# Help,  i photo or ViewNX2



## Peatstack (Jul 15, 2013)

Hi again,
I normally use iPhoto on my MAC with my previous little P&S now I have this new Nikon d5100 which has a software disc for ViewNX 2. Is there much difference in the two programs? or do I just carry on using iPhoto?


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## SCraig (Jul 15, 2013)

Why not try both and see which one YOU prefer?


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## ShooterJ (Jul 15, 2013)

SCraig said:


> Why not try both and see which one YOU prefer?



More of this free thinking stuff! It's spreading like wildfire!

Alright.. turn around, place your hands on your head, interlock your fingers and spread your feet apart!


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## Peatstack (Jul 15, 2013)

ShooterJ said:


> SCraig said:
> 
> 
> > Why not try both and see which one YOU prefer?
> ...


Haw Haw


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## SCraig (Jul 15, 2013)

ShooterJ said:


> More of this free thinking stuff! It's spreading like wildfire!
> 
> Alright.. turn around, place your hands on your head, interlock your fingers and spread your feet apart!


It's the heat.  It has to be the heat.  I'm usually respectful of the law so it must be the heat.


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## Peatstack (Jul 15, 2013)

SCraig said:


> Why not try both and see which one YOU prefer?



Listen I'm not a wiz kid on computers or digital photography so be gentle wise guys. All I want is some advise. Can you run the two programs side by side or dose one cancel out the other? Which of the two programs is the best? or is there something else that is better than both?  Maybe some of you could tell me what you use for editing.


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## 480sparky (Jul 15, 2013)

Peatstack said:


> SCraig said:
> 
> 
> > Why not try both and see which one YOU prefer?
> ...



I think SCraig gave you the answer.

There is no one single 'best' of _anything_.  Software, cameras, cars, pencils....  If there truly was a 'best' of something, it would be the only one made.


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## cgipson1 (Jul 15, 2013)

VeiwNX2 is capable of basic professional level editing... I doubt that IPhoto is. Iphoto reminds me of Picasa, and other easy to use Facebook type pic oriented apps.. So it really depends on what you are doing, and how much control you want.


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## SCraig (Jul 15, 2013)

Peatstack said:


> SCraig said:
> 
> 
> > Why not try both and see which one YOU prefer?
> ...


Nikon View NX2 is primarily a photo VIEWER with some editing capabilities.  It allows you to transfer files from camera to computer, add little stars to them to show which you prefer, and then do some basic edits to the images.  As Sparky said, there is no "Best", only which YOU prefer, which is why I recommended that you install them both and decide which one YOU prefer.

As to true editors there are many, and once again YOU will have to decide which one YOU prefer.  The ones that come to mind are:
Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Elements
Adobe Photoshop
DxO Optics Pro 8
Corel Paintshop Pro
Corel Aftershot
Nikon Capture NX2
Gimp 2.8
ACDSee Pro 6
Apple Aperture
Phase One
And according to Google: 924,000,000 pages of them


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## 480sparky (Jul 15, 2013)

SCraig said:


> .........Nikon View NX2 is primarily a photo VIEWER with some editing capabilities.  It allows you to transfer files from camera to computer, add little stars to them to show which you prefer, and then do some basic edits to the images...........




It also allows keywording, labeling, and has a lot of fields under headings such as Contact, Categories, Origin, Content etc.  You can then import the image into a default editor or choose a different one.

It does have editing abilities such sharpness, contrast, fine white-balance adjustment, etc.  But it doesn't do layers, curves or cloning/healing.

The Transfer ability allows you to rename the images during the process (say, from_ DSC_1234_ to _2013 Vacation Bermuda_1234_), and can transfer the images to two locations at a time (great for backing up!)  The Transfer function also remembers which images you've transferred so if you shoot 200 shots today, transfer them, the 100 shots you take tomorrow will not be transferred again.


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## Designer (Jul 15, 2013)

Peatstack; I was not able to run NX2 on my Mac, so no experience with it.  I did, however, discontinue using iPhoto.  I purchased Aperture3.  

As posters have already posted; it depends on what you want to do.


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## amolitor (Jul 15, 2013)

ViewNX2 is a buggy piece of crap on OSX, but it does more or less work, and it will give you a modestly capable raw converter.

Learn where it hides its stupid settings/preferences file and learn how to delete it. For me it periodically loses its mind, and won't start up, or crashes immediately when it starts up, or crashes immediately when you try to look at a picture. The settings file is something like  ~/Library/Preferences/jp.co.nikon.ViewNX2.plist

I find iPhoto pretty much incomphrehensible, but mainly because Apple's "ok, let's organize the world into a single giant pile, and let you search that" model drives me completely insane.


