Capture NX-D 1.5.0 - the return of control points

As the version number suggests, NX-D 1.5.0 appears to be a significant upgrade. Control points are back and it's claimed that image processing is faster:

 

Nikon Imaging | Global Site | Capture NX-D

 

Nikon Capture NX-D: Control Points are back!

*New* Nikon Capture NX-D 1.5.0: Nikon Coolpix Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review

 

Under Windows, the installer detected the previous version, but rather than removing it, told me to uninstall manually before it would install the new version.

If this is true.. that alone is reason enough to conclude that this is a beautiful day!

Was editing again with zombieware Capture NX2 .. it still eats my D800 files well.

Well, the control points are certainly there, but I'll leave it to others to comment on whether they work as well as before (or vs the Nik collection). I've just noticed one strange possible bug. Images given a star rating in a previous version didn't convert until I removed or changed the rating in 1.5.0, or moved the rated NEFs to break the link with the sidecar metadata folder where the rating is stored. Deleting the old sidecar files should also work. I haven't tested whether there are incompatibilities with other edits made in previous versions. If you have extensive edits, it may be worth backing up the NKSC_PARAM folder in your image directory before testing the new version.

New versions Nikon View NX-i and Nikon Capture NX-D are available at Nikonusa for download. You must download both at the same time. When the download is finished, you will have Nikon View NX-i version 1.3.0 64 bits and NX-D version 1.5.0. Here is the link to download:

 

Nikon | Download center | ViewNX-i

 

The new version of NX-D does contain color control points. When activated from the top toolbar, for a selected area of the file you can adjust Brightness, Contrast and Saturation. I tried it on a few images and it worked fine. The program does seem to work faster than previous versions.

 

Regarding Richard's point about star ratings, I just edited in NX-D ver 1.5.0, some images rated with Stars in a previous version of View NX-i. Those same star ratings were shown in the new version of View NX-i after the RAW image had been processed in NX-D ver 1.5.0. This might be a different processing approach than the one Richard used.

That's interesting. My star ratings were from a previous (Windows) version of NX-D rather than from NX-i. I could see the images and the ratings as expected in 1.5.0, but when I attempted to process a file with a rating (to 16-bit tiff), a progress window popped up but then immediately closed again and the file was not processed. With an unrated file, the progress window stayed open, and I could see a progress bar moving towards 100%, and the file was processed as expected. Changing the old rating, or removing it, or separating the file from its sidecar, restored normal behaviour.

 

I've now explored a bit further, and found that some earlier star-rated files (perhaps rated with an earlier version of NX-D) behave as normal. So it looks like this happens only in very specific circumstances! If you run into this problem, resetting the rating is a fix.

All of my View NX-1 and NX-D versions are for windows.

 

I just ran into a problem where Star ratings were copied when I used Copy IPTC and Paste IPTC commands. According to the software manual, the labels and Star ratings are Not supposed to be copied. When I tried to replicate the problem, the Copy/Paste IPTC performed as described--the Star ratings did not copy. I suggest that all users be careful and test out their usual ways of doing things before you Copy/Paste info to 100 or more images at a time.