Author Topic: Nikon Capture NXD  (Read 9200 times)

Rich lane

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Nikon Capture NXD
« on: October 17, 2016, 20:52:54 »
I have always used lightroom for my raw editing and looking after my files etc
Having just upgraded my computer I decided to install Capture NXD as well to see what it is like .I have had a little play with a few D500 files already, but was Interested in what other peoples thoughts were about using it as part of their editing process.
Many thanks In advance Rich

David H. Hartman

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #1 on: October 17, 2016, 20:56:32 »
I slowly changed from Capture NX2 to Capture NX-D over a period of months. I use Capture NX-D almost 100% to develop and finish up in Photoshop CS2.

Nikon changed over from CNX2 to CNX-D in a panic. CNX-D was very much a beta program when it was released as a finished program and the interface is very different from CNX2 so many people despised it. Also it lacked features owned by Nik a software company bought by Google.

I've gotten used to CNX-D and although I don't own a camera that is not supported by CNX2 I'm using CNX-D 100% now. It does a great job and its interface is different not bad. CNX-D allows me to use the latest Nikon Picture Controls. PC(s) are presets that one can apply in camera and change in post if needed.

That's my ha' penney on the subject.

Dave Hartman

I tried developing D300 NEF(s) in Photoshop's Camera RAW (not sure of name) and did not care for the results. Maybe if I had used it more I'd have gain skill and received better results. A friend's cockatoo bit the screen and the person who gave me the computer wasn't able to transfer CS3 to me so I haven't used Photoshop to develop NEF(s) since.
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arthurking83

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #2 on: October 17, 2016, 23:01:15 »
I still can't get used to it!

....

Nikon changed over from CNX2 to CNX-D in a panic ......  Also it lacked features owned by Nik a software company bought by Google.

......

I don't think that the traditional and ubiquitous brush tool is a feature owned by Nik, so it's absence in NX-D is one of intrigue!

Things I don't like(in no particular order)
Can't tag the raw file directly. I prefer the old way of adding keywords to the actual NEF file so that once each file is indexed, you can search or simply just see what it contains from the keywording embedded in the NEF file.
Again, no localised editing tools to speak of. LCH can help a little, but it's not really enough. Especially problematic for stuff like sharpening tho. Sometimes all you may want is a small spot of sharpening on the detail and not to sharpen blurred out or single solid colour areas as well. Major backward step from CNX2.

Slow, Slow as hell, tediously glacial and pretty much unusable in terms of speed.
I never really had issues with either VNX or CNX2 in terms of speed.
I recently updated my PC to modern-ish standards, and it's plenty fast for my uses.
In fact the old PC was too, but I felt a need to update at a reasonable cost.
CNX2 and VNX2 are now blistering! just about anything I do is instant thanks to very fast SSDs for cache and main system.
Images stored on the SSDs just happen instantly now in CNX2/VNX2, where they may have been a 1-2sec delay in CNX2 previously.
(note that my HDD speed has jumped from 100MB/s to 500-1600MB/s .. which explains it).
It's not coded well to run on a 4K screen. It works, but is difficult to view.

But CNX-D still refuses to play quickly. It feels(although I haven't yet tested) the same as it did on my old PC. New PC hardware specs are at least 4-8x faster/more in most respects than the old one.
I thought RAM may help so that it could cache more data into ram and operate more efficiently .. but NUP! .. nada! still slow.

I still persevere with it tho, mainly in the hope that one day it may actually become useful.

I do remember the old days when VNX was totally useless in many ways until they morphed it into VNX2 too .. so here's hoping.


OH! and I'm not being hard/harsh on CNX-D either! .. just truthful I think.
But I recently had this mad idea to have a peek at Sigma's SPP(v 6.something).
I was curious on their Fovenon sensor and X3F files.
it makes CNX-D look slick by way of speed comparison! :D
In browser mode SPP is OK-ish but does display some interesting anomalies(I'm going to look into one day).
A little convoluted tho when it comes to edit mode. it's not obvious how to get there or do it!
You need to open an new window and then another step to click on the Adjustments tool to reveal the necessary tools.
It's something you need to see to believe! .. and then we're talking a new level of speed restrictions here!

So if viewed from one perspective CNX-D is awfully hopeless(coming from CNX/VNX 2's) .. but when viewed from an outside perspective(ie. having now tried SPP!) .. it's amazing!
Arthur

Akira

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #3 on: October 17, 2016, 23:20:39 »
I find it an excellent raw converter with mild amount of editing function that makes the best of NEF files.  Also, it has more Nikkor lens data than ACR for the correction of aberrations.  Yes, it is very slow, but it only allows simple editing anyway, so I could live with that.
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David H. Hartman

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #4 on: October 18, 2016, 05:14:41 »
I do not like side car files so I use the "Save all settings" feature and treat the side cars as CNX-D's temporary files.

