Short answer to the question "is Nik v4 worth the expense?": If you already have the DXO suite: not really, if you don't have it and you're very into B&W grainy sims: yes.
So for those who don't buy into the full DXO suite, Nik V4 alone might be tempting just for that, and you get advanced keystoning as a bonus It must be said that DXO's grain layers are superb. If I buy PhotoLab 3.2, does that include the Nik Collection It seemed to be included as part of the trial, but for some reason I cant figure out if the collection is included with the purchased version. Nik V4 has additional presets for Vivezaīasically, if you have the DXO suite, you can avoid to spend 75€ by just using Nik V2, export without the grain and add grain as the last step before final export in either FP6 or PL5 After years of using Capture NX-2, Im thinking about moving to DXO PhotoLab. Nik V4 has Perspective Pro which is the same as ViewPoint (but that is an additional 40€ (Black Friday price!) just to get keystoning, be it an advanced algoritm Nik V4 has FP6 grain layers added in SilverEfex I found that I can successfully use the NIK filters without Photoshop crashing if. The NIK program opens properly, processes the file then returns to the Photoshop app where Photoshop crashes as its trying to make the new layer on the stack. The whole thing is really expensive, even at 50% discount! From the menu across the top of the Photoshop title bar, I select Filter>Nik Collection>Silver Efx Pro2. 10.14 (Mojave), 10. PL5 has "U-point technology" for their own local adjustments but Nik V4 is an additional 75€ (Black Friday price!).