What software(s) do you use for NEF

<p>I have searched a few postings on this matter but did not find a clear answer to my needs so I am posting it with my own perspectives. Hope you don't mind.<br>

I have a D80 and shoot RAW. I have PS CS2. I also have two Nikon's free softwares, "Nikon Transfer" and "Nikon View," which can transfer and perform some basic editing to NEF files. I do not like PS because the NEF files that it processes are not as sharp as those cprocessed by the Nikon softwares; furthermore, the images processed by Nikon are slightly warmer and more pleasant to look at. The PS processed files are more subdue in color.<br>

While the Nikon free softwares serve me well so far, it does have two major issues. The first one is obvious for a free software that it is limited in its ability to edit NEF files. It can only adjust exposure, WB, D-lighting, and saturation. I can live with these since these are very useful, and I can always use PS for more advanced editing. The second issue is the speed with which it converts files into JPEG. In my iMac G5, it takes several min to convert a NEF file to a "good" JPEG. I could address this by batch convert them so I can walk away to watch TV.<br>

Thus my question to you is what is your favorite softwares to process the NEF files with respect to the issues that I raised? If I buy the Nikon Capture software, will it address my two major problems in a cost-effective manner?<br>

Thanks.</p>

<p>More modern versions of the Adobe tools won't have the cooler, flatter look -- starting with Lightroom 2.2 and ACR 5.2, there are camera profiles included that are designed to mimic the Nikon look.</p>

<p>Nikon Capture NX. I also have Photoshop CS2. My opinion is that Nikon Capture NX is far better than Photoshop CS2 at convertng a NEF file to TIF (I work with TIF files). I couldn't believe how much better my photos were using the Nikon software.</p>

<p>Eric, why don't you download the trial version of Nikon Capture NX2 and see what you think of it?</p>

<p>Since you are using a Mac, you may want to look at Aperture 2.1 from Apple. I use it for RAW editing from my D300. It is very easy to use and I've been pleased with the results. They have a 30 day free trial from the Apple website.</p>

<p>Capture NX2. There is no better NEF converter out there.</p>

<p>Capture NX2.</p>

<p>In my opinion Capture NX. Ive tried Photoshop, Lightroom, Irfanview and RawShooter as well. Only prob with Capture NX is it needs bundles of Ram (2 gb for comfort) and the healing/cloning procedure is very laboured..I use photoshop once the conversion is done... </p>

<p>You'll get the same conversiion quality and a lot more control with Capture NX, but I don't think you'll improve the speed - time for an upgrade to Intel?</p>

I'm afraid Richard W. is right. It's not so much the software as it is your computer. Look for one with the Leopard OS.

<p>Eric,<br>

I am using Nikon Capture NX & NX2 - mostly NX2 these days.<br>

I have a friend who used to use NX2 on his PC which crashed. He then proceeded to buy a Mac. He tried Aperture & he liked the way it organizes things. But for IQ on Nikon NEF files he says nothing beats NX2 - - so he no longer uses Aperture & has gone back to NX2<br>

Good luck & do use the 60 day trial version of NX2 off Nikon's web site. I bought NX after 14 days of my trial.<br>

Lil :-)</p>

<p>Capture NX2</p>

<p>I use Nikon Capture NX2 for my D 200 and D 300 NEF images on my windows pc with 4 GB of RAM. I used to use Nikon Capture NX. After downloading them, I use Nikon View as a browser and them edit them in NX2. I do not use the batch mode. Making a JPEG is not time consuming on my pc.<br>

If you need to process after NX2, just make a TIFF and take it into PS.<br>

Download it and try it. If you like it buy it.<br>

Then consider getting Jason O'Dell"s guide to NX2: <a href="http://www.luminescentphoto.com/nx2guide.html">http://www.luminescentphoto.com/nx2guide.html</a><br>

Joe Smith</p>

<p>I use DxO 5.3.</p>

<p>Thank you all for the answers. I did download and try the NX once, but I did not like the complexity of its user interface. PS is not all that better in this regard but at least I am familiar with it. Since I use the free Nikon View program to perform basic editing, I hesitate to buy another software, unless it can improve on the speed issue. It seems that computing speed is the major problem here since iMac G5 is now several generations older than the Intel and has limited RAM and HD space.</p>

<p>I'll be the contrarian here. I have used Photoshop Elements 7 which automatically opens NEF files from my D300 and offers me all the tools that I need. I would caveat this by noting that I spend a lot of time thinking about and composing the picture before making the exposure (a by product of 30 years of 35mm film photography). It's my experience that the resulting colors are accurate from what the actual scene presented. I also do a lot of B&W conversion from the digital image and Elements does a great job at that as well. I'm also a bit of a computer minimalist; the fewer software programs, the better. I organize everything by direct download from the cardreader built into my HP desktop and use Windows Explorer to create the file hierarch and move things around. Works like a charm.</p>

<p>Bit of a maverick here - RAW Therapee.....</p>

<p>Jay</p>

<p>In my experience Capture NX2 gives the best conversion. However I like the tools in Lightroom best. So I find myself using those mostly.</p>

 

<p>NX2 for basic adjustment, cropping and sharpening, save as tif and then use PS for any real graphic modification.</p>

<p>I edit in with Capture One Pro. With my selects I do overall color balancing and tonal adjustments to end up with a nice tiff. I then use PS for all retouching and any local adjustments as well as creative work and final print preparation.</p>

<p>I use ACR with CS3. I have to admit though, there seems to be a majority of the folks here who like NX2. Hitherto, I've always been happy with Bridge + ACR + PS to manage and manipulate my raw files, having set the ACR defaults to values that seem to work for me.</p>

<p>But along the lines of the OPs question to those of you that have used both NX2 and ACR extensively -- is NX2 really that much better, or is just that it worked better out of the box?</p>

 

<p>I really, really like the integration and power of Lightroom. You can go from organizing to editing in one keystroke. When an image needs more than Lightroom can do -- and Lightroom can do quite a bit, it's only two mouse-clicks to open the image in CS4.<br>

I have not compared the rendering of Capture to ACR for a long time. In the past, perhaps pre-CS, ACR didn't do well and I used Capture. Current ACR versions, such as the one in Lightroom, do much better and are good enough for my use. The way ACR is embedded makes it much nicer to use than in Photoshop.<br>

For batching images into JPEGs (or TIFFs or whatever), Lightroom is flexible and super simple to use. It takes only a couple of seconds to set up an export. The export speed is going to depend on a lot of factors.</p>

<p>I'm a little like the gentleman above who believes in getting it right in the camera. However, there is always a little that can be done and there is almost always some improvement with sharpening. For those things, I like Picture Project (but organize mostly with directory structure) and Capture NX since they work well together. I love the control points in Capture NX and I can do the most common adjustments in less than a minute. If I need to do something complex, I do everything I can do easily in NX and save a TIFF or JPEG. Then I do the final, complex editing in PS7. </p>

<p>Capture NX2 - it doesn't have the easiest to use interface, and it isn't the fastest but once learned, it is very powerful. As others have stated, it is probably the best RAW conversion software for Nikon. </p>

<p>In any case, it is pretty much the only thing I use. I'm on a Macbook Pro, by the way.</p>

<p>Capture NX2 - it doesn't have the easiest to use interface, and it isn't the fastest but once learned, it is very powerful. As others have stated, it is probably the best RAW conversion software for Nikon. </p>

<p>In any case, it is pretty much the only thing I use.</p>

<p>I use Photoshop Elements with my iMac-the latest version for Mac is PSE6; you can get a 30 day free trial from the Adobe site (make sure you download the Mac version). regards, cb :-)</p>