Guy Mancuso
Administrator, Instructor
Nice work . Yes it's the micro detail that is a little hard to see until you get the Raws to work on it.
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The 35 1.4 reminds me of a improved Leica R 35 1.4 summilux without the ghosting aberrations at 1.4. Has a great look to it, so far I really like it. I'll go shoot some wide open shots with it this week. I did post a couple earlier a wine glass and menu wide open plus a lemon at 2.8 that I really like the look of it.
Yup, the major reason for me to avoid Nikon.Damn NX2!
FWIW in the conversation I have never felt NX or NX2 is the best and only way to get the most out of Nikon files and will be posting some samples of Guys images to provide proof. BTW, thanks so much Guy for allowing us to look at and work with these files..... Unfortunately everyone is totally right about capture NX2, what a total pile of .... in fact, my version, along with updater to get it to version 2.3.1 is so terrible that it 'Cannot Load File' even when that file is a small jpeg, let alone a NEFF file from either D800 or D7000 or indeed any file whatsoever. Nikon support page has no indication as to why. I'm on a mac pro with 16GB of RAM, latest OS and loads of fast disc space...
This really worries me because if NX2 is the only way to get the best out of D800E files in particular, but is so badly sorted, then it's like buying a Ferrari and being expected to fill the tank with urine.
However, that conclusion is so flawed with caveats as to be useless!
Damn NX2!
How frustrating: I really feel for you. I have just downloaded and installed the exact same files onto my much more humbly specified MBPro and it is working fine - but of course that's not the machine on which I want to use the files... Grrr.FWIW in the conversation I have never felt NX or NX2 is the best and only way to get the most out of Nikon files and will be posting some samples of Guys images to provide proof. BTW, thanks so much Guy for allowing us to look at and work with these files.
Likewise Tashley I have been wrestling for the last few days with Nikon Tech support on the exact same issue you are experiencing. I gave up on Nikon software years ago other than Capture Control Pro which is a really good tethering program for those who need it. But the discussion recently and with new cameras picked my interest and like you downloaded the newest NX2 and PAID for the update to my older NX program. I have a Mac Pro, 19 GB of RAM running OS 10.6.8 and every file I try to open be it jpg, tif or nef I receive the same error message as you, cannot load file XXX. I also tried this on my MBP running 8GB of Ram same OS exactly and got the exact same errors. Yesterday morning I uninstalled everything, then went in under the hood and deleted every folder, file, plist what have you that had Nikon on the label, then reinstalled only NX2. All to no avail. At one point the tech support people told me that if the same computer had ever done the trial of NX2 before it would not work again even with a license such as my case unless all previous versions of NX had been removed. NOT!!
Thus far Nikon Tech support has been less than worthless and this with no less than 5 phone calls on Friday alone. At this point I feel like I have been robbed, holding out no hope for a cure from this awful software program.
FWIW in the conversation I have never felt NX or NX2 is the best and only way to get the most out of Nikon files and will be posting some samples of Guys images to provide proof. BTW, thanks so much Guy for allowing us to look at and work with these files.
Likewise Tashley I have been wrestling for the last few days with Nikon Tech support on the exact same issue you are experiencing. I gave up on Nikon software years ago other than Capture Control Pro which is a really good tethering program for those who need it. But the discussion recently and with new cameras picked my interest and like you downloaded the newest NX2 and PAID for the update to my older NX program. I have a Mac Pro, 19 GB of RAM running OS 10.6.8 and every file I try to open be it jpg, tif or nef I receive the same error message as you, cannot load file XXX. I also tried this on my MBP running 8GB of Ram same OS exactly and got the exact same errors. Yesterday morning I uninstalled everything, then went in under the hood and deleted every folder, file, plist what have you that had Nikon on the label, then reinstalled only NX2. All to no avail. At one point the tech support people told me that if the same computer had ever done the trial of NX2 before it would not work again even with a license such as my case unless all previous versions of NX had been removed. NOT!!
Thus far Nikon Tech support has been less than worthless and this with no less than 5 phone calls on Friday alone. At this point I feel like I have been robbed, holding out no hope for a cure from this awful software program.
Guys, I am using Capture NX's last version on a Mac Pro with Mac OS X 10.7.3 and 24 GB Ram, and haven't any of the problems you report. I hope Nikon will come through for you, and soonI have downloaded Guy's files (for which BIG thank you!) and Capture NX2 to try and have a comparative look. Unfortunately everyone is totally right about capture NX2, what a total pile of .... in fact, my version, along with updater to get it to version 2.3.1 is so terrible that it 'Cannot Load File' even when that file is a small jpeg, let alone a NEFF file from either D800 or D7000 or indeed any file whatsoever. Nikon support page has no indication as to why. I'm on a mac pro with 16GB of RAM, latest OS and loads of fast disc space...
This really worries me because if NX2 is the only way to get the best out of D800E files in particular, but is so badly sorted, then it's like buying a Ferrari and being expected to fill the tank with urine.
So I opened both the Phase and Nikon files in LR4 and bumped up sharpening a bit on the Nikon file. Then I put them in side by side windows and zoomed the Phase file to 1:3 and the D800 to 1:2 and Lo, there doesn't seem to be a great advantage to either.
However, I am now down to comparing apples to oranges at a pumpkin stand, due to the number of extra variables that not using the best RAW developers introduces...
If I assume that LR does both files an equal dis-service and that the D800E is worth 25 extra in sharpening and 10 extra in Detail (in LR4 terms) then for prints up to about 40" it might well be a wash.
However, that conclusion is so flawed with caveats as to be useless!
Damn NX2!
Tim, I feel you - Capture has one of the worse interfaces of any RAW processors I have ever tried and used (at least it installs on my machine, and it works pretty fast, too). However, Nikon has nothing to do with it (except choosing the developers, probably badly), those which products you don't want to trust are the Nik guys (ColorEfex, SilverPro, etc)...
Honestly, if a company can't make software that installs and works, let alone with a decent UI, then I don't trust the rest of what they do...
First of all thank you for all of your very informative and helpful posts regarding the 800. Can you please clarify the above?...... are you saying that ACR has a built in profile for the 800 that was supplied by Nikon? Its a big improvement.... just very curious.Effectively in the camera icon module (ACR) where the profile window exist, by clicking on this and instead of leaving the Adobe Standard as the profile conversion, choose one of the Camera profiles instead and in this case I kept it simple and straightforward by choosing the Camera Standard. Suffice it to say the differences are NOT subtle but more importantly this allows you to use the built in Nikon camera profiles as it was meant to be in lieu of any custom built profile such as X-Rite Passports.
Rob