As far as I can see only the Efex filters are an addition to Capture NX and nik software and Nikon are pretty much part of same group.

So Don you would be using the other things as part of the NX workflow anyway (if you do). This does slightly explain why NX appears to have such a battery of tools with overlaps, some descended from Capture 4, some from the Nik groupees.

It might be convenient to have the Niks up one's sleeve within CS3, but apart from u-point again I would have thought duplicating what is already there. Likewise efex as a plugin for NX if one should want it.

In NX you can see the effect of what you are doing at any scale you want and each 'step' can be either damped down by reducing opacity, turned off for time being or deleted if totally discarded.

While on 'u-point', anyone using it should be aware that its effect can be far more obvious on prints than on screen; it should not be used with the gay abandon Nikon tutorials suggest if intending to print, and always with edge feathered.