NIKON D200

[GRIFF]

Hi Just got my hands on a Nikon d200 this is my first digital SLR camera I have Nikon f4 film I will keep to play with black and white.
my question is witch is a good easy program to use to upload picture to my laptop thanks Griff

[Cap]

Get a copy of Capture NX2 (Nikon | Imaging Products | CaptureNX2)

Its the best program to read the NEF files from your NIKON as its made by Nikon

[Chucaro]

If you are taken the images in nef, there is not other option than Capture NX2 if you like to keep the data as it comes from the camera.
Capture NX2 is very slow, so you can do the main PP in it, then save as tif and do all the rest in Adobe or other software.
If you are taken the images in jpg, then use anyprogram becaus all the important data it is lost in the conversion.

[300+]

My Dad's NEF files are happily processed by Lightroom. I'm not sure if I'm missing features over capture NX, but it certainly works.

Cheers, Steve

[Chucaro]

My Dad's NEF files are happily processed by Lightroom. I'm not sure if I'm missing features over capture NX, but it certainly works.

Cheers, Steve

Steve, Nikon did not give the algorithms to any 3rd party software house, so they cannot read the Nikon on camera data.
I have PP images for my old D200 with PS and capture NX2 and I can telling you that the colors alone of the images opened with Capture blow away the quality of the ones opened with PS.

[flagg]

Um, yes .NEF is a closed format..

But - you will find that Lightroom / Bibble / Capture 1 et all are vastly superior to Nikon NX really in every way. (including image quality / usability / speed and system requirements)

WRT people saying that the images look better in NX - this will be due to image processing defaults, not the capability of the software itself.

I would be really surprised if you found a single professional photographer using camera OEM software. I don't mean to troll here, just to point out that not only non OEM software is there, it is considered by most to be significantly superior.

photo management software | Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 US $299

Introducing Bibble 5 US $199

What's new - Phase One US 399

Are the ones that I have used. I recommend Bibble Pro.

[Chucaro]

Oh well Flagg,we have to agree to disagree
"I would be really surprised if you found a single professional photographer using camera OEM software. I don't mean to troll here, just to point out that not only non OEM software is there, it is considered by most to be significantly superior."
Wrong 100%

[dmdigital]

First off Capture NX2 is developed by NIK software for Nikon. The U-point technology it uses is very very good and it is definitely the best at getting the most out of NEF files.

That said Aperture 3 and ACR 6.1 (Photoshop CS5 and Lightroom 3) are very good too. I'd put Aperture 3 above Adobe though but ACR 6.1 is far superior to the old ACR 4.x

I use Aperture as my library and I know find it's a mix of CS5 or NX2 depending on what I want to get out of the image. If its general enhancements that I know are better in NX2 than Aperture I usually go with NX2. If its more advanced editing then its Photoshop.

Interestingly Thom Hogan has an article today on just this subject.

[flagg]

Oh well Flagg,we have to agree to disagree
"I would be really surprised if you found a single professional photographer using camera OEM software. I don't mean to troll here, just to point out that not only non OEM software is there, it is considered by most to be significantly superior."
Wrong 100%

Fair enough I'm happy to be wrong. Out of interest, what do you find in NX that LR, BB, C1, Apeture etc do not do / do not do as well?

[Chucaro]

Fair enough I'm happy to be wrong. Out of interest, what do you find in NX that LR, BB, C1, Apeture etc do not do / do not do as well?

It is what I have said before, ACR as an example ignores the settings on the camera and have a "plain" raw or nef file because Nikon did not gave the data of their software.
My images opened on NX2 are more neat in every respect to the ones opened in ACR.
I do not like the speed of NX2 so after opening the nef files in NX@ and do basic PP (exposure, WB and U-point)I save them in tif and use PSCS3.