Jason Odell's Capture Nx2 guide

[fwellers]

Does anybody have any experience learning Nikon Capture Nx2 through Jason's guide ? I'm ready to purchase this but thought I'd give one last shot asking the users at my home forum here what they think of the guide. I really need a shot in the arm as far as my PP goes with that product.

The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX 2.0

Thanks,
floyd

 

[JerryPH]

Don't take it wrong... but Capture NX is not all that complex, and on top of that, due to Nikon's inability to come out with a proper software, I would look eslewhere (ie: LightRoom 2) and spend money learning that.

In comparison to it's competition, NX is clunky, a memory hog, slow and does 1/10th what the competition does... which means your pics don't come out looking all that impressive in comparison.

If your heart is set on NX... it depends on how much time and how good of a self-learner you are. NX is not all that complex and if you've had it for more than a month, you may already know 3/4 of all there is to know. That would mean money tossed out the window, IMHO.

 

[fwellers]

Well I'm gonna disagree with you a bit there. True it doesn't do anywhere near what photoshop can do, but Nx2 has some new features. It can actually repair now. Get rid of things.
Also true it is a memory hog, but since I upgraded my memory to 3gigs ( cheap ), it does much better now.

But I've read lots from people that do use it, and based on that and my own experience so far, I think it's an excellent way to post process NEF files.

I bought it a few months ago, and was regretting my decision, but now I am not so much anymore.
I've tried some of the tutorials that are free at Nikon's site and on youtube, and I realize there is quite a bit more to the software than I realized.
To my own detriment, digital post processing software isn't the easiest thing for me to pick up. Photoshop is even harder. Plus with the learning curve I am under with photography and lighting, I don't need to spend tons of time learning and pp'ing in photoshop. I think learning the ins and outs of nx2 can speed up the pp part a lot.
Yea I can give up on NX2 and dive right into Photoshop, but since I've already made the investment in the software, and am a bit familiar with it now, I'm thinking that an extra $28 for the guide would be money well spent. But I want to know if Odell's guide is good.

 

[JerryPH]

I own both (NX and LightRoom), used both for several months. I am willing to put money down that the NX supporters never tried LightRoom or never used it the same amount of time that they used NX. NX is a neaderthal club, Lightroom is a set of more comprehensive tools of everything that (what I want to say) all users who shoot in digital... SHOULD have as a bare minimum. Good cataloging, excellent post processing, ability to create slideshows and links in to PS if you want to get serious about your post processing even further.

As for if the guide is good or not... its ok, but not great... but then what do you you expect for $28, right? As I said... if you have used it for over a month, you likely already know 75% or more of what is on that guide already. If that 10-20% more info is worth that $28 for you, go for it. Personally, I would pass.

 

[fwellers]

ok thanks. It may be worth the $28 then for that extra knowledge. I have been interested in LR for a while, but it's pretty expensive for me right now. I've heard of lots of problems with the lastest version.

 

[JerryPH]

Nah nothing major, never happened to me. A few people with 32-bit systems have to download a patch for the memory leak. I never experienced it myself.

Actually, the memory leak, the way I hear it, made it run close to what NX normally runs at... lol.

I took 658 pictures last night and have looked at just 4, but I know that when I start, I can cull, catalog, backup, do 99% of needed post processing , adjust and create all 650+ final JPG pictures in about 2 hours. Let's see NX do that.

 

[fwellers]

I took 658 pictures last night and have looked at just 4, but I know that when I start, I can cull, catalog, backup, do 99% of needed post processing , adjust and create all 650+ final JPG pictures in about 2 hours. Let's see NX do that.

LOL. I doubt I'll ever run into that kind of throughput issues. I'm a beginner amature. after a week vacation I had a couple of hundered pics to process. Normally it's only 20 or so.