I’ve downloaded the demo for Capture NX from Nikon again. Since I have a new laptop since the last download, I get another 30 days with it. As I’ve seriously been considering either the Nikon D300 or Olympus E-3, the RAW conversion is part of the picture.
Somewhere along the line, roundtripping from Aperture to Photoshop became less attractive because of mosaic artifacts. I think it’s the Aperture TIFF converter. Within Aperture, I see no problem at all, but when exported as a TIFF, there is an increase in artifact that is unacceptable.
Since Thom Hogan recommends Capture NX as the best Nikon RAW converter, I thought I might as well give it another try. After converting a half dozen images, I agree that it provides the best conversions I’ve seen. Followup changes in Photoshop also work well so far.
I’m really very happy with the quality I get from the D80, so all things considered I believe I should stay in the Nikon camp. So far, images from the Olympus E-3 don’t look substantially different from any of the other DSLRs available. It seems that testing methodologies must be pretty similar for all of the sensor makers, so with similar technologies available, there’s not much difference between what the sensor provides the software.