Although DXO OP does not really get Nikon’s colours right either, I feel their results are better than ACR’s.Ī major minus point against DXO OP is that it lacks local adjustment capabilities. As a RAW converter, I consider DXO OP to be superior to ACR. DXO OP’s Smart Lighting system provides a very convenient and effective way to adjust exposure and contrast intelligently, and actually works remarkably well for an automated system. You also get a large library of lens profiles for automatically correcting lens distortions. The highlights and shadows recovery capabilities are better than ACR’s. Noise reduction with PRIME offers the best results among all the raw converters compared here. I have downloaded and tested every new major version release of DXO Optics Pro (DXO OP) in the past two years. Just note that whenever a RAW file is giving you a big challenge, try out some of the other alternatives. Since ACR is part of Lightroom and Photoshop, you can continue to use it in those applications without making inconvenient adjustments to your workflow. If you find it works for you, congratulations and be happy with it. Whether or not ACR’s results are right for you obviously depends on your creative style. This eventually led me to start experimenting with other raw converters. The colours were difficult to get right, and half of the time I ended up with a look that is really a ‘stylized’ departure of what I was originally pursuing. However when my interests switched to architecture and colour street photography, ACR’s limitations with Nikon colours became obvious. When I was deep into flora photography, ACR handled the saturated, not-exactly-true-to-life colours I wanted quite well. Here is a relatively common comment voiced by Nikon users trying out a Canon camera: “The Canon’s colours seem to look better immediately in Lightroom/Photoshop.” Of course they look better: because ACR never quite got Nikon colours right. □ I found that ACR never quite rendered colours the way I preferred them to be. Considering the ubiquity of Lightroom and Photoshop, alternative RAW converters would have never been able to remain existing in the market if ACR is perfect. Adobe Camera RawĪdobe Camera Raw (ACR) is the most widely used RAW converter by a giant margin, as it is the converter used by Lightroom and Photoshop. In this article I will describe the experiences I have processing Nikon NEF files with Adobe Camera Raw, DXO Optics Pro, Capture One Pro, Photo Ninja and Capture NX-D. It is advantageous to understand the different behaviours and characteristics of the various converters available to find one that best suits your vision and work-flow. A photo editor whose job required him to spend a lot of time scrutinizing photo images mentioned that he could identify the RAW converter used without looking at the EXIF information. This results in differences in sharpness, noise handling, detail rendering, colour rendering, etc. Different RAW converters implement their own approach to conversion. However even among the selection of the better converters there is no one-size-fits-all solution that will appeal to everyone and every artist’s unique style. Let me rephrase that properly: Some RAW converters are obviously better than others. If it isn’t obvious enough, the reason for this article is because not all RAW converters are optimal. Get a flawed result from this initial step at the start and the implications will affect all subsequent post-processing efforts. RAW conversion is the very first step in the work-flow with raw files, so it should be obvious how important this initial process is. Most serious enthusiasts and professional photographers shoot in RAW to extract the most out of a photographic image during post-processing. DXO PhotoLab is my new RAW conversion champion for Nikon NEFs! See the details here.Ģ016 November update: Added observations for DXO Optics Pro 11Ī RAW file contain so much more image data than a JPEG file. 2019 May update: The crown for best Nikon RAW converter has been reclaimed by Nikon NX-D! The latest release is so good that I think I have to write a new comparison article, a new Capture NX-D review and a new Capture NX-D guide.Ģ018 July update: We have a new winner.
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