Nikon Capture & S2 RAW

[ronlcox]

If I purchase the new 10.5mm nikon fisheye will the new Capture 4 software be able to read the RAW images from my S2 in order to convert them to wideangle?

[bjnicholls]

Capture 4 is designed for Nikon .nef files, not Fuji .raf files. Raw is a broad category of file types that contain unmodified data from the CCD, not a single format.

That said, please explain what you mean about "converting" images to wide angle. The image you make will be what you see in the viewfinder (actually, a little more than you see in the viewfinder), software doesn't play a role in what the lens does on the camera. The camera will record the correct focal length information in the EXIF data of the image files.

[bjnicholls]

I realized you're asking about the feature in Capture 4 that converts fisheye images to rectilnear. Here's a plugin for Photoshop that's free of charge:

http://www.digitalpanos.com/gl_fisheye/

After you read the article above, go here and download the Panorama Tools offered at the PTAssembler site:

http://www.tawbaware.com/ptasmblr.htm

Links are at the bottom of the page.

[ronlcox]

I agree that the camera and lens are going to produce the pic, which will be a fisheye image. According to Nikon, their new Capture 4 software will be able to convert their NEF(RAW) file to an ultrawide ange rectilinear image(their words, not mine) from the RAW fisheyefile produced by the camera. So the question is, will it work only with a digital neg. from a nikon camera only or will any RAW format be supported irregardless of the camera and lens that produced it.

[scooper]

what are ther prices (ballpark)for the 12-24 and the 10.5 ?

[traumlandschaft]

Originally posted by ronlcox
So the question is, will it work only with a digital neg. from a nikon camera only or will any RAW format be supported irregardless of the camera and lens that produced it.

It converts only *.NEF

Regards

Peter

[bjnicholls]

I paid a little over $1000 for the 12-24mm (expensive).

The 14mm fisheye price works out close to the 16mm Nikkor's price (a little less if memory serves).

The above plugin will do the same thing that Nikon Capture will do, plus you can use it to adjust for minor distortion you get with other lenses. I can't see buying Nikon Capture simply to get distortion processing even if it would work with tiff/jpeg files.

[bjnicholls]

deleted stutter post

[jknights]

FYI
In UK the Nikkor 10.5mm is due to be £600 = US$900ish. I guess the street price may be ~$100 less in US.

However I looked into this before getting my 12-24mm (£760=US$1100).
BJ you got yours at a good price but I couldn't wait till my next US visit to get mine :-(

I would agree with BJN and say that it will only work with Nikon NEF files. Details of Capture 4 indicate that the file must be a NEF for the fisheye2rectilinear to work. If it is a JPEG it will not work. It would have been really cool to have been able to use this.
I would try the PS plugin else try building an action in PS to test out what you need to do to get it right. I guess the action will be pretty difficult though as it will depend on if you kept the camera level and all sorts of other factors.

[bjnicholls]

The Panorama tools can be loaded as a Photoshop plugin. Once you figured out the right correction parameters, you could easily make an action to do the job.