Nikon D300 and Adobe; frustration anyone

[bert gildart]

I've had my Nikon D300 for about two weeks and with the intention of adding my

thoughts about difficulties experienced offer the following. (But let me first

say that after dealing with the obstacles of processing raw images I am in love

with this camera.)

 

Getting to this point, however, seems to be a bit frustrating than what it

should be and that is essentially because of what I perceive as a lack of

co-ordination between Nikon and Adobe. Another professional photographer, Tom

Ulrich, agrees with me.

 

Before you can work with raw images you must upgrade from Photoshop CS2 to

Photoshop CS3. Then?and here's where a little coordination or written

instructions could help?you must download updates from CS3. But then there?s yet

another step, and lacking the computer logic of one who might deal with this

type of thing on a day-to-day basis?I first had to figure out whether I needed

to go to Nikon or to Adobe. I went to Nikon, but realized before too long that I

needed to go to Adobe. Here, you must download RAW 4.3.1, making sure you also

download all instructions. Then you must follow them carefully, which from this

point is no big deal, but it does take time and some study.

 

All totaled it took about a day before I was up and running, working with Raw

images. (You can of course work with jpgs shot on your D300 using Nikon Transfer

that comes as part of your software.) Downloading the updates from CS3 took

almost two hours (and that?s with fairly high-speed connections). Then

downloading Raw 4.3.1 on my computer took another 10 or 15 minutes. My friend,

Tom, however, lives in a remote part of Montana, travels lots, so has only

dialup. He'll be investing lots more time than I've invested.

 

Once you've purchased Photoshop CS3 here's the link for downloading the 4.3.1

Raw update: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp'ftpID=3822.

 

To summarize, once you buy your D300, you then need CS3 plus all the updates

before you can work with NEF images. If you try the Nikon Transfer software with

CS2 you?ll get a frustrating message saying in effect: "Don?t recognize this

format." You?ll continue to get that message after purchasing CS3 and even after

uploading updates from CS3. You?ve got to have 4.3.1 as well. If you don?t

download all above-mentioned updates NEF Raw images won?t work.

 

And now, I'll be curious to see if others agree with me or whether the

frustrations I've experienced are unique to me.

 

Thanks,

 

Bert

[michaelkh]

In the long run, upgrading to CS3 will probably have been worth it, but in the meantime you

could just have downloaded Adobe's DNG Converter, turned your D300 NEFs into DNGs, and

used them in Photoshop CS2.

[mark45831]

Is the DNG the same as NEF just Adobe version?

[hans_janssen]

Didn't you get Capture NX with the camera?

[joseph_smith3]

I do not use Adobe products so I do not know all of the complexities of using Adobe to read non Adobe files. If I did want to use CS2 or CS3, I would load the version of Capture NX that came with my camera, download the NEF files using my usual download program or use Nikon Transfer that camera free with the camera, and process my NEF iamges in Capture NX, save them as a TIFF and take the TIFF into CS2 or CS3.

 

Joe Smith

[tonybeach]

New cameras from all makers have these problems, you cannot open a Canon 1Ds Mk III without also updating ACR. As Hans points out, you should have received a free version of NX with your D300 (it's a license key included in the paperwork). I find the color profiling from Nikon's software much better than Adobe's for NEF files. As for coordination between the companies, well Adobe could do a better job color profiling Nikon DSLRs but they choose speed over quality.

[photo5]

you don't "need" CS3 with the D300, you can convert your NEF files with the copy of NX that

came with your camera, and which, I might add, does a better job than CS3 does. I upgraded

to CS3 earlier this year when it came out and enjoy the improvement over CS2, it was well

worth the price.

[walterh]

Co-ordination? Bert there is a war going on. Canon Nikon Adobe - any large company in the expanding market of digital imaging including hardware and software are fighting over your best: your money :-P

 

 

It should not be too difficult for a camera producer to have their own file format written in a way that everyone can read it without problem. Think about tiff format. It is an open format and anybody can read it. Can D300 write tiff? I read it can. You should consult your manual or fight the D300 menu system. Perhaps the fronts are softening.

