Best post processing software for z8 - Help Darktable does't appear to support it. Alternative?

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Scotland Rocks

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I just upgraded from my old dslr D7500 to the Z8. I was over the moon, spent Christmas practising taking bird shots etc then I go to process them and I fall flat. I've been using Darktable 3.0.0 for ages now and it worked brilliantly however it won't work with the Z8. I've looked online and it seemed to say that 4.6.0 released on Dec 21st would work but I've had a look at threads (not that there are many) and there are still issues. Obviously with it being a free community software it takes time for them to get all the details embedded in their software. So here I am asking what is the general consensus from all the Z8 users on here, what do you use? Obviously the great thing about Darktable is that it's free and being a Scot and falling into to the stereotype, I like free. However no point in having a Z8 if I can't process the raw images. I also use a older version of Topaz sharpen AI, V4.1.0, anyone know if that will still work or am I going to have to upgrade that as well. Beginning to wish I'd got into a much cheaper hobby years ago.
Any help suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Sandra
 
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I will say all of them have free trials. But I may be wrong on that. :ROFLMAO:
If you are looking for free use Nikons NX Studio and read the entire manual and practice and get to learn it. Many still use it for initial adjustments. It runs a little slow.
If you are willing pay you have two choices - subscription or one - time purchase with the need to upgrade at some point. In my mind the two come out close enough it doesn't matter.

Personally I use the Adobe 9.99+tax per month Photography Plan (comparison table) and given that is less than two Charbucks a month I consider it one of the best deals out there for something this important. You get access to quite a bit and you will be forever learning. There are great free videos to learn from from @Steve re Lightroom Catalog and from Julienne Kost and not expensive but thorough ebooks from the LightRoom Queen. With a little dedication you can easily get past the beginner stage with these tools.

Others here like DXO, Capture One, On1, Luminar Neo, Affinity, ACDSee and others. They all have strengths. The Adobe learning community is the largest.

For an expensive and excellent viewer, Fast Raw Viewer can't be beat. With the high frame rate of these cameras picking images has changed.

There are lots of threads here in Post Processing that you can read about each of the choices.
 
Probably the subscription Adobe Photography Plan $9.99 per month is the best overall. If you object to the subscription model, I think DXO Photolab is quite good. There Is a free trial.
 
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Are you shooting lossless compressed or high efficiency RAW on the Z8? I know that companies have been a little slower to include high efficiency RAW in their applications.
 
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MartyD said:
Are you shooting lossless compressed or high efficiency RAW on the Z8? I know that companies have been a little slower to include high efficiency RAW in their applications.
Click to expand...
Doesn't matter with Z8 it appears:
www.darktable.org

camera support

This is an auto-generated list of the state of support of different camera models. Cameras that produce DNG files should be supported even if they are not on the list but samples are still appreciated. If your particular camera is not on the list or is missing some form of support please check...
www.darktable.org
 
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BarkingBeans Coffee said:
I will say all of them have free trials. But I may be wrong on that. :ROFLMAO:
If you are looking for free use Nikons NX Studio and read the entire manual and practice and get to learn it. Many still use it for initial adjustments. It runs a little slow.
If you are willing pay you have two choices - subscription or one - time purchase with the need to upgrade at some point. In my mind the two come out close enough it doesn't matter.

Personally I use the Adobe 9.99+tax per month Photography Plan (comparison table) and given that is less than two Charbucks a month I consider it one of the best deals out there for something this important. You get access to quite a bit and you will be forever learning. There are great free videos to learn from from @Steve re Lightroom Catalog and from Julienne Kost and not expensive but thorough ebooks from the LightRoom Queen. With a little dedication you can easily get past the beginner stage with these tools.

Others here like DXO, Capture One, On1, Luminar Neo, Affinity, ACDSee and others. They all have strengths. The Adobe learning community is the largest.

For an expensive and excellent viewer, Fast Raw Viewer can't be beat. With the high frame rate of these cameras picking images has changed.

There are lots of threads here in Post Processing that you can read about each of the choices.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. Just hacked off that Darktable is taking so long to get up and running with Z8. It's a fantastic editing tool and the thought of learning a completely new package is just annoying. Will investigate the options you mentioned. I suspect most people opt for the £9.98 photoshop /lightroom package but it's just more money and I'm still justifying to my husband the cost of the camera and lens. Lol.
 
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bleirer said:
Probably the subscription Adobe Photography Plan $9.99 per month is the best overall. If you object to the subscription model, I think DXO Photolab is quite good. There Is a free trial.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I'll need to investigate Adobe. Just irks me that I would need to subscribe on a monthly basis. So much better when you used to be able to buy and own a product and if you wanted to upgrade then it was up to you if you wanted to pay for it. Think I'm just old school Lol.
 
