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Archive 2012 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

euronail
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom.

Which one would you prefer to use to process your RAW files?

And why?

By the way, I recently bought a D800e. I used to shoot in JPG with my D2X but now I want to take advantage some features which RAW file format offers.

Thank you,

Aug 24, 2012 at 02:42 PM

Bond
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Consensus seems to be that you can get slightly better results out of Capture NX, but you won't have a lot of fun using it. I opted for Lightroom and have tried Capture, Aperture and DxO Optics.

Aug 24, 2012 at 02:54 PM

euronail
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Thanks Bond.

I am still running an old XP machine which is working fine for most of the stuffs I do.

Do I need to upgrade my PC to run NX2 or Lightroom4?

Aug 24, 2012 at 03:05 PM

tomrock
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

LR 4 requires Win 7.

CaptureNX supports all the Nikon settings, but if you know what you want your pictures to look like, LR is great and much easier to use with more functionality.

Aug 24, 2012 at 03:11 PM

Bernie
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Comparing NX2 to the latest ACR, Adobe wins hands down. This is in terms of IQ and speed. The last time NX2 could out convert Adobe was back in the early CS days. However, NX2 has always been slow.

https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1141891/0#10898752

Aug 24, 2012 at 03:56 PM

Smridevan
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

If you care about microcontrast and maximizing the dynamic range in your raw files, NX is the way to go. If you want speed in editing multiple images, LR is the one. I have both and prefer to edit my files with NX because it gives you better image quality. I don't do weddings or need the speed so I've used NX most of the time. I usually use LR when I'm sorting the files and want to try the split tones, but other than that I don't really do much with LR.

Aug 24, 2012 at 04:48 PM

leighton w
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

To pick one over the other is so subjective that I would go with the one you're most comfortable using.

And just for the heck of it I LOVE LR. I've tried NX, but I never could get used to the UI. I've always been able to get my images the way I want in LR, and the more I use it, the more efficient I get. One more thought, LR4 to my mind was a BIG improvement over version 3.

Aug 24, 2012 at 04:55 PM

Kerry Pierce
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

FWIW, the last time that I did a comparison, I decided that it really depended upon the image. CNX usually does a good job, but I find it frustrating to use at times. I use ACR for fast and easy edits. I use Capture One or Bibble, when the images respond better to those converters. But, in the end, I use ACR the most, because I like using CS over CNX and am not convinced that the CNX difference is worth the hassle of converting in CNX and editing in CS. I have Lightroom, but haven't used it enough to decide when I can/should use it over CS.

Kerry

Aug 24, 2012 at 05:06 PM

James R
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

LR acts as an excellent DAM, allowing for easy key wording, file organization, batch operations, and printing (which is probably LR4's greatest asset, better than CS6). One the side it also creates slideshows, creates books, and uploads images to your website. Oh, and my favorite new operation in LR 4 is softproofing. That has saved me money in wasted paper and ink. To me it is now almost perfect. If they ever add layers, look out, I may never go into CS6.

NX2 is faster than previous versions, but still slower than other processors. I still hate the interface, which is clumsy to use. I can process more images quicker in LR than NX2. If I run into an image that's difficult to work in LR, and will take too long in CS6, then I turn to NX2. But, I can't remember using it in the past year.

Aug 24, 2012 at 05:12 PM

Kerry Pierce
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Here's a product that you might want, James.
http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/perfect-layers/

It's free, from OnOne, and it claims to add layers to Lightroom. I haven't tried it yet, so can't comment on how well it works. I intend to use it with LR4, because like you, I use layers extensively in CS and miss them in LR. I'm building a new system, so haven't installed any of the latest software on this old machine.

Kerry

Aug 24, 2012 at 05:28 PM

James R
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Thanks, I already have OnOne suite and love it. But, it would be nice to have the ability built in, rather than as a plug-in. According to Jeff Schewe, there is suppose to be some improvement to LR4 coming pretty soon. It will be a .x version to LR4.

Aug 24, 2012 at 05:36 PM

Kerry Pierce
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Huh, that's interesting stuff, James. Thanks for the info.

Aug 24, 2012 at 06:07 PM

derry1
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

used NX2 for several years,, when LR 4 came out, bought it and can't remember when I have used NX2 since,, perhaps a few times to test and compare,,

Derry

Aug 25, 2012 at 01:00 PM

Gregg B.
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

derry1 wrote:
used NX2 for several years,, when LR 4 came out, bought it and can't remember when I have used NX2 since,, perhaps a few times to test and compare,,

Derry

Same here. However, from time to time is good to verify how the file looks like when decrypted in NX 2.
Some info in NEF files is encrypted and only NX 2 can open it. I wish Nikon never did that but it is what it is.
The only way around it is to open NX 2 and run the Batch process that allows you to save NEF as 16-bit TIFF (the files will get a lot bigger, sometimes even 50% bigger). Now, TIFF is uncompress and lossless file format so you will retain all the info, including the part of the file that is encrypted in NEF files, and have all the info available to other program like Lightroom.
I personally don't want to keep these enormous files on my HD. They take way too much space and just trying to open files 200MB in size for editing takes time, even for the best computers we have now (MacPro with 12 cores and 24GB memory etc.) I have panos stitched that are almost 1GB in size. Try to open that.
So the remedy the situation I simply import my TIFFs into my Lightroom 4 library, then I got to menu: Library -> Convert Photos To DNG.
The DNG format is an open raw format that many camera manufactures already supports. (I think just Nikon and Canon doesn't) and this is similar to NEF format, meaning, also raw lossless and your 200MB TIFF will become again 50MB DNG. While converting you can select option that allows you to remove converted TIFF files, and only DNG will remain in your Lightroom.
It's a bit of work but it works well for me.

