D800/810 battery use and NEF file access

Morning all,

 

Now that I have the D800 and 810 I'm seeing some sort of odd behavior, to me anyway. I always add battery grips on my DSLR bodies and these are no exception. How does each balance battery use? I'm noticing after extended shooting with both that the battery in the grip seems more heavily drained while the one in the body is used little or not at all. Earlier cameras such as the D100. 200 and 300, all older tech, have both batteries located in the grip and use one side down to a certain level and then switch to the other, sort of a balancing act. This doesn't seem to be the case on the 8xx bodies. Do I even need to put a battery in the body when using a grip? I like to carry enough battery in the body to get through the entire day and not worry about changing them. What am I missing, just much more efficient battery use compared to the 200 and 300?

 

Rick H.

Custom D12 (heh, I bet the D800 people were smug about that), on the D800 and D13 on the D810? You can choose which battery gets killed first, and I think the other one takes over. I've never used a grip on those bodies, so I don't know what happens if you remove the in-camera battery. I've a feeling it's the internal battery that gets drained when a D850 is off and trying to connect to bluetooth, but that shouldn't be involved here. Obviously changing the in-camera battery involves taking the grip off, so I could see that leaving one in there would have disadvantages if you never plan to remove the grip.

The D300/D300S uses the MB-D10 battery pack/vertical grip. In that combo you only put one EN-EL3e or EN-EL4(a) battery inside the grip while retaining the EN-EL3e inside the D300 body. But you only need either one battery to operate the camera, in either place.

 

As Andrew points out, you can select which battery to use first when you have two in the system.

Let me get out my idiot hat.I was thinking that the D300 had both batteries in the grip which of course it doesn't. I didn't know I could assign battery use as I don't have instruction manuals in English for the 300 or 800 and clearly need to look closely through the 810 manual. I have an event coming in a couple weeks that will involve two days of shooting with no easy way to charge batteries and want to make sure I don't get tripped up.

 

Rick H.

Rick, you can download those manuals:

• http://download.nikonimglib.com/archive2/iBuJv00Aj97i01y8BrK49XX0Ts69/D300_EU(En)04.pdf
   
  
• http://download.nikonimglib.com/archive1/H9cYd00ICNle00Q5YDp62cslgK23/D800_NT(En)04.pdf
  

Since it is easier to replace the battery in the grip, you probably want to use that battery first. Otherwise, you need to remove the grip first before you can replace the battery inside the camera.

Rick, the MB-D200 for the D200 did take two EN-E3e batteries in the grip, so there is no need for that idiot hat of yours.

 

I use the battery in the grip first and consider the one in the camera a backup. However, I do use the camera quite a lot without the grip too. If you want, you can use the D8X0 cameras without a battery in the body. If you do, make sure the grip is firmly mounted as a power glitch from a loose grip could wreak havoc with the photo you happen to take when it happens. I have not used the D810 that much, but I have understod it was significantly easier on the batteries than the D800.

 

Now, what about Nef file access?

NEF file???I forgot to ask and now don't remember. Maybe I should go back to bed. Oh and thanks for those downloads, got 'em.

 

Rick H.

I'll never have battery in the camera. It's is easier to change the battery in the grip than to disconnect the grip and change the one in the camera.

Ok I remember the NEF question now....finally. I've been saving everything as both jpeg and nef for the last year or two. Dual cards, why not. Plus I've finally opened my eyes to some of the advantages. On the D4 they are going to the XQD card which I finally was able to aquire only to find I don't have a card reader compatible. I'll fix that this afternoon. The question is, what software will I need to work these files over? Same question for the D800 and 810. I have NX-2 and PS 6 but PS 6 doesn't want to open the files I've tried. A newer version? I haven't kept up with what is current. Lightroom?I want something that will work with all three cameras. I guess I'll have to break down and go the subscription route. Thanks.

 

Rick H.

I have a monthly subscription to PhotoShop and LightRoom. Is Adobe Camera RAW available for free? Otherwise, there is always Nikon software to open NEF.

You could try the free Adobe DNG Converter to convert your RAW files to the DNG file format, which I believe PS 6 will open. If not, check the conversion setting and if that stil does not work, at least it has not cost you anything. If it does, well, it will add an extra step to your workflow but buy you time to consider your upgrade options if you do not want to use NX2 or start a new Adobe subscription.

 

While I understand that you want a card reader, you can still connect the camera via USB (or even ethernet as your D4 supports it) to your computer and download them while the cards are still in the camera.

What operating system and version? It may be as simple as updating the ACR plugin. PS CS6 is compatible with Adobe Camera Raw up to 9.1.1, which supports all three cameras, but this requires a relatively recent version of Windows (at least 7) or OS X (at least 10.7). I don't think the DNG converter will help if upgrading ACR doesn't work, because any version that supports the D810 would have the same OS requirements as the equivalent ACR.

 

Camera Raw plug-in installer

Camera Raw plug-in and Adobe application compatibility

Cameras supported by Camera Raw

Adobe Camera Raw 8.4 or later on Mac OS 10.6, Windows XP, and Vista

 

Otherwise (or instead - I like Nikon's conversions), you can get the free Capture NX-D package and convert to tiff (or jpeg):

 

Nikon Imaging | Global Site | Capture NX-D

For what it's worth, I usually use DxO Photolab to convert raw files - it can then export to Photoshop. Photolab isn't free, but it's a one-off expense, and you'd get their lens corrections and denoising without updating Photoshop.

 

But I'd check the free options with the Adobe raw converter first. :)

A long time ago I experimented with updating the ACR plugins to get an old PS version to read my D800 files. I did manage it eventually. Sometimes it's as easy as editing an existing plugin to simply change the camera number in its header, or just throwing an updated file 'pinched' from a later version of PS into the appropriate directory.

 

I really can't remember exactly how I did it, but updating the camera definitions in an old version of ACR is certainly possible.

 

In fact I'm not sure why new and different plugins are even required for every camera. A Bayer matrix is a Bayer matrix, and can only be processed in a limited number of ways. Beside which, programs like CaptureOne are fairly camera agnostic and don't need updating every time a new camera comes out.

 

This current trend of renting software from 'the cloud' is an iniquitous practise. And what happens if you want to run it on a secure workstation or server with no internet connection?

Edited September 20, 2018 by rodeo_joe|1

I know it makes me sound like a cheapskate and I'm really not but for some reason the whole subscription thing has never set well with me. Nothing to be done for it though, since I've taken on several updates it's what I'll do.

 

Rick H.

The supported method is the installer in my first link, above (v9.1.1 for CS6). It's very easy to update if it's supported by your version of PS and your OS. I'm sure Adobe did to some extend use raw format compatibility as a way of 'encouraging' PS version upgrades before they came up with the rental scheme - sometimes the difference between the raw formats of related cameras is trivial (just an updated 'Model' tag in the metadata). On the other hand, they do go to the trouble of making camera-specific colour matching profiles that go beyond basic compatibility.

I know it makes me sound like a cheapskate and I'm really not but for some reason the whole subscription thing has never set well with me. Nothing to be done for it though, since I've taken on several updates it's what I'll do.

 

Rick H.

 

I'm not a fan of this either - it looks a lot like Adobe exploiting a near monopoly position to make a mountain of cash. But there should be no reason for you to go this way yet. If you have a computer that can run CC, you have a computer that can run CS6 plus the free ACR upgrade.