# Capture NX2 vs Lightroom 3



## edouble (Jun 28, 2010)

I am searching for a great photo editing software. I would like CS5 but my budget doesn't allow for that. I have been comparing Lightroom 3 and Capture NX2. NX2 is about $100 cheaper.

Which of these two software products is best for photo editing and offers the most editing features?

THANKS


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## Lipoly (Jun 28, 2010)

Have you looked at Gimp?  Its a free alternative to Photoshop.

GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program


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## edouble (Jun 28, 2010)

I have heard about it but I didn't consider it to be in the same league as NX2 and Lightroom 3, is it?


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## Mike_E (Jun 28, 2010)

edouble said:


> I have heard about it but I didn't consider it to be in the same league as NX2 and Lightroom 3, is it?



Apples and oranges.  The Gimp is CS5 lite.

If you shoot Nikon, NX2 is an great bit of software and will do most of the things you'll want to do with a photo.

I have been toying with a trial version of LR3 and it seems OK and would probably be faster if I had to use it exclusivity to process a lot of photos.

I tend to open everything in Capture and then export to Photoshop when something requires more than the usual.

Why don't you download trials for both and see them side by side?


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## edouble (Jun 28, 2010)

I have the NX2 trial and I love it. I did not download the LR3 trial yet.

I want to see what other people with more experience than me think about the two products.


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## emh (Jun 28, 2010)

Since you said you'd like CS5 but it's out of your budget, you may want to consider Paintshop Photo Pro as well.

There's a free trial you can download from Corel (I'd also highly recommend installing the free update/patch available here -- it's required if you want to read Nikon NEF files).


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## edouble (Jun 28, 2010)

emh said:


> Since you said you'd like CS5 but it's out of your budget, you may want to consider Paintshop Photo Pro as well.
> 
> There's a free trial you can download from Corel (I'd also highly recommend installing the free update/patch available here -- it's required if you want to read Nikon NEF files).



Wow that's cheap! I am going to add this one to my list as well. I will download the free trials and go from there....


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## Garbz (Jun 29, 2010)

- GIMP is an application like Photoshop. It does per pixel level editing like photoshop.
- UFRAW would be the alternative to Lightroom, Photoshop CameraRAW, or Capture NX. Though it's not as good it is FREE, so the cost equation falls back to you.
- Capture NX2 is great for editing single images in my opinion. I find it is a resource hungry dog, and by far the slowest RAW editor I have used. 
- Lightroom 3 is my tool of choice and has a great advantage over Capture NX2 with regards to workflow. Lightroom is designed from the ground up for editing your photo session. It gives loads of powerful tools to edit individual images, but also provides features for sorting, categorising, comparing, and rating your shooting sessions. Can quickly synchronise various settings (like white balance) amongst images in the shoot, and then also provides a great fully colour managed interface for printing, and even publishing to the web. 

I highly recommend you download a trial of Lightroom too and evaluate the benefits for what you want to do.


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## edouble (Jun 29, 2010)

Thanks for your input Garbz. I absolutely love NX2's control points. That is the selling "point" for me. For a newbie like myself it makes editing photos a snatch. I haven't had any hardware/software  issues while running NX2 and I have over 12 hours using it.

I downloaded the trial version of LR3 last night. I spent minimal time with it and I definitely feel that this program is superb for batch processing. I need to research LR3's tutorials and play with it more. 

My opinion is biased towards NX2 due to the time I have invested in learning how to use it. But my initial impression is that NX2 maybe a better single image editor. 

I am going to spend a week or two with LR3 before I purchase either one.


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## pbelarge (Jun 29, 2010)

edouble said:


> Thanks for your input Garbz. I absolutely love NX2's *control points*. That is the selling "point" for me. For a newbie like myself it makes editing photos a snatch. I haven't had any hardware/software issues while running NX2 and I have over 12 hours using it.
> 
> 
> 
> I am going to spend a week or two with LR3 before I purchase either one.


 

You can add NIK software to LR3 over time - making for a very powerful set of tools, they have the same control points you love with NX2

Nik Software, Inc. | Welcome?


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## edouble (Jun 29, 2010)

pbelarge said:


> edouble said:
> 
> 
> > Thanks for your input Garbz. I absolutely love NX2's *control points*. That is the selling "point" for me. For a newbie like myself it makes editing photos a snatch. I haven't had any hardware/software issues while running NX2 and I have over 12 hours using it.
> ...



Hmmmm.... I could also bundle Color Efex Pro 3.0 with NX2


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