Lightroom, CaptureNX2 or what?

wonko

wonko

wonko

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Hi all, I'm looking for a bit of advice and would appreciate any input.

I've recently bought a D7000, and am starting to get to grips with it. I'm now after some software to process NEF (RAW) files beyond what the free ViewNX2 can do, and am after something fairly intuitive to use that can be used occasionally to tweak the 'good ones' without having to re-learn it every time.

I originally had Lightroom in mind, and from dabbling with the trial version it seems very good. However, it seems that it doesn't import the NEF files with the camera's exposure settings as the 'starting point', which I think means you've got to build import profiles and manually tweak as required for all photos, which sounds like more effort than working on only the selected few.

So, any thoughts and suggestions please? Is Lightroom still likely to be the best for what I'm after, or would something like Nikon's Capture NX2 be a better option?

Thanks!
 
Thanks for the replies. Lightroom gets all the votes so far.

@Nexus & ManCuBus - Ta, I've got a few days of the LR trial period left, so I'll have a go at making an import preset that gets the nefs close to the camera's jpgs.

I'll see how far I get over the weekend...
 
Thanks again to everyone for the advice.
As a quick update, I bought LR4 and am slowly getting to grips with the basics (but lots to learn about it and the D7000). Workflow is currently to copy from the camera using ViewNX2, then import using a preset that gives a starting point that is similar to the camera's jpg. That may well change as I play with LR more.
I've just posted one here in the 'post you pictures here' thread - hopefully I'm on the right track :)
 
The pain of learning/swapping tools was a pretty big factor to me, and I ended up going for LR because it seemed quick to get to grips with, at least at a basic level. I can see myself as an intermittent user, so to some degree I'll be going up the same learning curve every time I use it! On top of that, I wasn't sure how good CaptureNX might be at handling non-Nikon images, plus LR was a bit cheaper so everything pointed that way.

alexthecheese said:
Are there any deals on Lightroom at the moment? I've had the trial, enjoyed it, but now it's finished I can't afford the £100 to buy the licence.
Click to expand...

Not that I found a week or two ago, unless you're a student - it's about £60 but has some license restrictions like not being able to resell it. Oh to be a student again :(
 
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