Capture NX 2 with iMac Panther

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Hi All-

I have 10.3.9 and want to buy the Nikon Capture NX2 editing software for my D300 camera. System requirements state: 10.4.11 for the software. My computer has been upgraded as in my signature, I'm wondering if it could work with what I have? What does 10.4 have that leaves Panther out?

My system has been upgraded as follows: 17" iMac G4: 1.35GHz, 1GB SDRAM, 80GB HD, 200GB Maxtor Ext.HD, Panther 10.3.9.
**XLR8 MAChSpeed G4 7457 CPU+512 Cache**

[deckcadet]

10.4 and the current OS, 10.5 Leopard, bring tons of new features and even some speed improvements.
here is a list of new features in 10.4, and you can see the new features in Leopard (10.5) at this link at Apple
There are tons of under the hood improvements that you won't see, however, and that affects how the software developers write the applications. By the time Capture NX2 was written, 10.3 Panther was a legacy OS and therefore isn't generally considered to be a primary target for development. By developing solely for Tiger and Leopard, they can take advantage of more of the inner workings improvements and boost the capabilities and speed of the application.

An upgrade to 10.5 (the latest OS) will bring you lots of advantages. Depending on which revision you have of the 17" G4, you might be able to put up to 2GB of 3rd party RAM in.

However, even the cheapest, discontinued Intel Core Solo Mac Mini is about twice as fast as your iMac is on average. A dual-core current revision Mac Mini would be over 3 times as fast. Additionally, some programs are starting to be written with not just more optimization for the intels, but with less effort, it seems, for the powerPC versions and some apps are even intel-only.

Given that an OS upgrade would run you another $129 or so, and you might need to upgrade other apps as well, I'd seriously consider a computer upgrade if I were you. A current-gen iMac will last you for years to come, have a much larger, much better display (not to mention the LCD in your old iMac must be getting pretty old, therefore will be losing brightness), better connectivity, and even the cheapest one would be around 5 times faster than your existing computer.

This makes a HUGE difference with Capture NX2, which is a very power-hungry program. You could upgrade your OS on your existing computer, but CNX2 will not run very well. In fact, I'd venture to say it'll be almost ridiculously slow. It's a very processor and memory intensive program. It takes a really powerful system to get the most out of it. It runs quite snappily on my desktop, but that's an 8-core Mac Pro with 10 gigs of RAM. It runs significantly slower, but at an acceptable speed on my MacBook Air, which is roughly 3x more powerful than your iMac, with twice the RAM and an external drive plugged in for the cache. That's another thing. It really helps to put the CNX2 temporary files and cache on a different drive from your OS and ideally even a different one from the images if you're storing those on an external.

Hope this helps!

[Corvus corax]

I had been using NX2 on my G5 dual core with 16 G of RAM installed for about two months now, and recently downloaded a copy of Adobe Lightroom 2. There is no comparison. An image that takes 40 seconds to open in NX is instantaneous in Lightroom. Even a simple command in NX to display at 100% takes more than a minute to display when there are more than three windows open. Lightroom does that in the time it takes for a single keystroke, and pans in real time. Image adjustments that take up to a minute to accomplish in NX are also instantaneous in Lightroom. NX has hung several times on my machine, necessitating restart as well.

Do yourself a HUGE favor, and download the trial of both. For me at least, Lightroom won hands down.

[deckcadet]

Lightroom simply can't compete, IMHO, in actual end image quality and consistency. Particularly at high ISO.

If your images were taking 40 seconds to open and a minute to display at 100% on a dual core G5 with that much RAM, there's clearly something wrong with your install or something.

[Corvus corax]

The fellow at the camera shop explained that NX runs in an emulated environment on G5 macs, but the terminal window showed no "classic" related activity I could see. I haven't tried it on an Intel machine. As I recall, NX had a PPC build, and that was the one I installed. I am going to try plain old NX, which came with my D300, and see if it is any better, but so far, NX runs so slow, as to be unusable for me.

Have you run NX2 on a G5?

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I have been reading and asking questions on a number of forums about NX2 performance on Macs. I don't know what to think, it seems to be the most inconsistent software across platforms for speed and usability.

