Originally Posted by MacCool

Yeah, that's where we disconnect. My belief is that editing one's images is every bit as valuable a photographic skill as shot composition and camera settings for anyone who is serious about their photography. The ability to do that easily and cheaply is one of the true advantages of digital photography and makes $180 for Nikon Capture or $100 for Photoshop Elements a worthwhile expenditure. Certainly one can tweak JPEGs, but if you're going to tweak, might as well do it in RAW where the data is more amenable. Post processing has been a key component of photography for over 100 years.

I simply don't share your view that it's some kind of crutch used as a means of correcting poor shooting technique. I don't buy the concept of turning over the final image quality to some Nikon engineer's algorithm that reflects his concept of what my images should look like. I understand your point of view...I just don't agree with it.