I'm confused by those who find CNX-D slow. I'll have to fire up CNX2 again to see what fast is. I'm doing my post processing on a 3.5 gHz quad core i7 Intel. Windows 7 and programs are served up from an SSD. I have 16GB of RAM with room for expansion.

I also have 24" 2.4 gHz duo core iMAC. CNX-D is pretty slow on that. I copied VNX2 on to the iMAC and it runs fine. I had problems with VNX-i so I deleted it from the MAC.

Dave
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pluton

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #5 on: October 18, 2016, 07:53:24 »
I have a Mac w/16gb RAM, i7 2.8GHz quad core and SSD.  NX-D is too slow to use.
Keith B., Santa Monica, CA, USA

Øivind Tøien

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2017, 14:59:24 »
I upgraded to the latest version of CNX-D and ViewNXi, ver. 1.45.  Editing went fairly well in CNX-D - that is until I tried converting my files. After pressing the start button the list of files to be converted comes up but nothing more happens, no signs of any activity.  :o  Am I missing something here using the wrong procedure? I would be interested if this behavior can be reproduced by someone else running Windows 7. Luckily the edits were fairly simple and ViewNXi was able to convert the files...
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Lorne

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #7 on: June 13, 2017, 21:59:13 »
I upgraded to the latest version of CNX-D and ViewNXi, ver. 1.45.  Editing went fairly well in CNX-D - that is until I tried converting my files. After pressing the start button the list of files to be converted comes up but nothing more happens, no signs of any activity.

I would be interested if this behavior can be reproduced by someone else running Windows 7.

I can't answer for a Win7 pc, but had no troubles making similar conversions with my MBP13 &CNX-D 1.4.5

Did you try clearing any cache for CNX-D? Did you try restarting your pc.
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David H. Hartman

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #8 on: June 13, 2017, 22:34:46 »
I upgraded to the latest version of CNX-D and ViewNXi, ver. 1.45.  Editing went fairly well in CNX-D - that is until I tried converting my files. ~~~

I only updated to CNX-D v1.4.5 a day ago. I'm running a batch conversion now to JPG. It's running as it should. My OS on this computer is Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1. I haven't tried my iMAC since updating.

Now I've tried a single conversion to TIF and an Open With to Photoshop and everything is normal.

If you just updated and it worked fine before something must have going wrong with the update. I would try deleting the cache folder as just recommended. The cache is located where it's set in Edit> Preferences> General>. If that doesn't work I'd try uninstalling the program and reinstalling it. I would download a fresh copy of CNX-D from Nikon first.

Dave Hartman
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Øivind Tøien

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2017, 00:23:31 »
Thanks for confirming, David. When you say batch conversion, is that done though the convert files dialog or the batch dialog?
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Airy

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2017, 00:56:09 »
I use C NX-D on my Surface 4 laptop (SSD drive), and it is fast enough there. However, for quick-and-dirty RAW editing, I'd use View NX-D that is much quicker. Generally speaking I like the rendering, probably more that LR6 at low ISO.
Airy Magnien

David H. Hartman

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #11 on: June 14, 2017, 02:00:10 »
Thanks for confirming, David. When you say batch conversion, is that done though the convert files dialog or the batch dialog?

It looks to me like the same code at work for both batch and single conversation. I used batch for NEF(s) to JPG(s) and single shot for NEF to TIF.

If there is a utility to completely clean the registry of CNX-D I'd run that and then download a new copy of CNX-D and install it. That's if blowing the cache didn't work. There seems to be a lack of error code here.
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Øivind Tøien

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #12 on: June 14, 2017, 03:30:01 »
It looks to me like the same code at work for both batch and single conversation. I used batch for NEF(s) to JPG(s) and single shot for NEF to TIF.

If there is a utility to completely clean the registry of CNX-D I'd run that and then download a new copy of CNX-D and install it. That's if blowing the cache didn't work. There seems to be a lack of error code here.

A thought: Did you install from the CNX-D installer only or the combined ViewNXi & CNX-D installer?

Edit: I see that you likely mean ViewNXi for the quick conversions so answer would be both.

BTW the conversion in ViewNXi is rather silent. No message or anything showing the progress as far as I can see, just working in the background and doing the job.
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Lorne

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #13 on: June 14, 2017, 07:43:12 »
BTW the conversion in ViewNXi is rather silent. No message or anything showing the progress as far as I can see, just working in the background and doing the job.

On the Mac version of V-NXi a progress bar is displayed to the top left, just below the Browse Map Edit Web buttons.
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Frank Fremerey

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Re: Nikon Capture NXD
« Reply #14 on: June 14, 2017, 10:40:08 »
After a lot of experience with the program I use NX-D almost exclusively for my Nikon files.
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