I’ve had a week working with Capture NX2, testing out the new features. Here’s what I like so far:

Dual Monitor support – Love it! You can choose to have Capture NX2 open on either screen, or spread across both.

Auto Retouch Brush – Excellent, but…. only if you’re wanting to erase something that is glaringly different to the surrounding, bland area. For instance, a white streak on a blue sky – easy. The brush easily grabs a swatch of the surrounding background and swaps it for the drawn (selected) area. Try it with a ball on a grassy lawn and the lawn detail may be too detailed, the result looks patchy. So yes, it’s great, but only in suitable areas. I tried using it to remove the weeds from my rose garden and the result wasn’t pretty  ;)

Selection Control Point – WOW!
Similar to the Color Control Point in the method of usage (you click where you want to place it and drag the sliders)
Anything under the Adjust or Filter menus such as guassian blur, color booster, noise, can be finely controlled. Your controls are located in the Edit List on the right of your screen. If you look under Adjust, to the right of Selection is a grey icon with drop down list so you can choose Show Overlay or Show Mask and view the selected area that you’re working with.

Please email if you have questions. 

Capture NX 2 60 day trial – here are my first impressions.

I installed Capture Nx 2 and Nikon Transfer on Vista Business with no difficulties. Nikon Transfer is offered as a free download. It’s very useful with many interesting options – you can set it up to transfer all files from a memory card or attached camera, backup those files to a specified location, and then delete the files from the memory card. Nikon Transfer creates a new folder in the Pictures folder. This new folder has a Capture NX2 icon on the toolbar.

Page 60 of the Userguide explains how to set up multiple screens. you can have one workspace on one screen and another on the second screen. You can set which palettes appear on which screen.
Select your workspace (not the multi-purpose) in windows, workspaces; then select the dropdown “additional screen” and set what you’d like on the secondary screen.

Auto retouch brush is the true magic of capture NX2. Like healing brush on steroids!
The tool looks very similar to the healing brush, is located next to the red eye removal tool.

Just trace over the offending object (dust spot, ex gf, street sign) and viola, it’s gone!
Didn’t adjust the brush size before you traced – there is now a reset button in the Edit List Palette. Cool!

Version control – the edit list palette now has version control at the top, next to the settings icon.
You can save your edited nef as a new version, with unlimited no. of versions available.
Wacom tablet users please note:
The install readme for Capture NX2 had the following important info:

Some default settings within Windows Vista may negatively impact the functionality of sliders within Capture NX 2 when using a Wacom pen tablet. To resolve this issue, please go into Window’s Control Panel and select Pen and Input Devices. Within the Pen Options tab, highlight Press and Hold and then click on Settings. Within the window displayed, uncheck the box next to Enable press and hold for right-clicking and press OK. Then click on the Flicks tab and uncheck the box Use flicks to perform common actions quickly and easily. After disabling both of these options, you will be able to interact appropriately with the sliders and controls within Capture NX 2.