tony_wellington

Update to the above. I've found that if you in-camera enhance images with a D200, then

import them into CS3 (via ACR), the images are degraded. They lose saturation and clarity.

Not only does CS3 not read the camera settings, it degenerates the image for some

reason. So I downloaded a trial version of Capture NX. I then took images shot in NORMAL

(no adjustments) with my D200 and imported them direct into both CS3 and NX. The

images, put side-to-side on my iMac, were very similar (and not degraded, as with the in-

camera enhanced images imported into CS3). The colours were slightly different (NX being

more yellow), but, contrary to expectations, I found the CS3 image to be sharper and

crisper than the NX. So I guess one answer to the whole dilemma is to do no in-camera

enhancement, and then import into CS3 via ACR4.1. (I'd be interested to hear from others

whether they've found substantial differences in image quality of Adobe versus Nikon

software in reading normal RAW NEF photos. The possibility that ACR maybe creates more

noise than NX worries me a bit. I have also read that the TIFF files produced by Picture

Project are not up to standard - i.e. not as good as TIFF created in Photoshop. Can anyone

confirm this? Like you Amy, I'm desperate to find the optimum work system. And, due to

where my photos end up, I need to finish them in Photoshop, not Capture. (The ideal

result would be for Nikon to pull their finger out and provide a Plugin for CS3, like the one

for CS2.) Meantime....

Here's another question for all you clever folk. Which of the menu settings on my D200 are

considered to be Nikon NEF enhancements which CS3's ACR can't read? I know that the

images on CS3 are degraded when I have my camera set on Vivid, for example. What about

Colour Mode, or Image Sharpening, or High ISO Noise Reduction? Will these get spat out by

CS3 also, resulting in an inferior rather than NORMAL image?

Whew! Thanks for all that, folks. When I open photos in CS3, yes the Camera Raw 4.1

screen pops up (which I presume is what everyone refers to ACR). So CS3 does have the

ACR installed. Now you might be interested in a little experiment I ran since posting my

query yesterday. First I downloaded a trial version of Capture NX. Then I took a photo on

my D200 which was in-camera enhanced (VIVID). When I downloaded it into CS3 the image

was desaturated and slightly fuzzy. When I dowloaded the same image into Captrure NX

and put the two images side-by-side, it was like chalk and cheese. The NX image was

sharp and well saturated. Now it occurs to me that Adobe does not read the in-camera

settings from the NEF file, because it is an Adobe, not a Nikon product. So to test this

theory I took an image with the D200 on normal (unenhanced), and again imported it into

both CS3 and NX. This time the images were very similar - except that the NX picture was

slightly yellow, and the CS3 image, somewhat surprisingly, was crisper. So from all this I

have deduced that if you try and enhance images in-camera, and then import them into

CS3 they are not read simply as normal RAW images, they are degraded somehow. Because

an in-camera enhanced image from my Nikon camera looks worse when imported into

CS3 than an unenhanced (normal) image shot with the same camera. I need to export

images using CS3 because Adobe is the standard and system my printers use, and I need

to get close on my screen to what they'll produce on theirs. The final solution seems to be

to shoot everything normal, and do all alterations (saturation, sharpness, contrast etc) in

CS3 afterwards. This might be a safer bet than stuffing around with more plug-ins?

Thanks, Barry, but how do I find "your D200 files"? (I'm a bit of a photo.net luddite). There are

so many listings on the forum pages. Is there a simple way to find yours? As an update on my

question - I've just downloaded a trial version of Capture NX. I shot a photo and imported it

into CS3 as a Raw image, and the same photo into Capture NX as a Raw image. The same

image in CS3 is completely desaturated and in Capture is fully saturated. It's incredible. The

images are chalk and proverbial cheese. Proof that CS3 does not (cannot?) read the correct

image from a Nikon camera?

Oops, sorry about the typo above. That should have read "Nikon provided a Plugin that was

supported by CS2" i.e. the Nikon NEF Plugin that you can download from Nikon works with

CS2 but not CS3.

Like other folks, I shoot with Nikon cameras, but need to edit them in Photoshop. I recently upgraded from

CS2 on PC to CS3 on iMac. But Photoshop does not support Nikon's RAW NEF format. And where Nikon

provided a Plugin that was acceptable to CS3, they are currently refusing to provide a Plugin that will load

into CS3. The Nikon NEF LE Plugin simply can't be read by CS3. So the big question is, if I import images

direct from my D200 into CS3 Bridge, but convert them into DNG files in the process, am I sufferring any

image loss in the process? If Adobe doesn't recognise NEF, how can it convert it into DNG? (By the way, if I

simply import my RAW NEF files into CS3 without converting them, they end up desaturated.) So can

anyone tell me whether downloading NEFs into CS3 by changing them to DNGs means I lose sharpness/

saturation/image quality etc? By the way, I sell huge enlargements of my images, so I need them to be as

clear as possible. Thanks.

Here's a trick I've worked out. Import your NEF images direct from the camera into CS3

Bridge. Go to File and then Get Photos From Camera. In the options when importing from

camera, click the "convert to DNG" box. The RAW images are all changed from NEF to DNG,

which CS3 is happy with. They don't look quite as desaturated as when CS3 tries to read RAW

NEF images. Anyone else doing this?

I recently moved from PC to iMac. Great screen, faster, more stable system, fewer virus issues (none actually). The big issue I have found is that I shoot with Nikon, and I have installed CS3 on the Mac. I now discover that CS3 doesn't support Nikon NEF files. The Nikon NEF le .8 Plugin isn't recognised by CS3, and Nikon are currently refusing to provide a plugin for CS3 (trying to force everyone to use their own Capture program). The NEF images will come through onto CS3, but they end up desaturated. At the moment I am having to do my image adjusting on my old PC in CS2, then exporting as TIFF files and re-importing onto the Mac to be checked and finalised in CS3. If anyone knows a way around this, I'd be pleased to hear.

I've been hassling Nikon SE Asia, who are acting dumb on this issue. They're chatting with

Nikon Europe, who are also acting dumb. Basically, Nikon are refusing to interface with CS3.

It's driving me nutso. I take my photos to another PC computer which has CS2, and then

export them as TIFF files, which I can import into CS3 on my big screen Mac. It's a pain.

Everyone who owns a Nikon digital should be lobbying Nikon to pull their finger out and

provide a plugin that CS3 will accept. Make their lives a misery folks!