I have a brand new (to me) D500 and was wondering the following:Are there any DxO Photolab presets that are the equivalent of Nikon photo settings like standard and vivid? So far I have got the idea of just doing side-by-side with SOOC until I get the look and saving it. I know I can do a lot with raw other than imitate the camera's own conversion, but it would make a good starting point. Are there any out there either described or to download?Also is something like this worth the 20 or so dollars it would cost?https://pixafoto.com/marketplace/creative-dxo-presets/I am really unsure if these are fun and useful or just a gimmick.Last question: Is the SOOC JPEG good enough with the D500 where I might save raw developing for unusual circumstances? I know my D60 was quite a bit better in raw and my D300S seems like SOOC is pretty good as-is not counting how good DxO is at noise reduction.

717 wrote:I have a brand new (to me) D500 and was wondering the following:Are there any DxO Photolab presets that are the equivalent of Nikon photo settings like standard and vivid? So far I have got the idea of just doing side-by-side with SOOC until I get the look and saving it. I know I can do a lot with raw other than imitate the camera's own conversion, but it would make a good starting point. Are there any out there either described or to download?Also is something like this worth the 20 or so dollars it would cost?https://pixafoto.com/marketplace/creative-dxo-presets/I am really unsure if these are fun and useful or just a gimmick.Last question:Is the SOOC JPEG good enough with the D500where I might save raw developing for unusual circumstances?You might like this video:https://youtu.be/FRQpueEvb-UPersonally, I wouldn’t waste your money on plug-ins etc. until you’re very familiar with your camera.

I agree with Wahrsager, get familiar with your camera first.  DxO is my primary post processing program.  I always shoot RAW and I have a number of presets I use for different circumstances to get started, but often do additional "tweaking" in the process.

I use Nikon NX-D ... a free download from the Nikon site. There is also NX-Studio, free as well, which is a more complete editing program, and also has all the features of NX-D.No need for presets... These programs a built specifically for Nikon cameras, and, as such fully "understand" the Nikon camera settings. Both programs will convert NEF files, using all your camera settings, so, an image is displayed exactly as was intended (and exactly as an SOOC jpeg would look) by the settings you made on your camera. You will have the opportunity to make any changes to those settings, such as, picture control, dynamic lighting, white balance, as well as all the usual editing adjustments for exposure, color and lighting, and a nice color control point feature, for localized color and light enhancement. Camera and lens corrections, cropping, and much more.Example: I like to shoot wildlife, using the "Landscape" picture control, which adds significant color saturation and contrast, but I also shoot sports and people, for which I set picture control to Standard. Sometimes I forget to change from Landscape when shooting people, and get saturated, overly reddish skin tones. No worries ... All I have to do, is change the picture control setting in NX-D, by clicking "standard" in the picture control dropdown menu, and it is fixed!NX-D lacks layers, cloning, object removal, and such, but I don't know enough about NX-Studio, so it may have those features. Once you have done all you want to in NX, you can export as Jpeg or Tiff, in 8 or 16 bit, into another favorite software, like Photoshop or Lightroom, or DxO, to do what else you may need, to achieve the desired result, and saveand renamein your desired file format and location, leaving the original file untouched.All that said ... the D500 JPEGS, SOOC are very good. I shoot both (RAW + Jpeg Basic), and as such, can skim though a folder to select the best ones, and then edit the RAW with the above process.I am only presenting this information as an option that is available to you as a Nikon camera owner. Everyone eventually finds a workflow that is comfortable to themselves.I hope you enjoy using you "new" D500. It is a marvelous camera, even today. It is well suited to any type of photography, and when used for wildlife and fast action sports, it is still considered among the best.Arnie

I will give that a try too. Thanks!