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Author Topic: NX2 revisited  (Read 18466 times)

BernardLanguillier

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NX2 revisited
« on: June 13, 2008, 08:44:30 pm »

I used to be a Nikon Capture user on Windows until a few years ago.

Then came RSP and I saw the light. After a forced transition to Lightroom whose interface is great, I then moved to Capture One 4.1 with my D3 that delivers very impressive conversions. Great conversions but an interface that is OK functionwise but lacks a lot of polishing.

I believe that Nikon Capture NX 1.x had a lot of criticism for its clunky interface, and my limited experience with it mostly confirmed this impression.

On the other hand, after a few hours playing with NX2 on Mac, I have to say that I am impressed. The interface is responsive and reasonnably intuitive. The imaging capabilities are very interesting and it is clearly possible to do many photographer centric corrections faster than with CS3 (and I know CS3 very well). If the demoisacing were a little bit better still, it would maybe replace C1 4.1 as my main conversion tool. Today I feel that C1 4.1 still has a small edge though.

Raw conversion has progressed a lot these past few months!

Cheers,
Bernard

jed best

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #1 on: June 14, 2008, 10:13:06 pm »

I would agree with Bernard that NX2 is quite terrific. It is almost a good enough reason to switch to Nikon.

For those new to NX2, however, I would strongly recommend Vincent Versace's new DVD on NX2. It will quickly jump start the learning curve and give you a great appreciation for NX2's power.

Jed
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jcote

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #2 on: July 06, 2008, 07:52:44 pm »

Quote
For those new to NX2, however, I would strongly recommend Vincent Versace's new DVD on NX2. It will quickly jump start the learning curve and give you a great appreciation for NX2's power.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201642\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Jed,

Thanks for the tip on VV's DVD. I had not used Nikon SW for RAW conversions for a while but when I bought my D3 in December I installed the included NX. I thought the RAW conversions it did were really great but as Bernard said the interface was very clunky. The new NX looks great and seems much easier to work with but having a little tutorial might be just the thing.
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Almark

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2008, 12:06:32 pm »

Jason Odell's ebook on CNX2 is also worth a look.
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All the best

Mark

Mark Allen Photography

DaveL

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #4 on: August 12, 2008, 09:50:43 pm »

Quote
Jason Odell's ebook on CNX2 is also worth a look.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=213208\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Thanks for both hints. I've downloaded the trial version, and realize that I need help.
Regards,
DaveL
Mississauga
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routlaw

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2008, 01:01:18 pm »

Quote
On the other hand, after a few hours playing with NX2 on Mac, I have to say that I am impressed. The interface is responsive and reasonnably intuitive. The imaging capabilities are very interesting and it is clearly possible to do many photographer centric corrections faster than with CS3 (and I know CS3 very well). If the demoisacing were a little bit better still, it would maybe replace C1 4.1 as my main conversion tool. Today I feel that C1 4.1 still has a small edge though.

Cheers,
Bernard
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=201477\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

I must be doing something wrong given the comments on this thread regarding NX2 and C1. Over the years I have always heard marvelous things about C1 but never gave it a try until just recently. Like others I find the C1 UI woefully lacking but what confounds me more is the rather mediocre raw conversions I have seen mostly with my D3 files but also with a couple of D2x files as well and still feel that the ACR/LR raw conversion to be better than C1 or NX/NX2. BTW yesterday I downloaded the 60 trial of NX2 based on this thread alone. The file conversions seemingly are identical to NX with as noted a different UI but honestly I find it even more clunky and obtuse than the original version of NX, go figure.

Back to C1, given my frustration and disappointment with this program with my Nikon files I decided to try some experiments with Phase One raw files downloaded from the Capture Integration website, notably the image of down town Atlanta with burgandy umbrellas in the foreground. Once again I felt the LR/ACR files to be somewhat different in color rendition but on the whole found them to be better than the C1 renderings.

One of the main criteria I use for judging the quality of a raw file rendering is the default noise reduction and in this regard the ACR or LR conversions seemed dramatically better than the C1 files whether it was Nikon or Phase One files. One can always make color adjustments fairly easy in PS but dealing with noise in tif file is more problematic.