I tend to think NX2 has a slight edge with the NEF conversion from what I read, yet most of the pros all seem to own lightroom or 1 or 2 other programs which they all run through photoshop in the end processing. One given is photoshop and I'm holding out for the new upgrade come January, I have PS CS2 right now which isn't compatible for RAW on my new D300.

Then I need to upgrade from Panther(10.3) for the new photoshop. I also have to be running Tiger(10.4) to run NX2 not the newest Leopard(10.5)-or visa versa. I have my iMac upgraded as far as I can with G4 7457 CPU+512 Cache 1.35GHz, 1GB SDRAM and 80GB HD.

I'm afraid if I do all this software upgrading NX2 could very well stumble in the system anyhow, and I would wished I went with lightroom or something else. Still pondering what to do in order to get the best out of my D300 and use the new photoshop with 10.5.

I may start considering a new Mac entirely as DeckCadet makes reference too, the reason I hate to think of that is I just sunk $7K into this Nikon with 3 lenses and peripherals. Just bums me out I can't really use the Nikon software with my currently great running system.

[Corvus corax]

You might be better off just picking up a mini with dual processors and running that, though I don't know how good the video card is in those. I'm running a GeForce 7800GT that cost me $1200, because I needed it for Maya and Mirage. Otherwise, I think I would have been better off with one of the new Intel machines, which had just come out.

Upgrade your OS and download the trials, so you can see for yourself. I wish someone would elaborate on how NX is superior to Lightroom. I had a lot easier time coaxing excellent results out of it than NX. The interface just seemed so much more user friendly and smooth.

[deckcadet]

The fellow at the camera shop explained that NX runs in an emulated environment on G5 macs, but the terminal window showed no "classic" related activity I could see. I haven't tried it on an Intel machine. As I recall, NX had a PPC build, and that was the one I installed. I am going to try plain old NX, which came with my D300, and see if it is any better, but so far, NX runs so slow, as to be unusable for me.

There is no emulation going on. NX and NX2 are currently Universal Binaries, which mean they will run natively on both PowerPC and Intel macs.

[Corvus corax]

That's what I thought. So what's going on, then? Artist- not power user, here.

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That's what I thought. So what's going on, then? Artist- not power user, here.

I hear yah...thats exactly the problem here! The people buying the high end Nikons or other high end equipment are for the most part photographic artists/journalists, whatever. The point is, they(we) want to shoot pics and not have to invest 100's to thousands of dollars every 2-3 years just to process our pics on the manufacturers own software. We'd rather buy more photographic investments, certainly better in the long term.

I continually see the same situation, my computer is rather recent with top upgrades, usually only 2-3 years off the top/newest software- it's running it's best, all the bugs are fixed!! You buy a new camera body & it causes a cascade of software upgrades. It just discusses me. I can't believe they can't include older versions of operating systems as well as the most current.

Now tell me the camera companies are not vested with the computer industries; buy a new camera, buy hundreds in software; if not forced to buy a complete new computer system for thousands. The "get-around", always a "get-around", buy hundreds of dollars of multiple software products from different companies, ya... thats the trick. Problem is your at the verge of contemplating an entirely new computer if your 2-3 years back.

We have more that adequet power & technology in our computers to process raw images from older(3-4 year back top hardware) equipment but we are forced to buy computers & all the software to run them just to process a picture from our cameras.

Certainly, there is a market for Apple(for example) to give photographers a computer system, designed for photographers, that doesn't require full upgrades to the computer just to process a pic. Understandably, we all have to make money; but this is too easy, we don't need to upgrade at this level every couple years. They could cut all the other crap out of the programs, except e-mail. I'm sure you see what I'm saying without elaborating...

Get this, I contacted Nikon technical support, giving them my computer specs. Their reply was NX2 will work fine on my system, yet 10.3.9 is never mentioned in any of their promotions as being compatible. The newest promotions say 10.4.11 "Tiger" (for sure) and, 10.5.2 "Leopard" but at you own risk (not tested)- !! Hope you happen to have Tiger because Nikon won't back up anything else if you complain.

Excuse me, I'm done for now....