Nikon NX Studio

[Mary Doo]

Hmm... it seems it only supports Nikon raw files. I tried a Canon CRE and an Olympus ORF, neither shows up. Think it does not support any non-Nikon raw format. Not too surprised, but good to be aware.

 

More surprising is it does not support the [Photoshop] PSD and DNG file. This is strange.

[ilkka_nissila]

It does work with JPG and TIFF images in addition to NEF. I save my edited images as TIFFs. PSD and DNG are Adobe formats; JPGs and TIFFs are not specific to any software or camera.

 

If you're used to saving images as DNG or PSD, then you probably prefer to use Bridge or LR to browse images as they would work with those formats. I don't use DNG because converting images from NEF to DNG throws away the camera settings information that I want to be able to display. I don't use PSD as I sometimes use non-Adobe editors and those only support PSD in limited way, or that was my experience when I've tried it. TIFFs and JPGs are read correctly by all editing software. (Exception: Nikon software dooes not seem to support some types of compressed TIFFs).

Edited March 5, 2021 by ilkka_nissila

[Mary Doo]

It does work with JPG and TIFF images in addition to NEF. I save my edited images as TIFFs. PSD and DNG are Adobe formats; JPGs and TIFFs are not specific to any software or camera.

 

If you're used to saving images as DNG or PSD, then you probably prefer to use Bridge or LR to browse images as they would work with those formats. I don't use DNG because converting images from NEF to DNG throws away the camera settings information that I want to be able to display. I don't use PSD as I sometimes use non-Adobe editors and those only support PSD in limited way, or that was my experience when I've tried it. TIFFs and JPGs are read correctly by all editing software. (Exception: Nikon software dooes not seem to support some types of compressed TIFFs).

I use LR and PS and will continue to use them. I do not use DNG by the way and I was just testing the possibilities. Just a little surprised at the limitation. But really, good enough, and it is free. :)

[raczoliver]

I use LR and PS and will continue to use them. I do not use DNG by the way and I was just testing the possibilities. Just a little surprised at the limitation. But really, good enough, and it is free. :)

 

It's a Nikon software, downloadable free of charge, so I don't find it surprising at all that it only works with Nikon raw files. Think if it as an included "accessory" for your Nikon camera.

 

If they make the software good enough, it could also serve as a motivation to stay with Nikon when a camera upgrade is due and someone otherwise would be contemplating a switch to a different system.

[mike_halliwell]

TIFFs are not specific to any software or camera

Whilst I know this to be true, when you save a file as a TIFF in Photoshop is still gives the option of Byte Order as IBM PC or Macintosh.

 

What's that about? Is it still relevant?

[mike_halliwell]

If they make the software good enough, it could also serve as a motivation to stay with Nikon when a camera upgrade is due and someone otherwise would be contemplating a switch to a different system.

My Windows 10 machine is elsewhere at the moment, so I can't download NX Studio onto this 'obsolete' Win 7 64 bit machine....:(

 

Does it have any sort of 'Comparitor' function?

[ilkka_nissila]

My Windows 10 machine is elsewhere at the moment, so I can't download NX Studio onto this 'obsolete' Win 7 64 bit machine....:(

 

You should probably not use Windows 7 as it is not supported by Microsoft anymore and may be vulnerable to attacks if connected online.

 

Does it have any sort of 'Comparitor' function?

 

You can select two or four images and it can display those side by side. It can synchronize the zoomed section by default but you can also break the link and zoom into different sections of the image.

[ilkka_nissila]

Whilst I know this to be true, when you save a file as a TIFF in Photoshop is still gives the option of Byte Order as IBM PC or Macintosh.

 

What's that about? Is it still relevant?

 

Right, so different processors can have "little endian" or "big endian" storage format for numbers. I don't know if this actually causes problems in reading image files.

[mike_halliwell]

You should probably not use Windows 7 as it is not supported by Microsoft anymore and may be vulnerable to attacks if connected online.

I've got a friend whose company purchased the Extended Support from Microsoft and he sends me security updates.

 

However, the machine in question is pretty much on it's last legs. 3 of the 4 USB ports won't supply any power to speak of and the audio sockets don't work.....:(

 

The fact Photoshop refers to IBM PC does sound a bit dated!

[JDMvW]

It says it needs at least Mojave OS on the Mac. Haven't tried it yet.

[joseph_smith3]

I have started to use Studio (Windows 10 64 bit) and have discovered one possible weakness compared to Nikon View Nx-i (and maybe NX-D).. View NX-i makes it easy to use two displays for viewing images. In the top toolbar of that program there is an icon at the far right that says 2nd Display. You just click on it and the image is shown full screen on a second monitor. In Studio in the top toolbar there is no such icon. And I cannot anything in Studio Help that addresses this.

 

In Studio, I did discover in Edit, Options, Viewer a selection that says view images selected full screen on a secondary monitor. That might be the solution. (I have not tested that as I am running the Studio software on another computer with only one monitor. ) Any input on this matter will be appreciated.

 

So far I can see why Studio might be an upgrade for for NX-D. As a browser, I am not sure if it compares favorable with View NX-i. More testing is needed.

 

Image ratings done in Studio show in the NKSC sub folder, just like View NX-1 and NX-D. I have not yet tested writing the info directly to the image.

 

I tried to install the latest version of Nikon View-NX-i after having run Studio. During installation, the install program stopped the installation of Nikon View-NX-i with the statement that a newer version was already installed. I guess this means its Studio or the older versions.

Edited March 6, 2021 by joseph_smith|3

[rconey]

Was it Nikon Capture NX2 that was discontinued somewhat abruptly 5-10 years ago? I really liked that program and used it a lot. It was sad to see it go. To confuse me, when I search that program now, I see download sites by Nikon and others.