FWIW in my test on each file I rendered them two different ways, first zeroing out virtually all adjustments in color, contrast etc but keeping the default noise and base camera sharpening in tact. This allows one to really see IMHO, just what is going on under the hood for those two very important items. I then created a second rendering allowing the default conversions for all aspects including color, contrast etc. Consistently C1 had noisier images than ACR or NX and regardless of whether it was the Nikon or Phase files but what really astonished me was the apparent sharper and crisper looking file converted with ACR default base sharpening vs the C1 conversion with default settings. While colors were somewhat different on Phase files vs ACR I didn't find it anything to jump up and down about and actually thought the sky rendering in the downtown scene to be a bit off, too cyan and probably more saturated than what would have actually been at the scene. I grew up in the deep south and am familiar with the hazy milky skies that so often exist there.

So, am I doing something wrong here, or is this simply a matter of perception or taste? As a rule most subjective criticisms of raw converters go unqualified, that is no evidence or comments given as to why one is better than the other, thus my rather long winded response and observations.

Thanks

Rob
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Patricio Murphy

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #6 on: October 08, 2008, 10:50:23 am »

It may be a matter of taste, after all. I love LR's UI, but the conversions I get from my D200 files are, to my eyes, pathetic, I get a greenish colour cast that's a nightmare to get rid of. I tried the camera profiles in 2.0, but while better, still worse than either NX2 or C1 (3.7).
For me, NX2 works nicely, but it's slow in my PC, so when working with large number of files, I do the conversion in C1, then edit in CS3.
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GregW

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #7 on: October 09, 2008, 06:08:45 pm »

Have you tried the DNG profile editor?
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bugmenot

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2009, 05:06:44 pm »

Here's a great NX2 site for learning & tutorials
http://dptnt.com/2008/09/the-ultimate-niko...resource-guide/
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GregW

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« Reply #9 on: January 14, 2009, 08:11:16 pm »

Just before Christmas Nikonians interviewed Josh Haftel, NX Product Manager at Nik software.  In what I'm sure many will consider good news, workflow optimization especially for high volumes of images is firmly on the schedule for the next major release. He acknowledged that compared to other products in the market, the workflow was not as strong as it could be.
« Last Edit: January 14, 2009, 08:12:59 pm by GregW »
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OldRoy

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #10 on: January 17, 2009, 09:46:41 am »

I hope this relatively low-level question elicits a reply...

I'm trying hard to like NX2 after using ACR for quite a while. I've looked at a few tutorials and there are a lot of functions that look really useful. But try as I might this program looks horribly buggy to me. Every time I try to use it I encounter unstable behaviour.

Right now I just opened five 8mb (D200) nefs. There's the first problem. I'm running a 6600 processor on an XP (32 bit) os with 4Gb ram and lots of Sata disc space. Cache is set to a different drive than os and application. But it's s l o w. After about half an hour two of these files are depicted with the annotation "updating image". What this implies I have no idea.

Meanwhile if I select the file I first want to tweak from the list in the "window" menu bar item, the application brings the file to the foreground. However if I then maximise this window it immediately goes to the back of the stack - maximised. Unfortunately clicking on this window does nothing at all - it does not bring the pane to the front, unlike every windows program I have seen in the last couple of decades. Selecting the same file from the "window" menu again does accomplish this, but again reduced to the original non-maximised size.

The application is now still running but none of the open windows can be activated by selecting them. In fact it looks hung. But the windows can be selected via the menu. It's possible to resize the front windows by dragging, but using the maximise icon always throws the window to the back.

This is ridiculous. Basic windows functionality isn't there. If someone tells me this is my own incompetence I'll take it on the chin.  But NX2 looks disgracefully under-developed to me.

Edit. Total crash. Am I surprised? No. Please don't tell me that is a commercially ready program. When I was testing custom applications for a living I wouldn't have accepted this even in a non-critical environment.

Roy
« Last Edit: January 17, 2009, 10:49:08 am by OldRoy »
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NikosR

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NX2 revisited
« Reply #11 on: January 17, 2009, 02:19:40 pm »

Why do you need to open so many files concurrently? I'm pretty sure your problem comes from memory shortage. NX surely is no Photoshop in terms of memory management. The basic idea is to open a file, edit, save, close and open the next. You should use a viewer (or the NX rudimentary browser) if you want to sort and compare images.

Be aware that once rendered the 8Mb NEFs become much larger...
« Last Edit: January 17, 2009, 02:24:55 pm by NikosR »
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Nikos
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