Nikon Capture NX 2

Review Date
February 3, 2010

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1 votes

Reviewed by
jfuhrmann , Professional

Price Paid
$149.00 at Hartford, CT

Photography Experience
6-10 years , Other

Summary
I'm not exactly sure why Jon (see previous post) was having major difficulty using this product, I've been using the product on Windows XP/Vista/7 without a hint of any of the problems he described. His situation seems unique (possibly a configuration problem with his own PC) and does not appear to reflect the experiences of most Capture NX users.

Strengths
Ease of use and powerful editing tools.

Weaknesses
N/A

Similar Products Used
Photoshop CS2, DxO Optics Pro

Customer Service
Never needed to contact them.

Review Date
September 13, 2009

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 1 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
1.00 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
Jon , Professional

Price Paid
$200.00

Photography Experience
11-20 years , People

Summary
NX2 is worse than NX.

I've had nothing but problems with this software;

It takes a couple minutes at least to start up, and then its a gamble as to whether it will run or not.

If I can manage to get an image to open, 9 times out of 10 when I go to make changes the image rotates and distorts, and I have to continuously re-rotate the image.

Then, when I go to save the image, 9 times out of 10 I get "engine error, could not save your file".

Zoom dosn't resize the window you're operating in, so you have to double handle all the files.

Please Nikon, just bring back Capture 4, fast, reliabel, fantastic quality images, simple programe, easy to understand , easy to build your own workflow, etcetc, but primarily, IT WORKS.

Professional photographers who want to use a D3 or D3x have no program that works with these files, it's a huge waste of time trying to get the software working, the workflow is so slow that you are quicker using Photoshop, but of course then you sacrifice the beautiful image quality that you went and bought your D3s for in the first place.

Its the buggiest software I've ever seen.

When I went to Nikon asking them how to fix it, they told me, "huh, It should work.", finally I managed to get someone to tell me that you can go into the utilities and use the reguistry sweeper to try to clean it up, but even thisdosnt work - it says that the floppy disc is write protected... which is useless - its a DVD...

This softyware seriously compromises Nikons reputation for quality.

Strengths
Image quality is still better than processing in Photoshop, but its quicker for me to save 50 files as DNGs, and then batch run an action on them in Photoshop (extrememly time consuming) than to process 5 files in NX2.

Weaknesses
If you can't process files, you can't do anything, this software is useless.

Similar Products Used
Photoshop
Lightroom
Photo mechanic

Customer Service
Well meaning but dishonest.

Review Date
February 19, 2009

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
4.50 of 5, 2 votes

Reviewed by
Terrence , Expert

Price Paid
$0.00

Photography Experience
21+ years , Outdoor

Summary
I was looking for an editor that would enable discrete changes in my photographs. This product completely fulfills that need. If I have a dark area in a photo and an area that is too bright, I can lighten (add light to the underlying data set) shadows and I can darken bright areas.

Of course solid black or solid white is not going to change because there is no underlying data but if the image has data points, this software can help manipulate them. It is the most like dodging and burning I have seen since I did my own photo printing 30 years ago.

Strengths
Adaptability to various needs in one photo. Enhances the creative urge without becoming the image itself. No "photoshopping" here.

Weaknesses
For what I do, there have been no weaknesses. It is not Photoshop but I and most photographers don't need Photoshop.

Similar Products Used
Older versions of Photoshop, ACDSee, GIMP.

Customer Service
Not used, no intention of using.