While the beta has been out since February and can still be downloaded here, according to a June 26th press release, Nikon will be releasing its new Capture NX-D software July 15th for free. The previous version of Capture NX-2 still goes for $140, so it's nice to see more value added to Nikon's products for us Nikonians out there.
To be more specific, this is the full version of Nikon's software that will be going free, enabling full editing capabilities for Nikon's RAW NEF files (View NX has always been free to simply view NEF files).
While some have argued over the usefulness of Nikon's software, there was a point at which Lightroom's ability to render the colors in NEFs wasn't as good as it is today and simply didn't emulate Nikon's in-house processing that led to what you'd see on the back of your camera. In fact, there was a point at which I would even pull in all new photos and save them as DNGs within Capture NX-2 just to have a better "starting point" with my editing. While I don't think that is absolutely necessary any longer, it is nice to know that a product that was probably priced above its value and real-world usefulness will now be a free perk available to everyone. And the changes to the product should naturally be for the better.
Alas, now my family members can enjoy a perfectly useable professional photo editor for RAW [Nikon] files at no cost. Unfortunately I don't see this new freedom lessening the requests I get to edit everyone's photos after the holidays [sigh].
Note: On July 15th, this link should be live to download the new NX-D software.
As an Aperture 3 user I'm starting to look around since there will be no further development of it Lightroom, Capture One, and maybe even this. Free is always welcomed haha.
I would totally recommend Lightroom above the others. It does cost money, but it's worth it.
Oh I've you've Lightroom plenty of times for my work and thats actually why I'm hesitant to use it full time, the software feels too clunky to me compared to Aperture 3. Thanks for the recommendation though!
This is reconstituted SilkyPix. Granted it's free so if you're a Nikon users you can give it a whirl. Most NX-2 users are not happy with this however.
Mr Nikon : can we hope Camera Control pro 3 ?
You don't need that anymore. Get yourself this. It's free, works with Nikon and Canon bodies, can be used tethered through USB or wireless through Wi-Fi and, as is shown in the video, can be used for synchronized exposures. Totally cool: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dslr.dashboard&hl=en
My flight lands back home on the 15th and i'll finally have good enough wifi to download software. Will probably take a look at it.
I would recommend this: http://www.aftershotpro.com/en/pages/nef-file/ instead Capture NX-2 because AfterShot Pro is much easier to use , has better features and what's the most important it supports all RAW formats not just .NEF and unlike Lightroom it opens the native format instead of converting it to DNG or JPG