I have a ton of photo's ( > 1000) to review, edit, etc from vacation. I currently have both Aperture 3 and View NX2 for my mac. Over the past year I have really enjoyed using View NX2, like the Nikon Picture Controls and like the results, but find it to be rather limiting. Aperture is a great Database and offers some editing tools, but not enough to make me happy.

About a year ago I downloaded and tried both the Nik Software and the Capture NX2 but never really got a good feel for either and don't remember much about them.

What I do remember was that the Nik plugin's for Aperture kept exporting TIFs from module to module and with a D800 that could chew up space quick and was also a pain. I think the workflow takes just too long and the lack of lens distortion correction is annoying, but if it really is that much better than Capture NX2, I am willing to jump at it.

I don't remember what the interface for Capture NX, but if it's like View NX2, with lots of additional features and the ability to do things like sharpen specific area's (such as eyes, etc), I might be able to get onboard with it.

I'm not a fan of lightroom 4, I've played with it a few times and it was OK, but outside of lens distortion, I didn't think it provided me anything that aperture didn't.

Poll result (11 votes) Nikon Capture NX2 (11 votes) Vote Nik Complete Collection Lightroom/Aperture Edition (0 votes) Vote

Hi I am not an expert on the "best" software , I think what you use is what fits your style. My story is I had a PC and View NX and Capture NX came with my new D300. And for other editing I bought Elements 6. Those programs worked for me for years and I got pretty good, using them. Now fast forward a few years, switched to Mac and my old software did not work.
I tried Aperture and iPhoto and they did not "feel" right to me.
I loaded View NX2, Capture NX2 and Elements 10 on the new computer and I am a happy camper. 1) Import images with Transfer, 2)review images in View NX2 (rate and pick the best), 3) open and first edit in Capture NX2 and final editing in Elements 10. Are there better programs and better/different workflows I could use? probably but as a hobby it works for me.

Virge

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Download a free trial copy of Photoshop LR4 and give it a try. Pretty easy to use and it is a very powerful program.

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My workflow is similar to duh59's workflow. The only important difference that I would like to mention is that I use Photo Mechanic to "injest" the images from the memory card, and then I rate them and pick the ones I'd like to edit in NX. Photo Mechanic works at lightning speed and works very well in combination with NX. Years ago Jason Odell had a video that showed how to use the two applications together for your workflow.

I also rarely use Elements after my post processing in NX.

Ellen

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Thanks for the feedback. I'm not a fan of Lightroom 4, I tried it when it first came out and didn't like using it, I enjoyed using Elements even less.

I ended up purchasing Capture NX 2, for $129 it's a good buy. If I don't like it, I'll grab the Nik plugins.

Nikon D800 | 24-70mm f/2.8G | 70-200mm f/2.8G VR II

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