cgi-bin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=61"

To buy the actual program? Good Luck, I tried to buy/download it from Nikon Mall since the packaged version was unavailable. Nikon Mall was unable to complete my purchase due to flaws in the shopping cart credit card verification. I spent two weeks with numerous phone calls and many different Supervisors. For some reason their Credit Card verification would not accept my billing address which my bank has verified and Nikon Technical Support has verified to be correct. There only answer is to try another Credit Card. I find it sad a company of any size handling a product or service can not find an answer to solve a problem such as this in less than than two weeks. The quickest way to kill a product is to advertise and not deliver.
I hope Nikon Mall gets its act together.

Customer Service

Nikon has always provided me excellent customer sedrvice. You will note in my review I had problems with Nikon Mall. Nikon Mall is a service contracted by Nikon. Even though they were unable to resolve my problem they were friendly and courteous.

Similar Products Used:

Aperture
Adobe Lightroom