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Nikon Capture 4.4.2

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Shingo183608

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I've been struggling with raw conversion of D2h files for some time. Tried ACR, Aperture, Lightroom, and trial versions of a couple of other converters. Indoor mixed light situation is particularly problematic, screwing up the G channel and muddying up the whole image. I gave up on Nikon Capture (4.4, 4.4.1) long time ago, for many reasons but particularly for its tendency to clip shadows. I found out last night that v4.4.2 is out (for many months...duh), downloaded & installed it...WOW. It's still glacially slow and UI hasn't improved, but the way it handles shadows has definitely changed. The shoulder is much smoother now, giving more room to tweak the shadow area with curves and LCH editor. I was beginning to really like the workflow offered by Lightroom, but there's no comparison in terms of the conversion results.

Results are beautiful so far, but I have a lot to learn about NC in order to make it my main raw converter. I'd appreciate if you can point me to some good tutorials & readings for Nikon Capture. I'm really especially interested in the workflow aspect of NC.

--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
 
Capture 4.4.2 is good, but that's the end of the line for the straight Capture software. According to Nikon, "Nikon Capture is the fore-runner of Capture NX and thus does not support the latest D-SLR cameras and is no longer distributed. If you have already purchased a copy you can download the latest software updates."

--
Roger

http://tinius-photo.com/Roger
 
Roger T. said:
Capture 4.4.2 is good, but that's the end of the line for the
straight Capture software. According to Nikon, "Nikon Capture is
the fore-runner of Capture NX and thus does not support the latest
D-SLR cameras and is no longer distributed. If you have already
purchased a copy you can download the latest software updates."
Click to expand...
Personally I'm enjoying the benefits 4.4.2 gives me, and I have no immediate intentions of giving it up in a headlong rush to get 'the latest and greatest'. It serves images from my d2 bodies and D100 admirably and I'm very comfortable with it. I just hope that Nikon have a rethink and decide to continue to support it.
--
Dave (Sgt. Pepper), Epsom, England.
http://www.pbase.com/davecq

 
Does this version work on D200?
 
I have found NC 442 to be a great program, It is my only raw converter now, I have tried them all and find NC easy and does a great job for me.







--

Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming - ' Wow! What a ride!'

 
Yes - D200 support is included since version 4.4.0.
  • Denis.
 
Roger T. said:
Capture 4.4.2 is good, but that's the end of the line for the
straight Capture software. According to Nikon, "Nikon Capture is
the fore-runner of Capture NX and thus does not support the latest
D-SLR cameras and is no longer distributed. If you have already
purchased a copy you can download the latest software updates."
Click to expand...
You raised a valid issue. Technological obsolescence and associated issues are something we have to deal with anyway these days. I'm assuming however that Capture NX can open Nikon Capture files including the adjustments.

--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
 
I'm currently shooting primarily with a pair of D2h bodies, and have adopted a RAW+JPEG Fine workflow. I go into Capture 4.4.2 if I need to do a lot of extensive tweaking, but I use Photo Mechanic to make my selects using the JPEG's, then import the corresponding NEF into Photoshop CS 2 via the Nikon NEF plug-in rather than Adobe Camera RAW. I almost always shoot with in-camera sharpening set to "none" and the in-camera tone compensation set to "less contrast". The NEF plug-in allows me to make a white balance change to a different preset if needed, and I can also dial in some minor exposure correction.

On a somewhat related note, I have found after much trial and error that shooting with no in-camera sharpening and the tone compensation set to "less sharpening" yields the best results by far in the D2h when shooting @ ISO 400 or higher. With this technique, even JPEG's are quite usuable, but have less exposure latitude and are less forgiving of white balance errors at capture. I don't hesitate to shoot all the way up to ISO 1600, although I do use a touch of Noise Ninja when I'm in that range.
 
Shingo said:
Roger T. said:
Capture 4.4.2 is good, but that's the end of the line for the
straight Capture software. According to Nikon, "Nikon Capture is
the fore-runner of Capture NX and thus does not support the latest
D-SLR cameras and is no longer distributed. If you have already
purchased a copy you can download the latest software updates."
Click to expand...
You raised a valid issue. Technological obsolescence and associated
issues are something we have to deal with anyway these days. I'm
assuming however that Capture NX can open Nikon Capture files
including the adjustments.
Click to expand...
So far NX seems to pick up all the 4.4.2 edits, but I don't think you can edit a file with NX and then go back to 4.4.2 ....

