Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon Capture NX Software for Windows and Mac

Nikon and NIK Software have given photographers shooting Nikon .NEF format (and all .jpg shooters) a powerful, flexible editing software. While not as complete as Photoshop, it does give .NEF (Nikon's proprietary RAW format) shooters just about everything needed for color adjustment, sharpening, lighting, white balance adjustment, and many other editing solutions. And the use of Capture NX's Control Points gives you much more flexibility making adjustments than with other editing software.

A major benefit when editing NEF files using NX is that the files are not degraded when making or saving changes. All details are kept the same as first recorded by the camera.

The software is easy to use right out of the box. While reading the enclosed documentation will benefit any user, it's not difficult to use from the start (even this ol' disabled guy had an easy go of it). I originally downloaded the 30-day trial from Nikon's website and was hooked! It didn't take long for the trial to expire for me to order the software through Amazon and I've used it more than any other editing package ever since. I believe that any Nikon shooter, if you try it, will buy it too.

I have been working with a D70 and Paint Shop Pro for some time now, and I'm going to tell you why Capture NX blows away PSP and other nonprofessional photo editors, and has reinvented my love for digital photography.

First, you've heard the hype, but the UPoint technology really IS a breakthrough. No more difficulty "lasso-ing" what you want to adjust. Just drop in a color point, adjust the size, and the program miraculously determines, in one second, the borders of what you want to adjust. (Somehow it can determine the borders of an object itself without being told) And, it does its job while using much less computer resource than PSP used to use.

So you blew out your girlfriend's face with backlighting? Just drop a color point on her face, then adjust the brightness, contrast and color sliders. Fixed, just on the face. No spillover onto the background. And it more powerfully did its job than the same effort on PSP.

And there's more. Capture NX allows you to instantly wipe out stray white balance or hue problems, by clicking on a gray point, and applying it to an object you know to be true gray, such as pavement. Bingo, weird color casts are eliminated. Put a black point on what you know to be black, say a car tire, and the program adjusts the tonal range of the photo to maximize depth. Same with the white point. Almost instantaneous. Yeah sure, you can also play with the CURVES feature, like I used to in PSP, but this is way, way faster.

Well, some of the features are the same as in PSP, but they just work faster, with less stress evident on my laptop. Nice photo but evergreen bushes in front are too dark? Click ADJUST COLOR, get into LCH EDITOR, then click on the evergreen to have the computer locate the exact color specification for that hue, then adjust the luminance of that color range to make it less dark, by moving a dot on a curve. Accurate, stressless on my weak computer, and AWESOME. And I learned this stuff in 3-4 hours only.

And, as a bonus, in coming to understand these features, and others like UNSHARP MASK (a misnomer; this is usually used to "sharpen" the apparent focus of a photo), I have come to understand why I (previously) wanted to upgrade my camera because I couldn't get my D70 photos to "pop" like the D80. Now I can; just saved $565 for the new D80 body. (But when the D90 comes out, get out of my way- there is no substitute for greater ISO sensitivity without noise.)

This stuff is powerful, and effective, with no unwanted artifacts (unlike those I often experienced in my PSP program). Buy this program; Nikon really knows how to execute. And nobody's going to buy them out and drop the ball on upgrades, like PSP (Corel) did.

Seamless match to Nikon cameras that shoot RAW (NEF) with features normally found in more expensive packages (U-Points must be tried to be believed). Some operations like White re-balance, highlight/lowlight recovery, and exposure compensation either cannot be done or cannot be done as well once the picture is frozen in JPEG or TIFF. Capture NX works on RAW data and does a great job of letting you change the majority of in-camera settings AFTER you have taken the shot in an easy non destructive, reversible way - better than having your own dark-room. The program is an excellent complement to Photoshop, which can then be used to cut and paste people or things in or out of the picture. As an alternative to Capture NX, Adobe Camera Raw's Photoshop plug-in is a distant second choice, unable to deal with Nikon camera settings and localized changes in as easy and seamless a way: for instance, if you want that Mode III look in ACR, you are out of luck. Capture NX keeps getting better with every new release. I have started using version 1.3 on my T7200 based laptop, and do not seem to have the speed issues of earlier versions. I am looking forward to an improved Photographer-friendly skin (here ACR's more limited and therefore simpler interface has the lead: why not bring all of the contrast/brightness controls under the same view?), a more advanced, layered D-lighting feature, and easier dust spot removal - ok, I know that we are now into cut and pasting territory, but that's typically the only reason why I have to open Photoshop. Other than that, I love this program which improves pictures so quickly and easily in a single non-destructive post processing stop before printing.

This is really nice intuitive software. It feels as though it was designed by photographers rather than computer programmers.

If you've ever produced your own prints in a darkroom, this software does those sorts of photo improvements better than any other software out there. For instance you can lighten/darken areas so easily, you just click in the area you want to work on and the software works out what area you want to affect. So you don't need to do the laborious tracing you have to do in Photoshop. It's hard to believe but the software just gets it right and does what you want! This aspect is quite magical and revolutionizes photo processing. You'll get great results faster and easier. You can also do many other traditional photographic alterations really easily, such as make beautiful sepia prints, and make black and white prints with proper contrast and tone like traditional black and white film, something other photo software struggles to achieve.

However, Nikon Capture NX lacks some of Photoshop Elements' features. For instance it has no instant spot removal tool. Capture NX is about making existing photos look great, not about changing them completely. So for instance in Photoshop I can move a person to a different place in the picture - I can 'fake' a picture. I can't in Capture NX. Capture NX is more about photography, less about gimmicks. 'Real' photographers - such as people who used to make their own prints from film in a darkroom - will love this software.

I also have Photoshop Elements, and I've decided I'll need to keep using that occasionally as well - for spot removal, changing backgrounds and the more gimmicky photo manipulations. But for general photographic use I'll be using Capture NX 90% of the time. I don't have a Nikon camera, I have a Fuji, which shows how Capture NX is good for everyone, not just Nikon owners. By the way, it's worth buying the book about it, because it's so different from other photo software (but actually far easier) that you might not realize how to use it unless you read a book on it.

Overall, Nikon Capture seems a little expensive - I reckon it should really cost no more than Photoshop Elements - but is is amazing: a new milestone in photo software.

After my 30 day trial expired, I bought the software. Software is stable and I have had no problems so far with speed etc. Many options and patience is required. Best advice is to take lots of images and use the software.

Only software that interprets your Nikon in camera setting like WB, etc. After installing version 1.2 over 1.1, things slowed down. I would recommend deleting version 1.1 and installing version 1.2 from Nikon website. Version 1.2 seems much fster.

Bill