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Scotland Rocks said:
Thanks for that. I'll need to investigate Adobe. Just irks me that I would need to subscribe on a monthly basis. So much better when you used to be able to buy and own a product and if you wanted to upgrade then it was up to you if you wanted to pay for it. Think I'm just old school Lol.
Click to expand...
You can buy Photoshop Elements for a flat fee with no subscription, but you give up a lot of features that are bundled in the Photography plan. Not sure what features you need, but it is an option if you do not do much post-processing.

--Ken
 
Scotland Rocks said:
Thanks for that. I'll need to investigate Adobe. Just irks me that I would need to subscribe on a monthly basis. So much better when you used to be able to buy and own a product and if you wanted to upgrade then it was up to you if you wanted to pay for it. Think I'm just old school Lol.
Click to expand...

Well, you got a badass camera now and spent big bucks on it, so it makes sense to invest in quality software. Darktable i believe is a Lightroom knock off so you should be comfortable with the real thing. You might trial Photolab as it has a similar user interface to lightroom with no subscription. Anything you would do in Lightroom you would be able to do in photolab, except the organizer is better in Lightroom.plus lightroom comes with photoshop which is the real heavy lifter.
 
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Scotland Rocks said:
Thanks for that. Just hacked off that Darktable is taking so long to get up and running with Z8. It's a fantastic editing tool and the thought of learning a completely new package is just annoying. Will investigate the options you mentioned. I suspect most people opt for the £9.98 photoshop /lightroom package but it's just more money and I'm still justifying to my husband the cost of the camera and lens. Lol.
Click to expand...
Get him a cat and then these issues will seem minor in comparison. We have two including one that thinks the house needs to be rid of all mice at 2am even though there are no real mice in the house.
 
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I'm liking Nikon's free NX Studio more each time I use it. But, after there I often move to Photoshop to finish. Maybe watch a few vids on YouTube and download the NX Studio and give it a go.
 
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Scotland Rocks said:
I just upgraded from my old dslr D7500 to the Z8. I was over the moon, spent Christmas practising taking bird shots etc then I go to process them and I fall flat. I've been using Darktable 3.0.0 for ages now and it worked brilliantly however it won't work with the Z8. I've looked online and it seemed to say that 4.6.0 released on Dec 21st would work but I've had a look at threads (not that there are many) and there are still issues. Obviously with it being a free community software it takes time for them to get all the details embedded in their software. So here I am asking what is the general consensus from all the Z8 users on here, what do you use? Obviously the great thing about Darktable is that it's free and being a Scot and falling into to the stereotype, I like free. However no point in having a Z8 if I can't process the raw images. I also use a older version of Topaz sharpen AI, V4.1.0, anyone know if that will still work or am I going to have to upgrade that as well. Beginning to wish I'd got into a much cheaper hobby years ago.
Any help suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Sandra
Click to expand...
There's no need to sign up for a lifetime of subscriptions.
According to this post -
https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkTable/comments/13zbr29
you just have to download a newer cameras.xml file and darktable will handle z8 files.
I'm using DT 4.4.2 and my cameras.xml file has the z8 info.

-Michael
 
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For the least price but with best results I’d recommend NX Studio for conversion and then Affinity Photo for everything else. You can also do raw conversion in Affinity but there are positives to doing things in NX studio. Although personally I use Capture One.
 
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You will gets lots or replies and there is no definitive right answer. I am with you in that I refuse to sign up for a monthly subscription for Photoshop CC or Lightroom. I use DxO PureRaw3 for my Z8 conversions then finish it in Photoshop Elements (which is a one time purchase, not a subscription). My version of Elements is 2022 so I cannot edit RAW Z8 files in it (without using PureRaw3 first), but if you get the current version Photoshop Elements 2024 then you will be able to use that alone for Z8 RAW files.
 
With Elements, adding Elements +, a low cost third party plug-in, adds a lot of functionality.
 
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DXO is best for wildlife with its noise reduction and sharpening. The other 2 good options are Adobe and Capture One+Topaz.

DXO is the best noise reducer and sharpener.
Capture One has the most advanced tonal adjustments but also is harder to learn and more expensive.
Adobe is more complete than DXO (website, DAM, pixel editor) and on the same level RAW conversion-wise other than NR, which DXO is still better in.

There are other good options but none on the level of these 3. On1 is much weaker and buggier, same with Luminar. Photoshop Elements is good but basically the worse version of the Adobe Photography Plan.
 
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