Nikon
Capture. I feel like I've invested too much time into resolving this issue
but once I tried Nikon's Capture application I came to the conclusion that even
though it's going to cost me some money I think it's perhaps where I should have
started. Capture has a 30 day trial period where the product is fully functional
for 30 days. It has a batch mode that with numerous options for converting .NEF
files to jpegs which produces very nice results. I've been using
Picasa as my photo management app and
unfortunately it's support for .NEF files is fairly lacking. While it can render
this format it frequently distorts both thumbnails and full size images. I've
read on the Picasa support forum that they are aware of the issues with RAW
files and have been working to improve their support so hopefully we'll see an
update in the not too distant future. I am disappointed that Nikon didn't see
fit to include Capture as part of the D70 bundle given that the app they did
include, PictureProject, is too rudimentary for my needs.