 

If you like PSCS3 stay with it as many prefer it over so called image processing software from Nikon. Give NX a try perhaps you like the results better like Anthony recommends. Long time ago I did agree with Anthony that we disagree about image quality issues of NX versus Adobe camera raw :-) There seems to be a range of opinions which is the best RAW converter. Perhaps the tif file capability of the D300 settles this.

[jwhite3.0]

Burt, even after getting CS3 to work with NEF files you might not like the Adobe RAW converter. The colors never looked right after NEF conversions. I do all of my NEF conversion in Nikon Capture and then any processing of TIFFs/JPEGs in CS3. Nikon Capture can do most things but I know more about CS3 PS editing so it is easier to use two programs. Adobe and Nikon aren't necessarily communicating as we would like because the equipment is new and each wants to promote their own software over the other. I got lucky in being able to buy an education versions of CS2/CS3 PS. Spending full price for CS2 and CS3 I would probably be more bitter if having troubles with NEF files.

[douglas lee]

Any time something new comes there is always a period of transition. You were up and

running in a day. That tells me the 3rd party vendors were on top of the situation. The only

way to resolve your issue is for one company to provide end-to-end products. Capture to

print. Sounds like a monopoly to me. In the long-run, not god.

[jonas_yip1]

I'm still on CS, but have not experienced any D300 frustration since my copies of Lightroom, Bibble, and the free copy of Capture NX that came with the D300 all handled the new NEFs just fine... Lots of options out there...

[ronald_moravec1]

I put my second allowable copy of CS3 on my portable computer. 1.5 hours to load it all

in.

 

Attached to the internet and Adobe updater came up and automatically did everything for

me, such as disabling the extended portion and bringing in ACR4.3 and I don`t know what

else. It took perhaps another hour, but I did not touch a thing.

 

This is for a Mac.

 

I did have to manually download ACR4.? after loading my first copy in the main computer.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

I remember my parents having to buy a new TV in sixties just so we could get color pictures. What a hassle that was. :-)

[walterh]

"I remember my parents having to buy a new TV in sixties just so we could get color pictures. What a hassle that was. :-)"

 

And the worst part is that the TV stations in the US choose the wrong transmission protocol :-P

[douglas_abbott]

Capture NX should do what you want without upgrading to CS3 providing you're not on a Leopard Mac (Nikon has acknowledged problems with 10.5.1 and NX as well as the other Nikon imaging tools and Leopard). I also understand that Lightroom 1.3.1 will import the D300 NEFs. Aperture is working on an update for the D300 also. ACDSee is also about to release a new version I believe that allows D300 file management.

[marypar4]

I have adobe elements 5.0 which does not accept NEF files..but adobe posted a update 4.3.1 which replaces a file in the plugin folder..and now works like a charm. I am assuming it would be the same for all adobe products..they are pretty good about ging detail instructions on how to install the updates.

[shazeensamad]

Open Adobe Photoshop+Help+Updates+Select Adobe Camera Raw from the list.

 

Ofcourse i am using Adobe CS3 Extended, and had the same problem, But everything is solved now. I can open d200 and d300 files.

[judit_langh]

I am having problems converting my D300 NEF (RAW) files with CS3 including the latest

version of ACR and all the updates. I am able to read some of the NEF files, but about 50% of

them I can't open. I am using a MAC. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? Is it

possible that my camera is creating corrupt NEF files? I tried NX and ran into pretty much the

same problem there. Very strange.

[kaiyen]

Actually, someone pointed out a great solution - Lightroom. I think it's still cheaper than CS3, and since it is basically ACR, it will always stay up to date (at least until they come out with 2.0, I guess). So you could have just CS on there, do all your RAW workflow in LR, and then output to CS only when you needed layers and whatnot. Stays up to date.

[samantha_dove]

<p>i also have a MAC. I tried to download the updates for RAW and it's not letting me. Everytime i try to open an image it says that the files are corrupt. I noticed that Judit Langh is having the same problem i am. Does anyone know how to fix this problem. It's very frustrating. </p>