Capture NX- D update with color control point

[Frode]

For those who might be interested:

https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/download/sw/118.html

[Jan Anne]

Downloading, thanks 

Hope its also a little faster, somehow it isn't able to fully utilise the horsepower of my MacBook Pro to process 20MP files which has no problem with editing 42MP files in Capture One.

[Frode]

Downloading, thanks 

Hope its also a little faster, somehow it isn't able to fully utilise the horsepower of my MacBook Pro to process 20MP files which has no problem with editing 42MP files in Capture One.

It`s definitely faster on my older MacBook. I might start to use it again :-).

[Akira]

Thank you, Frode, for the note!

Hopefully this version will enable me to unsubscribe CC.   

[Bjørn J]

Much faster! Control points at last, and together with my favourite tool the LCH-editor makes this version NX-D what it should have been all the time.  In terms of quality, this is one of the best NEF-developers available.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

This seems like a good release. It seemed faster and did not crash yet. 

Color control points are good to have, but I often preferred to paint a mask with the selection brush and make adjustments to it using NX2. This type of feature doesn't seem to be yet supported in NX-D. It's important because color control points applied on the face leave eyes dark, which can create an unnatural impression.

Still, it is good to see improvements to NX-D.

[arthurking83]

Just installed.
Much nicer than previous versions.
Makes it usable. Uses a ton of CPU tho on my machine. Just had a quick play on a random D800E image with the CCP, and CPU fan spun up like crazy whilst doing very simple edits.
But, NX-D still kept moving along at a steady pace.
I didn't have the time to go make a cuppa during any of the editing whilst waited for screen to refresh, like I used too with previous versions. 

[MFloyd]

Installed. Just to make a brief assessment. Might be, finally, the real successor of the Capture NX2 version. Just too late (for me).

(*) I still have an unopened 2.0 CD-ROM version (with key) in house.

[Akira]

Installed and tried briefly.  It looks promising.  The control point is handy.

If I understand correctly, NX-D is based on Silkypix, and the control point is the patented technology of NIK software.  NIK was bought by Google, which was why CNX was discontinued, and then by DxO.

Now, I wonder how Nikon was able to inplement the control point again in NX-D?  Is it licenced by DxO?

[Ilkka Nissilä]

I guess these software are a combination of Nikon code (the actual raw conversion) and software written by their partners (which they rarely talk about).

I am sure DxO is happier to work with Nikon (especially if they are in some financial trouble) than Google was. If the software got faster and less crash prone, as it seems to have, and got features (control points) that DxO now owns the rights to, then perhaps it is a result of Nikon having hired DxO to fix NX-D.

[Akira]

Thank you, Ilkka, for sharing your thoughts.

The latest NX-D operates noticeably faster than the old version I tried briefly in the past and didn't really liked.

I'm not sure the software is completely converted from Silypix-based to DxO-based, but the improvements of the latest NX-D is enthusiastically welcome.

I'm seriously thinking about unsubscribing Adobe CC.  I won't be able to do stitching anymore then, but I might be able to find an alternative way.   

[Matthew Currie]

I don't have Adobe so I don't know how their stitching works, but if you don't mind converting to JPG first, there is a free Microsoft program called ICE which works pretty well, and might be worth a try. 

[arthurking83]

So I've been having a bit more of a play with NX-D.

And interesting 'observation' I just noted:
I downloaded some more sample Z7 NEFs, popped them into CNX-D and had a look at the picture control settings.

I note that they are a bit more advanced than the D850 Picture Control settings.

Both images from both cameras can be made to look 99.9999% identical when settings are 'equalised'.
I put equalised into quotation marks because they're not really equal, just the same settings applied.

What's different:

D850 has a single sharpening setting, from 0-9(ie. 10 levels, 0 being off)

Z7 has two different sharpening systems, one of which is the sharpening as the D850 has, but it also has an additional 'mid range' sharpening tool.
And further to this is that the slider/values dip below 0, and into negative territory, where the values range between -3 to 9.

Both still have the clarity slider as well.
More accurately the Z7's Picture Control has a Quick Sharpen tool, that controls all three sharpening tools. The Quick Sharpen merely controls the Sharpen/Mid Range Sharpen and Clarity sliders at the same time(as in a batch mode style). Quick Sharpen has a -2 to 2 range

The other point of note with respect to PP control is with respect to noise reduction.

On the D850(as well as just about every other DSLR NEF file I've had played with in Nikon software, you can turn off NR 'completely' using the Capture softwares(both NX2 and NX-D).
So if you shoot at high ISO, you can turn NR off, and see the results of that setting(increased chroma noise and increased acuity in fine detail)

Nikon have changed it with the Z7.
With the same ISO 12800 sample images, there is no option to go manual in the NR tool. And it's obvious that there is some NR applied to the image as it's relative chroma noise level is less than the similar D850 file, and it loses quite a considerable amount of acuity by comparison too.

SO it's very obvious that Nikon won't allow any manual NR tweaks at specific ISO levels with the new Picture Controls made available.
The upshot(or downside) to this is that in some cases(red details on red background in the instance I played with), the Z7 loses out on detail that the D850 collects .. all due to the inability to switch off the NR function completely on the Z7 NEF file.
note: I only downloaded the ISO64 and ISO12800 files(from IR) to play with .. so I don't yet know at what ISO setting Nikon will allow NR to be manually set.

[Akira]

I don't have Adobe so I don't know how their stitching works, but if you don't mind converting to JPG first, there is a free Microsoft program called ICE which works pretty well, and might be worth a try.

Matthew, thank you for your suggestion.  I actually tried ICE a couple of years ago.  I found it was rather a simple software which more or less just stitches rectangular frames side by side, leaving the stitching artefact quite obvious: the lines across the frames are not properly connected.

On the other hand, Photomerge (the stitching function in Adobe CC) stitches the frames with complicated stiching lines so that the stiches are not obvious.  And the lines across the frames are connected pretty well with occasional misses of very thin lines like the power lines.

Even Photomerge in older version of CC left the stitching artefacts more than that in the current CC, so the current version of ICE may be improved.  But, I think that the limitation of the facility of ICE could stil persist, so long as it just connects rectangular frames side by side.

[Akira]

So I've been having a bit more of a play with NX-D.

D850 has a single sharpening setting, from 0-9(ie. 10 levels, 0 being off)

Z7 has two different sharpening systems, one of which is the sharpening as the D850 has, but it also has an additional 'mid range' sharpening tool.
And further to this is that the slider/values dip below 0, and into negative territory, where the values range between -3 to 9.

Thank you, Arthur, for the detailed review.

When Nikon added "Flat" picture control on, IIRC, D810, they enabled NX-D to apply it to the NEF images of older models that didn't have the "Flat" setting like D7000 I used at that time.

So, hopefully Nikon would do the same thing with the new sharpening in the (very near) future version.

As for the high-ISO noise reduction in Z7, it appears to be similar to that of Pentax K1 II on which it is applied on the hardware basis and cannot be turned off in any way.