D300 NEF files

<p>Hi! Just curious, does everyone use NX to process NEF's? I want to use Aperture 2 but the colours are so dull that way and it just makes more work. Is there a way to give them a Raw designation?</p>

<p>Only Nikon's software (and one or two 3rd party tools that licensed Nikon's libraries) use Nikon's own camera colour profiles and raw algorithms, or can read all the camera settings in the NEF's metadata. Everyone else (including Apple and Adobe) uses their own profiles, though the latest versions of Lightroom and PS include optional profiles that make a more serious attempt than most to match Nikon's.</p>

<p>NX or NX2 IMO is far and away the best to process Nikon's RAW files.<br>

I base that opinion not on scientific facts, but observational only criteria.<br>

ACR slows my workflow down compared to NX.<br>

I've tried the "de-Facto" ACR, and although good, is not as good as NX when processing Nikon's RAW files.<br>

NX is designed to work with *.NEF's as they are well interpreted by the RAW converter within NX.</p>

<p>While I still have to export to Adobe PS, ALL my image correction work is done in NZ first..even if I shot something in JPEG.</p>

<p>Sorry I don't mean to sound stupid...but does that mean I need to make standard colour correction in NX then convert to JPG or TIFF before I send it to another application? What about DXO? How would that work. Same process?</p>

<p>I use Aperture 2.0. I didn't like Aperture 1.0's RAW converter, but 2.0 does fine. No question that CaptureNX has a few processes that deliver a better response in certain circumstances, but I don't want to reward Nikon's proprietary approach. I've adapted to Aperture's quirks, the same as I would have bad to adapt to CaptureNX or Lightroom.</p>

<p>Roman, yes, that is how it would work, convert in NX, save as TIFF and import to another program.</p>

<p>Some raw converters get closer to others but only NX can hit the nail on the head, although, ACR w/ their camera specific profiles do get *really* close, esp since you can tweak those profiles.</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>I'm using Capture One 4, which produces such excellent results that I'm surprised more people do not use it. Phase One include their own calibrated profiles for every camera they support.<br>

But then I would view it as a mistake to assume that Nikon's software necessarily gets the best results from Nikon's (Sony's) sensors. You can't hire all the smart people.</p>

<p>I have C1, Aperture 2, Lightroom, and Capture 4 (pre-NX) available. For raw processing I use Lightroom exclusively. But for me it's primarily a workflow issue. Capture in particular won't work for me because I have to deal with non-Nikon rraw files alongside nefs. And among the other three I just prefer LR.</p>

<p>For the D50/D80, I used to use a mix of Adobe RAW and Capture One 4. Especially the latter worked quite well for me (and coming free with a Sandisk card the price was sure right!). However, with the D300 I found that both Adobe and Capture One dropped the ball on high ISO noise. ISO800 and especially ISO1600 images had considerable colour noise, which ViewNX and Capture NX did not show. Capture One still is the second best, though, and for speed it beats Capture NX2 easily.<br>

So while I share Michael's surprise that Capture One is not more popular, I do find that for the D300 Nikon's own software delivers the best quality, and more consistently so.</p>

<p>For bulk simple edit (white balance/picture styles and such) I do use View NX, and also as a browser/tagging tool/workflow start-point. Capture NX2 can do those things too, but not as fast and easy as View NX can.</p>

<p>I use View NX for initial culling, editing, and conversion to TIF as it does a better conversion job than Adobe. I then process the TIFs in ACR/CS3. In my D300 I also set in-camera noise reduction for high ISO to NORMAL and bumped up sharpening a little. The ISO1600 - 2500 images I'm getting just have high frequency luminance noise that is easily removed by a third party NR software</p>

<p>A nice feature I found in Capture NX2 is that once you specify the other editing application you want to use (such as PS CS3), you can directly send the file you've been working on in NX2 to the second editor by "Open With..". NX2 converts it to TIFF and does the export automatically. Speeds things up a little bit. Just make sure you have enough power and RAM to run the two simultaneously.</p>

<p>Harvey's comment is true and the reason I gave up on Capture NX and switched exclusively to Lightroom. If you could edit an image in Capture NX and the open the raw file with the NX edits showing, it would be great. However, I prefer maintaining an entirely raw workflow and use Lightroom for image filing, backup etc. If I then edit an image in Capture NX and then try to open the image in Lightroom, I get an error message of incompatable file format. A real pain. I don't use Aperture, but my understanding is that it is similar to Lightroom. I found I was making the exact same adjustments to all images (shot under similar conditions). You then save it as a preset and use that preset to import your images. The bulk of the work is done and you are still in raw format with non-destructive adjustments. Just my .02.</p>

<p>I'm having the same problem with my Capture nx 2 not reading my nef files.</p>

<p>I installed the nef codecs,transfer and I'm running on capture nx 2 v2.2.<br>

When they are imported to a folder I can see the thumbnails of the nef files but when I try to open them in NX 2 it gives me the warning and says it cannot load the file.</p>

<p>I'm running on vista 32 bit and any help is appreciated,thanks!</p>

<p>Lightroom for me. I have gotten used to it in my workflow, and it works OK for me.</p>

<p>NEF >> NX2 (TIFF) >> PS/LR/BB/(JPEG)</p>