Aug 25, 2012 at 02:14 PM

mshi
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

If you are a volume shooter, using CNX2 makes your life hard and miserable. On the other hand, if you are a fine art sort of shooter,who tends to pick five or less from each shoot, using CNX2 makes sense. The beauty about using LR or ACR is the Abode's Smart Object of PS, that allows you to have the cake and eat it too, which is something CNX2 can never give you. From my own experience, I've found CNX2 sucks and tend not to touch it at all. On the other hand, from time to time, I have found C1 Pro is much much better than CNX2 in terms of raw processing power.

Aug 25, 2012 at 02:28 PM

hidden_Markov
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

Volume shooter, like your plugins and bridges to them and can use advanced stechinques like layering and such, LR.

PIck and choose photos, like to potentially make less changes on them (cpature NX out the box should read the .nef better, they don't reverese the raw standard used by nikon, they actually wrote the code so capture nx get an edge here) cpature nx could work for you. Capture nx imo up to LR3 read many colors better. Capture NX out the box for example gave reds on screen you could have to work up to from other programs. I have not tested side by side with LR4 to see if still the case.

Didn't say platform but the only reason I switched out from capture was it ran extra buggy on my MBP (extra in that it was not the smootheest program on windows either). I went aperture and hope one day capture nx 3 goes from rumor to reality and runs well on mac os. I'd come back to it if that happened.

Free trials all around...best course of action is install and see what works for you.

Aug 27, 2012 at 06:15 PM

ja_joyce
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

IMO NCX2 vs. Lightroom is like Nikon vs. Canon. You can get great results from either, but there are differences and what works best for one person will not necessarily work best for another. So the informed consumer should try both before deciding. That is much easier to do with software than hardware

Aug 28, 2012 at 09:48 AM

dougfatheruk
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

I agree, demo them is the best way to ultimately decide.

One thing i noticed with LR is that it doesn't need to think as much as NX2. I have a 2.4GHz C2D Macbook Pro which is no beast but even sharpening in NX2 was painful with regular beachballs whilst waiting for renders. LR was much more responsive and changes were virtually instant with 14-bit uncompressed RAWs.

There are a lot of for and against but a good one is the amount of work Adobe are putting in to Lightroom, it's getting better and better, the same cannot be said for NX2, updates are few and far between so i'm led to believe.

Aug 28, 2012 at 05:54 PM

jolahern
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

I use both LR and NX2, both can be used to great effect, but which product you use will depend on your workflow and needs.

I don't follow the view that NX2 produces better files than LR, if you are skilled in either program you will get comparable results. For me if I start with a decent image in terms of WB, exposure and used the correct picture style at capture time, I get quicker results initially in NX2 as I make use of picture styles, ADL, ColorEfex filters, control points etc.
To get the same result in LR requires that I do more work setting LR up before hand, generating camera profiles to get the colors right (use passport checker for this), set up presets to mimic the Nikon picture styles.

However if I have a photo that is not great to start with, WB and exposure very off, noise an issue, highlight recover needed, I find it very hard to correct it in NX2. Some of this is because I don't like the interface and I'm more use to working in Lightroom.
For processing lots of photos LR is way ahead of NX2. This is why I use LR for doing most of my wedding work.
The other reason I use LR for the bulk of work is that it is updated more often, when Apple updates the OS for Macs, you can bet LR will work fine with the new OS fairly quickly, Nikon can take months and months before they correct the problems that NX2 can have with a new OS.
I use Photomechanic and NX2 at the start of workflow to sort the images and take the images to "proof" quality. But after this I use Lightroom to do the bulk of work and take the images to the required final quality. I could live without PM and NX2 but could not same the same about Lightroom

Aug 29, 2012 at 04:41 AM

Gary Irwin
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Nikon Capture NX vs Adobe Lightroom

I guess I'm the odd one out here, but it seems to me that if you're NOT doing volume or simple global edits, but rather one-off's requiring more intensive edits, CNX2 beats LR in terms of ease of use (yes, I said that) and speed. I've been using CNX for 5 years, have CS5 and had tried LR on several occasions but nothing, and I mean nothing, comes close to the speed and elegance of NX2, mostly due to the INTEGRATED NIK colour control point and SELECTION point technology built into CNX. Yes, you can add NIK tools to LR but it's an external, poorly integrated app that leave massive intermediate files that need to be deleted later. All of CNX's none-destructive edits are stored in one NEF (including multiple versions if you want). CNX is a very cleverly designed application, and the integrated NIK technology really makes it. But it is a poor choice for batch processing.

I'm now mostly shooting Canon and believe it or not I've reverted to converting CR2's to TIFF so I can still use CNX for my edits. I long for the day when NIK works with Adobe to provide an integrated solution, but until then I can get by with CNX just fine.

Aug 29, 2012 at 07:44 AM

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