The GetDPI Photography Forum

Great to see you here. Join our insightful photographic forum today and start tapping into a huge wealth of photographic knowledge. Completing our simple registration process will allow you to gain access to exclusive content, add your own topics and posts, share your work and connect with other members through your own private inbox! And don’t forget to say hi!

The best RAW converter for Nikon D810?

jdphoto

Well-known member
I've been shooting with the D810 and using LR 6.14/Camera Raw 10.1. Yeah, I know it's a bit outdated and I think it shows in my Raw conversions.
As per my normal metering, I try to preserve the highlights, but certain blacks just look flat and pixelated. Thankfully, the D810 has amazing dynamic range so I can pull these back up, but it also effects the highlighted areas. Knowing this, I'm going to try to under expose a bit more to preserve the highlights, but will get more ugly digital blacks. I was curious though, if it's my Raw converter or bad technique? I tried to download Nikon's Capture NXD Raw, but my OS is so out of date it won't download! So why do I get these pixelating blacks? I should note that I've had this experience with Fuji too, so is it my old OS instead?
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Try Capture One. Not all that easy to learn, but once you do, very powerful and IMHO the best conversion software rendering the best result possible. Period.

OTOH, Nikon Capture does an excellent job too, and it was free with your cam.
 

jdphoto

Well-known member
Thanks Jack! I was considering the great reviews for C1, so might give it a go, but might have to upgrade my Mac.
 

iiiNelson

Well-known member
Thanks Jack! I was considering the great reviews for C1, so might give it a go, but might have to upgrade my Mac.
I run the latest version of C1P on my 2009 Mac Laptop (though it has an updated SSD and maximum RAM) and it does fine with 42 megapixel Sony A7Rii files.
 

Jack

Sr. Administrator
Staff member
Pixellated blacks can indeed be a function of the raw converter -- in fact, nowadays with more modern cams, it would be my main suspect. But noise will also do it, and so you most often see it with higher ISO images. Most likely it is in how heavy-handed the noise reduction was used, and here C1's chroma and luminance NR sliders in conjunction with their detail slider deal with it very well.

Regardless, assuming you can still demo it for 30 days free, it's not difficult to give it a try...
 
Top