Who is developing this new Nikon software, and do we know it will stick around?

 

Ahh, those are archived pages. It went out when the D3, D3x and D700 were around.

Edited March 7, 2021 by rconey

[joseph_smith3]

Nikon Capture NX2 is no longer supported by Nikon. It was the program that you had to purchase. I believe most of it as written by NIK. When Google bought NIK that ended the relationship.

 

I still use it on my windows 10 Pro desktop and laptop. If you have your NX2 license code, you can still download it from Nikon and enter your code and use it. The last Nikon NEF file it could read came from a Nikon D800E. For bodies after that, you have to make a Tiff in Capture NX-D or another program and then bring it into NX2.

[mike_halliwell]

Never undertood the name. It never captured anything!

[ilkka_nissila]

Never undertood the name. It never captured anything!

 

I think it refers to "capture processing" i.e. the first step of post-processing, the second step is the creative post-processing and finally the processing for the final output (e.g. printing or online publication).

[ilkka_nissila]

Was it Nikon Capture NX2 that was discontinued somewhat abruptly 5-10 years ago? I really liked that program and used it a lot. It was sad to see it go. To confuse me, when I search that program now, I see download sites by Nikon and others.

Who is developing this new Nikon software, and do we know it will stick around?

 

Ahh, those are archived pages. It went out when the D3, D3x and D700 were around.

 

I also liked NX2, though it had its bugs and it was quite slow to use. But the post-processing tools were excellent and more generic than available in today's versions.

 

I believe what happened is that Google bought Nik and didn't have an interest in continuing to work with Nikon and so the NX2 software was discontinued. Interestingly, Nik continues to make their tools under new ownership by DXO. I think this is a good outcome for Nik. DXO's raw converter has its own advantages, including very sophisticated automatic distortion correction and good noise reduction algorithms. Nikon restarted the software with ViewNX-i and Capture NX-D, and now again with an integrated solution the NX Studio. I believe the core algorithm code is Nikon's for the most part (apart from the control points which was a Nik invention) and has stayed the same across these different software packages, but the user interface implementation differs from generation to generation. I prefer the NX Studio user interface and find that some bugs that existed in ViewNX-i and Capture NX-D did not carry over to NX Studio, but realize that in the 1.00, some features are not completely implemented. What I like about the new software is that it doesn't crash on me, and it updates thumbnails quickly and correctly (I had problems with this in the previous ViewNX-i and NX-D). I like Nikon's algorithms for raw conversion and the new software gives a fluid browsing experience while giving easy access to either Nikon's conversion algorithm or third-party software. I think the foundation for the software seems more robust than it was in the previous generations and I believe they will add the missing features in subsequent updates. I don't know who created the user interface (the image processing algorithm code is likely the same or very similar to what the cameras implement) but I believe it shouldn't be too difficult to redo it if they need to change software partners again in the future. What is important to me is that it's not excessively slow or unstable, and so far 1.00 has satisfied those requirements. But I'm not exclusively relying on this software, I use it in conjunction with others (LR, PS, DXO Photolab). If I were trying to use only NX Studio for all my editing, I would find it somewhat limited for features. I don't think it's Nikon's intention to replace the need for a full-fledged editor but provide a framework where their raw conversion algorithms can be used and there is better integration between camera features and software. I think Nikon could follow a more ambitious approach and try to implement more unique features but for some reason that hasn't been their focus in the past ten years or so.

Edited March 8, 2021 by ilkka_nissila

[rodeo_joe1]

It's a Nikon software, downloadable free of charge, so I don't find it surprising at all that it only works with Nikon raw files.

This is the same as the Sony-only free version of Capture One. It'll only edit Sony RAW files (with full functionality). Although it will show other RAW formats, all the editing options are greyed out.

[raczoliver]

This is the same as the Sony-only free version of Capture One. It'll only edit Sony RAW files (with full functionality). Although it will show other RAW formats, all the editing options are greyed out.

 

I think only Capture One Express is available free of charge for Sony, which has reduced functionality:

 

Free photo editing software for Sony

 

The same deal is available for Fuji cameras as well.

 

They are charging $199 or $14/month for the full-featured Sony-only version.

 

Buy Capture One (for Sony)

[raczoliver]

What I like about the new software is that it doesn't crash on me...

 

Unfortunately I can't say that myself. My folder structure is year/country/city (I used to do country/year, but the archiving process was more complicated that way. Now I can just move everything but the last couple of years to external drives, while before I had to move the older folders within each country separately when my internal hard drive started filling up.), and whenever I click on a year with the option to show pictures in subfolders enabled, the program crashes. In fact, more than a few hundred pictures will overload it. I have an i9900 processor, 32GB RAM, and the pictures are stored on an NVMe SSD, so hardware should really not be a problem.

 

Otherwise I really like some of its features, and I can get very pleasing results in relatively few steps with this program, but the constant crashing and the relatively unsophisticated filtering (for example I haven't been able to filter by image city, country, or some other metadata fields) makes it hard for me to use it as an organizational tool.

[ilkka_nissila]

It's unfortunate to hear about crashing. I was hoping that this release would be better in that respect.

[joseph_smith3]

Regarding Studio crashing, I have not had that experience. My images are on separate internal and external hard drives, now about 12 TB, never on the same drive as my software programs. I organize them by year, then by separate file folders in Year, month, day, subject, camera

 

In Studio and in previous versions, on a windows 10 pc, I just clicked on the file folder ONE TIME. And that opened the file folder. If I clicked more than once, sometimes I would get Not Responding. I have found this "problem" to be present with other photo software applications too. And in some to get the file folder to open you have to make sure the curser is pointing to the yellow box at the beginning of the file folder. I have attributed the Non Responding message to be mostly caused by errors on my part by not being patient enough, or by clicking too many times.