NX2 and ca and batch advice required

[OldRoy]

Having just missed the boat with DxO's discounted offer I'm again trying to get to grips with NX2.

The first question that I'd appreciate advice on, is about how it handles ca for a known Nikon lens. I have a 10.5 FE which I use for VR panos; I've had the lens hood shaved and I'm using it as a circular fisheye in FF mode (D700). This lens has quite a bit of ca. In the past I've been using ACR to process my RAWs, so it came as a big surprise to see that there was almost no ca visible when viewed in NX2. My assumption is that the ca characteristics are known and that NX2 corrects them automatically. Is this the so? Does this apply across the range of Nikon lenses? In which case why oh why haven't they also included geometric distortion mapping too, like DxO? Being able to forget about this is one of the things I really like about DxO. I like it less than £176, unfortunately. Of course it's also irrelevant for the VR pano application where fisheye needs to remain fisheye.

I frequently need to process batches of files for HDR pre-processing for these panos. Typically 3-shot brackets x8 or x10. NX2 won't open >20 shots it seems and goes pretty haywire with even 15 (I'm using a quad 6600 intel processor, XP 32 bit os, 4Gb ram etc). In ACR I simply open the entire set, tweak a few parameters (ca, vignetting, wb etc) on one file and then synchronise/save them all as 16 bit tiffs. How the hell do you apply a set of tweaks to the entire open set of files in NX2? I browsed around the GUI and opened the help file without managing to figure out how to do this (basic) process. I know there's a batch file tab, but surely it's not necessary to set up batch processes for such a simple one-off requirement?

RTFM, I know (I tried). But if anyone feels like having mercy on me I'd be grateful.

Roy

[bstevent]

1. The first question that I'd appreciate advice on, is about how it handles ca for a known Nikon lens.

2. I frequently need to process batches of files for HDR pre-processing for these panos. I know there's a batch file tab, but surely it's not necessary to set up batch processes for such a simple one-off requirement?

Roy

Question 1: Go to the Edit List. Look in the Develop Section. Look in the Camera & Lens Corrections. You probably have Auto Color Aberration checked. (That's good. Leave it that way.) The manual says there is also a Fisheye Tool that only appears if you use the 10.5 or 16 mm Fisheye lenses.

The manual isn't very helpful. You'll find some discussion of this topic in Jason Odell's "The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX". If you intend to use NX2, his eBook is an excellent resource.

Question 2: I edit one file, copy the adjustments, then paste them to the rest of the files. Use NX2's browser and the Batch menu. You don't have to open the remaining files -- NX2 chugs (slowly) through the other files and applies the settings to each in turn. I think I had it save each as a tiff to a separate folder. One of the knocks on NX2 is that batch processing is not great. But it does work. BTW, same advice about looking at Jason's book for a much more complete explanation.

I'm doing this on a Mac but I think it would be much the same on your computer.

Bob

[OldRoy]

Question 1: Go to the Edit List. Look in the Develop Section. Look in the Camera & Lens Corrections. You probably have Auto Color Aberration checked. (That's good. Leave it that way.) The manual says there is also a Fisheye Tool that only appears if you use the 10.5 or 16 mm Fisheye lenses.

The manual isn't very helpful. You'll find some discussion of this topic in Jason Odell's "The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX". If you intend to use NX2, his eBook is an excellent resource.

Question 2: I edit one file, copy the adjustments, then paste them to the rest of the files. Use NX2's browser and the Batch menu. You don't have to open the remaining files -- NX2 chugs (slowly) through the other files and applies the settings to each in turn. I think I had it save each as a tiff to a separate folder. One of the knocks on NX2 is that batch processing is not great. But it does work. BTW, same advice about looking at Jason's book for a much more complete explanation.

I'm doing this on a Mac but I think it would be much the same on your computer.

Bob

Bob
I actually forgot that I posted this question and only remembered it when about to post another about the 2.2.0 update. Anyway thanks for your advice. I had actually abandoned NX2 for bulk processing of VR pano files and reverted to ACR for reasons of speed (and less than critical IQ requirements for this application too).
Roy