How can I view RAW thumbs in external HD?

[josephwalsh]

<p>I shoot RAW (Lumix LX-3 and Nikon D700) and download them with Lightroom 2. At the same time, I am sending them to an external harddrive (Western Digital on desktop, LaCie with laptop) I'm running Windows.<br>

In the external hard drives I get only file numbers displayed regardless what I set from the "View" pulldown menu.<br>

If I shoot RAW+jpeg it is the same....just numbers.<br>

I do get to see thumbnail images when I shoot jpeg only. True with both computers, both cameras.<br>

Is this the way it has to be or is there a box I should have checked (doh!), unchecked (doh!) or something else I'm missing?</p>

[peano]

<p>Try <a href="http://irfanview.com/">IrfanView</a> . You can view raw files as thumbnails and double click them individually to view them as large images. And it's free.</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Your operating system has no idea, natively, how to render thumbnails of a RAW file (though it does of the non-proprietary JPG format). You need to use an application that can make sense of the RAW files. The issues isn't which drive it's on, or where you have them stored - it's about software. As mentioned above, Irfan is an option. As is Google's free Picassa, or FastStone, also free.</p>

[howard_m]

<p>I believe there is a codec for Windows for Nikon NEFs.</p>

<p>http://www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/</p>

<p>can't help re: Lumix but it's the same problem that the OS can't understand the format.</p>

[joshuamck]

<p>A codec allows the operating system to natively render the RAW files. There are several codecs by Ardfry that shows thumbs for DNG, CR2, and NEF. (Nikon's NEF Codec doesn't come in a 64bit version, Ardfry's does). See http://www.ardfry.com/<br>

Another alternative is to offload the images and view thumbs only in LR. I've heard this is possible, don't know off the top of my head how to do it. Your LR license likely allows installation on multiple computers (as long as both are not in use simultaneously), so another option might be to move your catalog file to the external hard drive and install LR on both machines<br>

Disclaimer: You should probably think about proper backup procedures if you do this - moving the catalog to the external drive is possibly not compatible with these procedures. Peter Krogh's The DAM Book is well worth a read.</p>

[josephwalsh]

<p>Matt...can you tell me why can't I see jpeg thumbnails when I shoot RAW+jpeg?<br>

Perhaps it's because I choose "Copy photos as Digital negatives and Import"</p>

[simon_bygdell]

<p>Microsoft has a .NET based raw viewer that allows thumbnails too but looks like it does not yet support D700 or LX3 formats.<br>

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=D48E808E-B10D-4CE4-A141-5866FD4A3286&displaylang=en</p>

<p>Windows 7 has native RAW support.</p>

[joshuamck]

<p>Joe, the RAW+Jpg setting does not create a RAW file with a Thumbnail. It creates a RAW file and a separate JPG file. If you don't see the JPG files perhaps you did not copy them when you imported.</p>

[josephwalsh]

<p>OK, Joshua. As I understand LR I have to choose one import method for RAW (convert to DNG) and another for jpegs. SHould I import twice? Will the RAW and jpeg be associated with one another? I shall try, see what happens.<br>

SJ: I pre-ordered W7 to replace my Vista...that sounds promising.</p>

 

[joshuamck]

<p>Afaik, you can't do the LR convert to DNG with JPGs in the same folder as your RAW files. You have to do it separately. You might find it a good idea to manually copy your card to an ingestion directory before running the LR import procedure - that way you can check the results of the import against the files that you copied. A question that you should ask yourself is whether the JPGs are really necessary if you have the RAWs imported already.<br>

Windows 7 doesn't have native RAW support - running it on several boxes atm.<br /> I just found http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/ which was released a couple of days ago. It's Beta software, but works in Windows 7 64 bit for thumbnails and the standard image viewer app. I tried viewing both D90 NEF files and DNG files and all worked fine.<br /> Apparently this piece of software does a bunch of different RAW formats from Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Sony, Leica, ...</p>

[joshuamck]

<p>As far as I know, you LR will ignore the any JPGs in the same folder as your RAW files if you set it to convert to DNG mode. You'll have to import the JPGs separately. It's a good idea to manually copy your card to an ingestion directory before running the LR import procedure - that way you can check the results of the import against the files that you copied. A question that you should ask yourself is whether the JPGs are really necessary if you have the RAWs imported already.<br /> Windows 7 doesn't have native RAW support - I'm running it on several boxes at the moment.<br /> I just found http://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/ which was released a couple of days ago. It's Beta software, but works in Windows 7 64 bit for thumbnails and the standard image viewer app. I tried viewing both D90 NEF files and DNG files and all worked fine. Apparently this piece of software does a bunch of different RAW formats from Nikon, Canon, Pentax, Sony, Leica, ...<br>

Sorry about the double post, software wouldn't save my edits.</p>