Mac and Nikon

Very new to Mac (not actually bought one yet) PC on last legs and impressed with a demo I had at an Apple Store so may take the plunge.

I use a Nikon D200 and D70 and generally use Capture 4.x, Nikon Editor and Paint Shop Pro for editing. Had a quick demo of Aperture and looked pretty good but would like some opinions from Nikon users who use/used Aperture and Capture 4 / NX etc for editing on which is considered best. Personal preference of course.

Any opinions appreciated.

--
http://www.dbphotographic.smugmug.com

Hello,

I use both Mac and Nikon and for all my commercial and personal work and I've had nothing but positive experiences. My Macs are fast and reliable and since I'm a visual person, they seem much simpler to use than a PC, with all of its menus and B drives, etc.

The Mac operating system and Nikon software work well together, though I believe I've heard that Leopard and Nikon Capture 4.x are not compatible, so if you buy a new Mac, you'll have to use Nikon Capture NX. Nikon isn't supporting Capture anymore, so sooner or later that program will fade into the sunset anyway. Capture NX works well, though it has it's own set of issues that have nothing to do with Apple. NX as you know, is pretty slow and its interface dictates that you work on one photo at a time. However, I get the best raw conversions with NX and with its U-Point Technology I can skip a lot of time in Photoshop. So I use NX for all my commercial work when I want the best results.

For working on family vacations and any events I shoot where I have numerous images, I use Apple's Aperture. I tried both Lightroom and Aperture with my D2x raw files and preferred the Aperture conversions. They have more life to them and seem to come closer to reproducing the camera settings I'm used to seeing in Capture NX. I use Aperture to catalog all my photos, both for work and personal. I think Lightroom may be easier to use right out of the box--Aperture is a hefty program and it took me awhile to get up to speed. However, I just didn't care for Lightroom's conversions of my raw files and I found that many others on dpreview liked the Nikon and Aperture combination better as well. Of course this is only an opinion, so the best thing you can do is download both trial versions and decide for yourself.

If you make the jump, I think you'll be very pleased with the way everything works together. Good luck!

Stuart

DaveB_UK said:

I use a Nikon D200 and D70 and generally use Capture 4.x, Nikon
Editor and Paint Shop Pro for editing. Had a quick demo of Aperture
and looked pretty good but would like some opinions from Nikon users
who use/used Aperture and Capture 4 / NX etc for editing on which is
considered best. Personal preference of course.

Click to expand...

I use Aperture with my D200 and D100 photos, and before that I used Nikon Capture 4.x

The output of Nikon capture looks great, but it is slow, and not very good for working with large numbers of photos (unless the changes are identical - the batch mode is pretty darn good). The latest versions of Aperture (1.5 for sure, maybe it was 1.1) seems to evened up the score a bit, in my opinion. I still white balance adjustments are easier with Capture, and probably the tilt tool (come on Apple, why can't I just draw a line to say what I want to be horizontal or vertical!), but just about everything else (RAW conversion, editing tools, speed) is better with Aperture. Plus, Aperture is actually useful when it comes to managing your photos, and it is much easier to embed metadata (IPTC, etc.) with Aperture.

I find that with my D200, I take a lot more pictures than I used to. Aperture makes it easy to pick the winners and not waste time with the losers. With Capture, I found myself trying to tweak every photo, but maybe that's just my lack of a decent workflow.

Sometimes I fire up Capture and try to fix up a picture that needs special treatment, but not very often anymore. Maybe I am becoming a better photographer (I hope). Rarely I will shoot tethered, too. Capture still is better for that (based on my limited experience).

Not much to add to the very good replies above other than to say I love the combo of aperture and my d40x.

Thanks for the responses guys, much appreciated.

My biggest concern is that I think the RAW conversion from Nikon Software is outstanding, I'd find it difficult to use something else if the conversion isn't as good. I've not used a great deal of other software (on my PC) few demo's mainly and always prefered Capture. Hense why I'm trying to determine whether to go Apature or not.

It would be easy if I'd actually bought a Mac as I would download the demo (and probably others) then make up my mind. But still not 100% sure whether to swap from PC to MAc....Too many years with Windows )

Cheers
--
http://www.dbphotographic.smugmug.com

Nikon has a version for Mac OS X.

I use Aperture for sorting, rating, making galleries (it's fantastic for that) etc and then export masters to edit or batch in Capture NX. Sometimes I'll just edit in Aperture, but if I have time CApture NX gives better NEF.

