Best free RAW software for D3100 on a Mac?

[paulph]

Hi folks,
I'd guess View NX2, but am yet to take the plunge. Advice welcome, thanks!
-Paul

[Dave Humphries]

Hi folks,
I'd guess View NX2, but am yet to take the plunge. Advice welcome, thanks!
-Paul

That is an option certainly Paul,

I don't use it on a Mac, but I do on Windows, I remember seeing a Mac download link.

I use ViewNX2 for import and rating/culling my images, then open in Photoshop to edit, although I did once try it to basic editing of RAW and it was OK, if rather limited (e.g. no layers, cloning or localised editing from memory).

Cheers,

[davidedric]

Paul,

I'm not a Nikon shooter so can't comment on ViewNX2, and only you know the state of your budget.

However, any pp software, RAW or otherwise, will have a learning curve. I think almost everyone on this forum uses some pp software or other, so I expect you will continue doing so too. So start somewhere and NX2 probably makes as much sense as any. My point is that sooner or later you will probably want to switch to a more capable product, and the less you have invested in learning another, the easier that will seem.

Good luck with whatever you choose,

Dave

[Geoff F]

Check whether it is Mac compatible, but Raw Therapee is an excellent third party free Raw converter (donations accepted).

Before getting ACR software I used RT for all my conversion; and there is a newer version available now.

[shreds]

If its free....use it. (and it is Mac compatible).

It will generally produce better results for Nikons as it is designed to work with them, but bear in mind that some alterations carried out in NX2 will not be visible on other machines without the same software. I do like the results it produces and it uses U point technology, which is an alternative to masks. I always felt that the results it produces are akin to the those from Capture One software.

But industry standard Adobe usually wins the day as the all rounder, especially as the various versions (Elements/CS6/Lightroom) includes the things that NX2 cannot do.

[Manfred M]

I will use ViewNX2 for situations where I am fussy on the colours, but do not use it for general editing as it has very limited functionality. Not surprisingly Capture NX2 is offered by Nikon as a more talented tool at an additional cost. I will do things like set the colour temperature and then save as a TIFF file for further processing in Photoshop. The price is right (it comes with the camera) and seems to be the more accurate in the colour conversions than the Adobe products. I also use DxO Optics Pro 8 as another RAW converter (it does the best lens corrections by far), but is not inexpensive either.

[phlippant]

The best free Raw software for Mac I have found is RAW PHOTO PROCESSOR 64
it has a fair learning curve as with all programs and asks for a donation
to open added features but it's working very well for me and for a donation
of as little as $10 you can't go wrong.