NIKON Capture NXD

[Goatch]

How cool , I missed that little update , how long ago did Nikon improve the NXD software with the addition of Control Point , awesome !!!

[Ross M]

How cool , I missed that little update , how long ago did Nikon improve the NXD software with the addition of Control Point , awesome !!!

Thanks for this post.

Like many people, I'm on a tight budget and always on the lookout for freebies. I realise that one generally gets what one pays for, but occasionally I am pleasantly surprised by freeware. The previously freeware Nik Collection is a good example. I use a plugin version of Nik.

I have had a quick look at the online user manual and it appears that the control points are limited to colour adjustment. What a pity it doesn't extend to other adjustments. But previous more useful Nikon Software attracted a purchase price, so I can't expect too much from freeware. In the end, I have at my disposal all the control point functionality I need in Nik, albeit after conversion to jpeg.

I am downloading this one and will have a play. It might suit shots for quicker adjustments than Lightroom. Also I notice that the more discriminating members here rate quality of various RAW converters, which is something, embarrassingly, my brain struggles with a bit in terms of subtle differences. It is possible that this one might be better than Lightroom in this regard, so I should try to evaluate this in due course.

[arthurking83]

About a year or more now.
Not sure exactly, but about that.

When first released(in beta) NX-D wasn't too bad, then from initial public release of v1.xxxx it got bad, and steadily worse.
In my situation literally unusable, buggy crashed all the time. Stopped using it completely for a while(maybe two years).
Then a couple of releases prior to v1.5.0, where CCP was made available, it did get stable to a degree, just glacially slow(actually unusably slow).
Make an edit .. and go have dinner and if you were lucky it may have updated the review image to reflect the edit.
But v1.5.0(with the CCP intro) not only brought CCP, but also usability.
Still slow(I find it slow), ViewNX2 is way faster, so NXD is now best described as less unusable.
Batch processing is quick enough(faster than both VNX2 and CNX2) .. just updating the image on screen when editing is one of those delayed processes(compared to the other two Nikon programs).


Yeah, Goatch should have been more specific .. Nikon's editing tool is called Color Control Point .. not just Control Point.

it is tied to colour editing.
By this it means you edit the entire colour tone of the specified area affected tho .. so not just colour spectrum in terms of R, G and B, but lightness, warmth, etc.
Nikon's version of CCP has always been tied to Colour.
They introduced this editing method way back in the day(~2007) having licensed it from Nik. But where Nikon evolved control point plug ins to edit (whatever they did... personally dunno, never used), Nikon only ever used Colour Control Point.
Nikon owned 1/3rd of Nik.

Google then bough Nik, mainly for Snapspeed, and destroyed the progress of CCP(or control point) in that they stopped development. They only wanted Snapspeed!
This ceased Nikon's ability to develop CCP in their software, so they chose to stop evolving CNX2 as well(now dead).

But in Nikn terms control point was only ever a colour based method of editing.
For all other edit tweaks, they had the various tools to use(brushes/gradients, etc) .. so no need to make CCP more complicated to use.
Hence why I liked it so much. Easiest way to edit.

For the couple of years between the death of CNX2 and CNX-D v1.5 I made the conscious choice to not update my cameras based on the fact that any editing would be 'harder than I'm used too', as new cameras wouldn't be supported in CNX2.
The DXO bought the Nik collection off Google, and introduced Photolab which brought back Control Point editing.
I felt a bit more comfy with that, but never 100% happy. They made Control Point just a tad more tedious .. or more finnicky/convoluted/visually messy .. where in Nikon software it's interface is 'dumbed down' .. simple.

Saying that tho, you are on the right track with pointing out that it's only colour based, as now if you want to sharpen up a localised area of an image, in CNX-D you can't.
Sharpening USM style .. is impossible .. it's the whole image or nothing for USM. This is offset somewhat in that you can just use contrast adjustment(almost the same effect).

But other localised edits that I used to be used too in CNX2, aren't possible.


On the topic of rating raw editing software: basically ignore everyone's thoughts on the topic! :p
I first bought CNX2 when it came out(back in '08).
Basically everything I needed .. except a usable clone tool.
ALl I ever read about LR(v4 back then) was great stuff! So I plonked down my $99 too .. what a load of garbage! Never worked for me.
I have no idea what's different about my PC, but everyone else complained that Nikon's software was slow.
It wasn't fast, but it wasn't as slow as other complained.
LR on the other hand was glacial(for me). screen refresh rates were abysmal with one screen .. not applicable in dual screen. That is, it just couldn't update the screens in twin screen mode.
ViewNX(back then, prior to v2) could easily do dual monitor .. CNX2 no advantage at all, so kept to single screen.
I never found any advantage in using Lr4 over Nikon's software, and to use that ability to clone was only on some unwanted format .. not the raw file(like Nikon's software did).
I trialled V5, and it was slightly better .. just hated that it took longer to ..... load up, force me to catalogue stuff I had no need to do, display the image file .. than I used to do with VNX2's load image convert and done!

So, my point is that everyone has different methods of doing things.
I rate LR as one of the worst programs I've used, but you may find it the best.
I prefer the simplest things in life .. ViewNX2(my most used software after Firefox!) .. Color Control Point editing.
I want to be in and out of my image editing duties .... ASAP!

I found DXO is a good compromise. No forced processes, just navigate to any image and edit if need be.

The other rating people used to give raw converters is on final image quality: I think I may have at some point myself. From memory Nikon's software was just easier for me to get my personally favourite look, but if I tried harder(more work) I could get them all to look 99.99% similar. I just had a lot more experience with Nikon's software.

Also note: if you do start using various raw converters, the images you initially see on the device you use(whether that's a PC/Mac/Tablet/Smartphone) .. they all render differently.
Nikon's raw converters(as would be expected) render the raw files as you captured them on the camera.
No other raw file converter will do this, DxO could be setup to be quite close, but not exact. This is just the way it is, can be redressed if you put some work into the third party raw converters initial settings tho.

Also if you do try CNX-D, I'd be curious as to your impressions re speed, usability etc. too. (just curious).