• PC World
• »Software
• »Multimedia

Nikon on Friday announced the release of Capture NX 2 to retailers. Announced earlier this month, Capture NX 2 is Mac and PC software designed to help Nikon digital camera users edit their images. A 60-day free trial version is available; the software costs US$179.95, or $109.95 to upgrade from version 1.

Capture NX featured the "Color Control Point" tool that lets users adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, color and warmth without needing to create masks first. Nikon has built on this concept in Capture NX 2 with the "Selection Control Point" tool, which lets you carry out other image adjustments to a specified area using point-and-click selections.

A new Auto Retouch Brush lets you clear away spots, blemishes and other distractions, and the interface has been updated with "Workspaces" to optimize the screen layout -- four preset Workspaces are included, and users can create others as well. The Edit List has been reorganized as well. Metadata labeling has been improved, other new functions have been added and more.

System requirements call for Mac OS X v10.4.11 or later, G4 or better (including Intel), 768MB RAM, 200MB hard disk space, 1024 x 768 resolution, CD-ROM.