DaveB_UK said:

Thanks for the responses guys, much appreciated.

My biggest concern is that I think the RAW conversion from Nikon
Software is outstanding, I'd find it difficult to use something else
if the conversion isn't as good. I've not used a great deal of other
software (on my PC) few demo's mainly and always prefered Capture.
Hense why I'm trying to determine whether to go Apature or not.

It would be easy if I'd actually bought a Mac as I would download the
demo (and probably others) then make up my mind. But still not 100%
sure whether to swap from PC to MAc....Too many years with Windows )

Cheers
--
http://www.dbphotographic.smugmug.com

Click to expand...

You will NOT be disappointed with Aperture conversions! I really love them and I am picky! But, you can also use Capture NX for special images if you really want too.

What you need to know is that Aperture really uses the graphics card. So, when people talk about it being slow, that is a function of their graphics card. If you get a Mac, get the best graphics card you can. The new iMac 24" machines run Aperture well. I have a MacPro with the Radeon 512MB graphics card, and I don't see ANY slowness. I LOVE aperture. Go to an Apple Store if you can and try it on different machines.

The one thing that you should know is that as of today, the only way to convert RAW files from the Nikon D300 and D3 is Capture NX and Photoshop Raw. Aperture will not convert these Raw files yet. I expect Aperture to add these cameras in the next month or so. I just wanted to be up front.

kevin

And I don't think Capture NX is officially supported on OS X 10.5 (Leopard) yet, so you may run into problems with it on new Macs.

PK

I recently switched to mac from Windows -- I have an imac 24" running Leopard. It runs NX just fine -- actually, much faster than my PC did.

I don't have Aperture but have been using iphoto. I like iphoto in many ways but I have not figured out its organizational structure yet. This brings up my main point -- switching isn't quite as easy as everyone makes it out to be. Mac is different from Windows, although there are similarities. It takes some effort to become proficient.

With respect to images, you will be forced to take a different approach to storage. That is because mac is much less reliant on an independent folder strategy, such as the one that Windows employs. What I mean is that (at least as it appears to me after a month of use) that in Windows, you can go to a folder through Windows Explorer, add images, edit them in whatever program you choose, etc. In mac, the folders seem to be associated directly with the application. So if you want to add images to the folders you created through Aperture, for example, you have to open Aperture first.

The mac approach seems easier (who really wants to spend their time managing directories) but it takes some getting used to.

If my observations or wrong, I hope someone tells me -- I'd appreciate the help!

Steve

It's only certain applications on Mac that manager their own files within the application and store them differently from the usual folder structure. Aperture is one of them - it stores files in the Aperture Library (which incidentally you can get to through the normal file view, but you have to select Show Package Contents first, then navigate, but the structure is complicated). You can also choose to store your photos in your own folder structures as you would on Windows, and have Aperture 'reference' them.

So, apart from some applications that manager their own files, folder/file management is essentially the same between Windows and Mac.

Is the same "folder reference option" available in iphoto? I'm actually considering buying Aperture because its file management systerm more flexible and easier to navigate.

Steve

(if ) you love Nikon Capture 4.4.2 (as I do), Tiger runs it, Leopard does not.

When you buy a new mac now, some have Tiger (with a Leopard disc included for future)

My machine was one of those Tiger/Leopard machines. Alas, I doubt I can go back -- I too love Caputer 4.x.

Steve

On second thought, ability to use Nikon Capture doesn't get at my question about file/folder structure.

I generally like iphoto, but the problem I have with it is the program imports images into discrete events (i.e., party). I don't know how (or if it is possible) to create subfolders within an event (i.e., "raw" and "jpgs"). I also don't know how to import my existing library of images, stored in a folder> subfolder> sub-subfolder configuration into iphoto in a way that makes them at all usable. if I could do these things, I'd be a happy camper.

Can I do this in Aperture?

Steve

I have a Nikon D70 and was a Capture user with the Dell desktop. I just bought the iMac last week and love it. I have transferred some pics to it and enjoy rhe difference. Currently I use iPhoto to organize them and am satisfied. Would have preferred Picassa but may go to the Apple version of capture whatever is the name of it. I think you will enjoy the improvement. John
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HOOAH!

DCSteve said:

Can I do this in Aperture?

Click to expand...

Yes. It will treat the subfolders as albums. I suggest you download the free trial and see if it works for you - both personally and hardware-wise.