Nikon D300 & Lightroom V1.4.1 - any issues?

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robertr

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I'm thinking of upgrading to aNikon D3'' - is anyone using this camera with lightroom - and are there any processing issues?
I'm particulary interested in processing NEF's from the D3'' - 'NEF's from the D7' are fine for processing.
Thank you
Robert
 
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Thanks wblink...........

I just wondered if anyone had discovered any issues - that Adobe hadn't mentioned!
Regards,
Robert
 
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Thank you both......

time to start looking around at prices.
Didn't want to buy the body -and then find I had problems with Lightroom.
Regards,
Robert
 
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The D3'' works fine with LR, no problem opening the raw files. I've never had any problems with the file format etc.

That said, the D3'' has the same issue that any other Nikon raw file has. Adobe camera raw does not do as good of a job with color etc as Capture NX does.

I've got a long discussion on that problem here:
http://www.railroadphotoessays.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1'39

The good news is that the D3'' does not seem to be quite as bad as the D4'X was in that respect, but it's still there.

I recently did a lot of concert shots in low light. To get them to look their best, I first had Capture NX save the lot of 'em as jpgs (using the bulk actions or whatever they call it) and then opened those in LR. That helped with the White Balance and exposure etc.
 
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> time to start looking around at prices

Since this camera is so popular, you'll generally find it sells for the same price everywhere, aside from the disreputable online dealers who lowball the price and then offer to sell you "extras" like the battery and charger (which are included) at huge markups...

I suggest buying it from your local brick and mortar camera shop, if you have one. A large purchase like this will help keep them alive, and they'll be there when you need filters or a tripod etc.

If you don't have a good shop closeby, I did notice that Costco had a sale for the D3'' and the 18-2'' VR for $3'' off. Not sure how long it ran, may still be available if that's of any interest.

I can tell you for certain that it's a fantastic camera. I'm extremely happy with it. It is a camera you have to use and get to know to get the most out of it. There are lots of "hidden" features like 3D focus tracking that you don't get when you simply shoot in the default setting. But if you read the manual and learn the options, it can do some really amazing work.
 
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BobH said:
That said, the D3'' has the same issue that any other Nikon raw file has. Adobe camera raw does not do as good of a job with color etc as Capture NX does.
Click to expand...
You know, I think it should be said that that's only a matter of personal judgement and would rephrase it as ACR not producing the same output colour as NX - and then add so what? If you apply lots of in camera settings to your raw files, your default NX results may be closer to your LCD panel and it might (big might considering NX's interface) save a little bit of post processing time reproducing the panel's results. But I don't think you can put it in such absolute terms - in ACR/LR you can achieve the same or preferable results.

John
 
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Thanks for all your additional input......

Just wanted to check that my purchase would be ok in LR.
I have to admit that LR does 9'% of my processing - only use CS2 for cloning/healing - and where closer selections are required.
I haven't got to grips yet with cloning in LR - I can work much better/quicker in CS2.
Robert
 
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johnbeardy said:
You know, I think it should be said that that's only a matter of personal judgement and would rephrase it as ACR not producing the same output colour as NX - and then add so what?
Click to expand...

So what? So you end up spending time fixing something in lightroom that you don't have to spend time correcting in Capture NX, that's what...

Why do I feel Capture NX is "right" and Adobe Camera Raw is "wrong". There are two reasons.

1) When you first open the image in Lightroom it looks great, it renders the image and then all of the sudden it changes, and the change does not improve the image.

2) Most revealing of all is when you shoot two images in the D3'', one RAW and one JPG. Open them in Capture NX, and they look identical. Open them in Lightroom, and there can be a big difference between them.

Yes, I know, RAW is just that, a RAW file, only a starting point. However, in my "personal judgement" the starting point I get in Capture NX can be a lot better than where Lightroom starts from with an NEF file, which saves me time and effort.
 
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Yes, all you're expressing is a personal view, shared by a portion of Nikon and Canon users. It's a perfectly valid view, but not an absolute as you first stated, and not one shared by us all. I use Nikon and have always felt Capture's default was unpleasantly gooey (how subjective is that?) and too warm for my taste.

Even if I felt its output was "right", my course of action wouldn't be to resort to NX, certainly not if I was "correcting" more than one or two pictures. I'd just create a Lightroom preset that mimicked NX style output and apply it upon import - I did one which you'll find over at http://www.lightroomextra.com/ (others have done the same too). Once that's done, you're motoring. I did do some work validating the results, but it was only ever an exercise and I could never bring to it the passion of someone who believed default NX output was objectively better than default LR/ACR.

By the way, do you know you can set your own LR defaults? Hold Alt/Opt and click Reset in Develop (you can restore the defaults by the same method). For better or worse it's tied to the ISO. So for a soupy NX look you'd probably nudge up the reds and greens in Saturation, maybe bring down their Luminance too, then set the default.

John
 
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johnbeardy said:
By the way, do you know you can set your own LR defaults? Hold Alt/Opt and click Reset in Develop (you can restore the defaults by the same method). For better or worse it's tied to the ISO.
Click to expand...
It's only tied to the ISO if "Make defaults specific to camera ISO setting" is checked in the Presets tab in Preferences.

This is particularly handy if you want to use different defaults for noise reduction or saturation or something by ISO.

You can also tie the defaults to specific cameras (by serial number), if you find that this works better for you.
 
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Thanks Mark - forgot that ISO preference. Doh.
 
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