Do you shoot RAW (NEF) or JPG? What areas do you think Picasa is limiting you? How much timea dn effort do you want to put in to learning software? Do you also need a better way to manage you image files? An most important: How much do you want to spend?

All of the software you mentioned will do the job.

I personally favor Capture NX2 for editing both RAW and JPG files. It works great and is pretty easy to use. (The latest version has really solved most of the complaints about its speed and stability.) However, it does not do pixel editing. If you want to do major image manipulation you need Photoshop or something similar. Combine Capture NX with View NX or Photo Mechanic and you have a great set of workflow tools.

Many users here love Adobe Lightroom for image management, raw conversion and editing. It has gotten more adept an rendering NEF files closer to what you expect. I'll let those users extol it's virtues.

However, keep in mind my original questions when making your choice. All those different software packages exist because they meet actual users needs and work style, which vary considerable.

Mick
www.mickklassphoto.com
or
Visit my nikonians gallery