Note - this image was made to perform a test & not to prove whether or not I could make good images. D-Lighting is a Highlight/Shadow recovery routine.
NX has certain adjustments like "D-Lighting" that can be made either through *Base Adjustments > Light & Color Adjustments > D-Lighting* whose functions are carry overs from the old Capture 4.x OR through the Menu > Adjust > Light > D-Lighting which is new implementation of the function with NX.
With the introduction of NX in the summer of 2006, Nikon's guidelines were to use the Menu version of this and other duplicated functions as they would run faster - and this was the case for me. In fact, the only Base Adjustments that I use are those RAW adjustments that are not available through the menu (exposure compensation, white balance, and the like).
On 11/1/07, an informal note from a Nikon person on the D1scussion Group stated that D-Lighting and Noise Reduction were better run from Base Adjustments - a reversal of Nikon's previous position.
That note prompted me to again try D-Lighting from within BA - and my test failed to convince me that the reversal was justified. Speed wise I see little difference - both are basically completed instantly. Quality wise I prefer the Menu version (although in the High quality mode I see little difference and could live with either). In the "Faster* quality mode, the BA adjustment does NOT CHANGE from no adjustment at all - i.e., it has zero effect whereas the Menu version of "Faster" does do something - a BA D-Lighting bug??