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## Designer (Jul 15, 2013)

Yes, Andrew, all that.


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## AlexanderB (Jul 28, 2013)

ViewNX, unlike iPhoto, gives the rendition identical to your camera - those Nikon colors. Unfortunately it is miserable slow and buggy, unbelievable that company with size of Nikon cannot write a decent basic raw converter. But it still can create good pictures if you learn nikon picture styles etc. More advanced software, DXO and Capture One also have nikon profiles, they are not 100% identical to Nikon, but close. Apple has its own style, some people love some people hate it.


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## SCraig (Jul 28, 2013)

AlexanderB said:


> ViewNX, unlike iPhoto, gives the rendition identical to your camera - those Nikon colors. Unfortunately it is miserable slow and buggy, *unbelievable that company with size of Nikon cannot write a decent basic raw converter*. But it still can create good pictures if you learn nikon picture styles etc. More advanced software, DXO and Capture One also have nikon profiles, they are not 100% identical to Nikon, but close. Apple has its own style, some people love some people hate it.


Oh, but they can and they do.  They just don't give it away for free.  The RAW converter in Capture NX2 is excellent.


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## AlexanderB (Jul 28, 2013)

SCraig said:


> AlexanderB said:
> 
> 
> > ViewNX, unlike iPhoto, gives the rendition identical to your camera - those Nikon colors. Unfortunately it is miserable slow and buggy, *unbelievable that company with size of Nikon cannot write a decent basic raw converter*. But it still can create good pictures if you learn nikon picture styles etc. More advanced software, DXO and Capture One also have nikon profiles, they are not 100% identical to Nikon, but close. Apple has its own style, some people love some people hate it.
> ...



Capture NX2 was initially developed by Nik software, with added know-how from Nikon. The future is moot for Capture NX2 as Nik was acquired by Google and Nikon has no track record of developing or maintaining software. Capture NX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## SCraig (Jul 28, 2013)

AlexanderB said:


> Capture NX2 was initially developed by Nik software, with added know-how from Nikon. The future is moot for Capture NX2 as Nik was acquired by Google and Nikon has no track record of developing or maintaining software. Capture NX - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


True that Capture NX and NX2 were originally developed by Nik Software, however I disagree that Nikon has not been maintaining Capture NX2 since Google acquired Nik in late 2012.  Nikon has released a couple of patches to Capture NX2 this year (I don't remember exactly how many, I download them but seldom install them) as well as patches to View NX2 and most of their other software.

I've been using Capture NX2 since 2009 and have no urge to switch to anything else.  I have all kinds of editors but I seldom use them.  Capture NX2 does 90% of what I want and it does it better and quicker than most of the alternative editors.  It is also a non-destructive editor, and everything it does can be compared to a layer in Photoshop in that it can be turned on or off, the opacity changed, it can be deleted, and so on.


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## 480sparky (Jul 28, 2013)

SCraig said:


> True that Capture NX and NX2 were originally developed by Nik Software, however I disagree that Nikon has not been maintaining Capture NX2 since Google acquired Nik in late 2012.  Nikon has released a couple of patches to Capture NX2 this year (I don't remember exactly how many, I download them but seldom install them) as well as patches to View NX2 and most of their other software.
> 
> I've been using Capture NX2 since 2009 and have no urge to switch to anything else.  I have all kinds of editors but I seldom use them.  Capture NX2 does 90% of what I want and it does it better and quicker than most of the alternative editors.  It is also a non-destructive editor, and everything it does can be compared to a layer in Photoshop in that it can be turned on or off, the opacity changed, it can be deleted, and so on.



Another little-know feature of CNX2 is that it is not only a non-destructive editor, it allows you to take a .TIF or .JPG image and save it as a .NEF (Nikon's raw format).  This will allow you to edit the other formats and save them in a non-destructive manner.  So if you edit a TIF or JPEG, you can save it as a NEF, then come back in the future and undo or alter any of your edits... or restore the image back to it's original state.  All without messy sidecar files that may get lost.


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## SCraig (Jul 28, 2013)

480sparky said:


> Another little-know feature of CNX2 is that it is not only a non-destructive editor, it allows you to take a .TIF or .JPG image and save it as a .NEF (Nikon's raw format).  This will allow you to edit the other formats and save them in a non-destructive manner.  So if you edit a TIF or JPEG, you can save it as a NEF, then come back in the future and undo or alter any of your edits... or restore the image back to it's original state.  All without messy sidecar files that may get lost.


Exactly right, good point.  I do that from time to time as well and it is quite handy.


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