NPhoto

100% NIKON 100% INDEPENDENT

With all the excitement over the new the Nikon D4s (see p86), it would be easy to overlook another more controversial Nikon news item. Nikon also has a new image-editing tool, Capture NX-D. This is available as a free beta for anyone to try at http://beta.nikonimglib.com, and will eventually replace Nikon Capture NX2.

The bad news is that the new program is much less powerful. It can carry out RAW conversions in the same way, but doesn’t have the control points, masks and multiple adjustment steps that make Nikon Capture NX2 so powerful.

In fact, NX-D looks remarkably similar to a program called SilkyPix, which is used by a number of camera makers as a free bundled RAW converter. Is Nikon swapping to a

generic software tool rather than developing its own? At the very least, we would want to see the software faithfully reproducing the Picture Controls and white balance settings we’re used to from Nikon D-SLRs.

Capture NX-D will be free, but that won’t be much consolation to Capture NX2 fans, so we look forward to seeing if extra features will follow in the finished version. You can find out more in our new Capture NX-D series, starting this month on page 70. Rod Lawton concludes that it has much more in common with the Nikon ViewNX 2 program currently supplied free with all Nikon D-SLRs, but download the program for yourself, and let Nikon know what you think! Chris George, Editor chris@nphotomag.com