I still prefer to use 4.4.2, because I've gotten used to it (and my WACOM tablet likes it -- I wish they'd fix that!) but it's orphan software.

--
Roger

http://tinius-photo.com/Roger
 
i love the "send to camera" feature for whitebalance in the old capture, it proves vital for me for my various indoor work , if nx gets that im sold. until then i hope they update 4.4.2 with support for the new camera when it comes out.
 
I'm still using Capture 4.4.2 as well. The workflow took me a while to get used to but now I like it. It is a little slow, however.

As for my workflow, I have one basic set of adjustments saved that I usually apply to all of my raw images. It includes many enhancements but leaves exposure compensation and white balance alone. Those are the only two things I usually have to tweak.

If you want a copy of my adjustment file, I'll send it to you.

--
Bryan V.
P.S. I've had amnesia for as long as I can remember.
 
Shingo said:
YOTS said:
RAW conversion in Aperture is damn good in my opinion. Images look
just how I want them to look. Maybe it's you and not the software.
Click to expand...
The trial period of Aperture has expired so I can't go back and
retry, but are you basing your observation on d2h images shot under
mixed lights?

--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
Click to expand...
No I'm basing it on a D200 under mixed light. Natural, Flash and Natural/Flash.

Maybe it's something with the camera?
--
http://www.yearofthesheep.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yearofthesheep/
 
Shingo said:
I've been struggling with raw conversion of D2h files for some time.
Tried ACR, Aperture, Lightroom, and trial versions of a couple of
other converters. [...] I found out last night that v4.4.2 is out (for
many months...duh), downloaded & installed it...WOW. [...]
Click to expand...
Shingo183608 said:
Results are beautiful so far, but I have a lot to learn about NC in
order to make it my main raw converter. I'd appreciate if you can
point me to some good tutorials & readings for Nikon Capture. I'm
really especially interested in the workflow aspect of NC.
Click to expand...
After doing a study of how Nikon Capture 4.4.2's automatic control of
chromatic aberration, particular in wide angles, I've come to the strong
conclusion that all shots using lenses of a 50mm or below should be processed
in this way. Results of my study can be found here:

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1030&message=21911067

If there is any other converter that automatically does a job that's as
good or better at Capture does in such situations, I have not heard about
it, but would certainly like to learn. Certainly neither Photoshop Element
5's reduced ACR nor dcraw/ufraw offer anything this clean, fast, easy, and
dramatic.

--tom
 
Thanks. I also use the d70, but I find d70 raw files much easier to process than d2h files, and by the look of other people's d200 pictures I have a feeling that d200 files aren't particularly problematic either.

I should probably post some examples of what I'm talking about.
YOTS said:
Shingo said:
YOTS said:
RAW conversion in Aperture is damn good in my opinion. Images look
just how I want them to look. Maybe it's you and not the software.
Click to expand...
The trial period of Aperture has expired so I can't go back and
retry, but are you basing your observation on d2h images shot under
mixed lights?

--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
Click to expand...
No I'm basing it on a D200 under mixed light. Natural, Flash and
Natural/Flash.

Maybe it's something with the camera?
--
http://www.yearofthesheep.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yearofthesheep/
Click to expand...
--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
 
jimm94 said:
make my selects using the JPEG's, then import the corresponding NEF
into Photoshop CS 2 via the Nikon NEF plug-in rather than Adobe
Camera RAW. I almost always shoot with in-camera sharpening set to
Click to expand...
This plug-in never worked for me for photos shot under difficult lighting situations.
jimm94 said:
On a somewhat related note, I have found after much trial and error
that shooting with no in-camera sharpening and the tone
compensation set to "less sharpening" yields the best results by
far in the D2h when shooting @ ISO 400 or higher. With this
Click to expand...
Agree. These are my default settings as well. But I'm not sill 100% happy with the low contrast setting, and thinking about Googling to see if anyone has good custom curves.

--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
 
dbvand said:
As for my workflow, I have one basic set of adjustments saved that
I usually apply to all of my raw images. It includes many
enhancements but leaves exposure compensation and white balance
alone. Those are the only two things I usually have to tweak.
Click to expand...
I'm experimenting with the custom adjustment files. I'm already saving a lot of time by using adjustment files. Actually, I'm getting used to Nikon Capture's user interface. What I cannot get used to is the enormous lags I experience for certain adjustments.
dbvand said:
If you want a copy of my adjustment file, I'll send it to you.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I think I'm figuring out my favourite settings myself.

--
Shingo
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55107853@N00/
 
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