Is the D700 compatiable with Lighroom 2?

Hi There,

 

I am about to purchase a D700 and I have been unable to clarify if it is compatible with this software.

 

As you are such knowledgeable folks you could you also throw in any suggestions of other software I could use?

 

For your information my field is wedding photojournalism and social photography using minimal flash.

 

Thanking you in anticipation.

 

Michael

Photoshop Elements 6 or Photoshop CS3 or Nikon NX2. I am sure current Light Room supports all current cameras or there are automatic updates or updates you can download.

What few pictures I managed to take with my D700 before dropping and breaking it open nicely in Lightroom 2. NX2 is a great RAW converter, and takes advantage of the in-camera settings which Lightroom won't, but for the large volume of shots you probably take the workflow on Lightroom is going to much more friendly I would think.

What about camera profiles for LR2? Some one mentioned that before but I couldn't find them. Is anyone using them? How

do you get them?

 

I like NX2. better results. The only thing is the time it takes opening files, saving files and opening the next one. I think

that's the only difference.

 

To answer the OP, I am sure LR2 can support D700 files by now. Just check for updates.

Rene, James and Ronald thanks for your answers.

 

Just one more question if you don't mind.

 

As I am a tight budget and can really only afford to purchase one software package which represents the most value for money in terms of features. LR2 or NX2?

 

Michael

@Michael Ellis wrote, "As I am a tight budget and can really only afford to purchase one software

package which represents the most value for money in terms of features. LR2 or NX2?"

 

Nothing beats Lightroom for its seamless workflow, but nothing beats NX2 for

its recognition of the D700's Nikon-specific features. You have to decide if you

will be using those proprietary features - if so, NX2 is the way to go. Personally,

I have both (plus Bibble Pro) and I always return to Lightroom, because it,

quite simply, is the best post-processing tool (for my needs, of course).

 

I suggest you install the evaluation copy of both programs and decide for

yourself which is the better tool.

Personally, I think that if you shoot hundreds of files lightroom and Apple aperture are great. Still I think LR is much

better than Capture, I just happen to hate Adobe (Japan). So if you need a fast software go for LR but you will expend

more time adjusting your shots UNTIL you get the right settings.

 

If you want better results, NX2 is the way to go. It is the only application that can read all the settings of your camera.

That's why I asked about those camera profiles for LR. If they have profiles that can read your camera settings that

would be really great.

 

What you should do is download the free trials, LR and NX2 and if you use a Mac you should try Aperture 2 also and see

for yourself what works better for you.

LR2 works with the D700 and you can get camera profiles from Adobe's web site:

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http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

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When I use LR or ACR to do raw conversion, I pick one of the camera profiles (typically Portrait, Standard, or

Vivid). These mimic Nikon's picture control "looks" and give a much better rendition of highlights (which are

often clipped by Adobe's defaults). However, they do not emulate Nikon's sharpening algorithm or noise reduction

so you still need to find acceptable settings for those. If people can suggest good ways of getting ACR/LR to

match Nikon's sharpening (as applied in the raw conversion stage, i.e. picture control sharpness settings), noise

& moire reduction algorithms, I would be keen to hear about it.

<p>

<i>The only thing is the time it takes opening files, saving files and opening the next one. </i>

<p>

This is indeed very slow in Capture when compared to Lightroom. The way I work around this is as follows: Shoot

NEF+JPG fine in

the camera, exposing carefully to minimize adjustments needed in post-processing. Transfer the files to the

computer, open the jpgs in LR2. Find the good images, rate them, adjust curves, dodge & burn as needed.

Print/make flash gallery/make jpgs for web. If there are images that require a greater degree of correction or

for which I want the best possible quality, I work on them interactively in Capture NX2, convert to TIFFs or JPGs

and print them using Photoshop or Lightroom. I think I save a great deal of time by doing the initial selection

process based on the JPG files. This only works if the exposures and white balances are carefully made in camera,

as otherwise the raw files may be needed earlier on.

<p>

If I need to correct white balance problems in post, or want to change the picture control settings, I'll just

run a batch process for the conversion in Capture NX2. This is fairly painless. Of course working in LR is more

convenient, you can just copy and paste settings from one image to a group of images as needed, but I don't find

I can get the same kind of balance between a good looking image, detail and low noise using ACR/LR as the raw

converter. I absolutely love the LR user interface so I would welcome a solution to this issue. In the meanwhile,

working with JPGs for the initial editing, and converting the "special images" using Capture NX2 works for me -

I get to decent results quickly and for the very best images I can get the best image quality, though sometimes

working with NX2 interactively

is very slow. Often I just prefer the NX Control Points to working with LR2 local adjustments or Photoshop. It

depends on the image.

<p>

The big drawback in this approach is that storing the JPG and NEF images takes more space and I may have to get

more cards eventually.

WOW! Long time ago I downloaded LR2 trial but I never tried it. I just set it up now after downloading CR4.5 and Camera

profiles from Ilkka's link. CR2 is even better now. The main reason why I changed to NX2 is because I could never get

the colors right. In NX2 they used to look the way I wanted but when I opened them with LR the color were faded. Now

with those profiles they are so close, some I can't even see any difference.

 

On NX I don't really do much, basically cropping coz I shoot a lot of birds with a 300 mm which is the longest lens I

have. I remove a few spots and some times I use the Dlighting thing which is great. So basically after cropping I have to

save, open another file and so on. With LR you just click the next file and that is all. The control on LR are so much

intuitive I think and you don't have to be saving JPG's and all that.

 

OK, I think is time to uninstall LR2 coz I already bought NX2 and don't wanna be tempted! :)

Just to formally answer the question: LR 2.0 has "preliminary" support for the D700, and 2.1 will have official support. The difference is that the support in 2.1 went through Adobe's full QA program, while 2.0 shipped too soon after the D700 release for that to happen. There is no difference in functionality.