I would just like to confirm that I am correct to understand that NX2 can only work with Raw files if they are NEFs. This means that if I buy a Fuji camera (there are some interesting mirrorless cameras coming onto the market) to use as a second camera alongside my D700 I shall also have to buy a new editing programme to edit raw non-NEF files?

I think that the answer is Yes, but I just want to know if others have thought about that problem.

James
Suffolk UK

The answer is different for View NX2 than for Capture NX2. Capture NX2 can be used to edit NEF, TIFF, or JPEG image files. IF you save those files as a NEF (regardless of how they came in) the edits are lossless and can be tweaked or removed later. There are a very few functions related to camera settings that only apply to NEF files form a Nikon camera.

I know of one Canon Explorer of Light that uses Capture NX2 as his main editor. He does RAW conversion of his Canon images using a different program, then takes the TIFF and edits it in Capture. He moves to Adobe Photoshop for a small percentage when required. He has a specific problem with one aspect of Lightroom (undisclosed).

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Hallo Eric,

Thanks for speedy reply. In short, Capture NX2 can only edit as raw files those which started life as Nikon raw files i.e. NEF. So it could not communicate with other raw types such as those in Fuji?

I suppose then that one would have to start processing a Fuji raw film in some other editing programme e.g. Photoshop or Lightroom etc. in order to convert it to a tif or jpeg and then transfer it to Capture NX2 to be edited as a tif or jpeg? A bit cumbersome.

Apologies if I seem obtuse!

James
Suffolk UK

While shooting and reviewing non-Nikon system cameras (mostly m4/3), LightRoom was my main converter for those foreign RAW files. Worked just fine, and I never felt the need to go to CNX2 (which I retained for my D300/D200 systems).

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No - that is not exactly correct. Capture is perfectly happy editing files originated in any format as long as those files are converted then opened in Capture as NEF, TIF, or JPEG. Obviously this leaves out DNG and PSD. It cannot currently take RAW files from any other format until they have been converterd to TIF.
As long as you create a TIF with the Fuji camera you will be able to work with it in Capture. When you are finished you have two choices - save it as a NEF - in which case the resulting NEF from a TIF will have each edit step listed and those steps can be opened later and changed or removed just as any other NEF. Or you can save the file as a TIF, in which case the edits are burned into the file and not reversible.
The Fuji workflow you describe is essentially the same approach you woudl use with Photoshop or Lightroom. You have to convert the Fuji RAW file into a format that your editor can use. The original file remains your negative.

Eric Bowles
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>I would just like to confirm that I am correct to understand
>that NX2 can only work with Raw files if they are NEFs. This
>means that if I buy a Fuji camera (there are some interesting
>mirrorless cameras coming onto the market) to use as a second
>camera alongside my D700 I shall also have to buy a new
>editing programme to edit raw non-NEF files?
>
>I think that the answer is Yes, but I just want to know if
>others have thought about that problem.
>
>James
>Suffolk UK
>

James, I have exactly the same requirements.

If you are using a Mac then this is the solution I found:

In my general image viewing/management programme, Photo Mechanic, I have set up the free programme called Raw Photo Processor as an editor of the Fuji raw files. Any of the Fuji files that I want to edit I right button click on them in PM and RPP loads the file. I then save the file as a tiff which is loaded into Capture NX 2.

I have set up RPP so that the custom settings required for processing the Fuji raw files are loaded by default when ever an image from that camera is loaded.

Simple, fast, effective and without additional cost unless you want to donate.

Alternatively: in Photo Mechanic (also runs on Windows OS), one can save the Fuji raw file as a tiff.

That may help.

Peter

http://www.pastoralsystems.co.nz/photography/

Thanks to all who offered advice on this. The situation seems to be:

1. You cannot open or edit a non-NEF raw file using CNX2. Only a NEF raw file can do that. This is confirmed in “After the Shoot” (Hagen Introduction Page 1) – “Nikon CNX2 will not allow you to open raw files from other camera manufacturers such as Canon, Pentax, or Olympus”.

2. To use CNX2 to edit a Non-NEF raw file you must first convert it to a tif or jpeg. This has to be done by opening it firstly in a different editing programme, doing whatever the different programme offers for raw files, then saving it as a tif or jpeg.

3. It can then be transferred to CNX2 and opened for editing as a tif or jpeg.

4. So having a non-NEF camera as well as a Nikon entails having two editing programmes. It is obviously a matter of individual choice whether this inconvenience is significant.

The point I am still bemused about is that if you do go for the two editing programme solutions, is it true that having converted a non-NEF file to tif or jpg in the non-Nikon programme , you can convert it back in CNX2 to a Nikon RAW NEF from that tif or jpeg? If so, does it mean that you could then edit it again as if it were an original Nikon RAW NEF (though it could not be quite original if you had done any raw editing on it in the first programme).

Apologies for writing what must sound like a trainee law student’s first essay! Can’t find a way to make it clearer.
Best wishes,

James
Suffolk UK

>4. So having a non-NEF camera as well as a Nikon entails
>having two editing programmes. It is obviously a matter of
>individual choice whether this inconvenience is significant.


That is correct - if you have a RAW file that is not a NEF, you need to convert it to a TIF of JPEG. There are a number of RAW converters that can be used for this step.

>The point I am still bemused about is that if you do go for
>the two editing programme solutions, is it true that having
>converted a non-NEF file to tif or jpg in the non-Nikon
>programme , you can convert it back in CNX2 to a Nikon RAW
>NEF from that tif or jpeg? If so, does it mean that you could
>then edit it again as if it were an original Nikon RAW NEF
>(though it could not be quite original if you had done any raw
>editing on it in the first programme).

I think you said it correctly. In Capture NX2 if you open and edit a TIF it can be saved as a TIF and the edits are applied. Or you can Save As a NEF, and the edits are applied but all Capture editing steps are lossless as they are with a regular NEF. As a semi-NEF, the file has some limits to what edit steps can be used and those limits are no different than with the earlier TIF. But the addition of lossless editing and the ability to go back to any of those edit steps for additional adjustment does have vale. It never becomes the same an an original Nikon NEF and there are editing steps for a Nikon NEF that you cannot use with a "semi-NEF".


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Hallo Eric,

Thanks very much. I think I have now nearly fully got it. Most helpful.

I suppose a compromise would be to open the non-NEF in the non-CNX2 separate programme in order to convert it to a tif, and to do only that i.e. make no edits at that point. Once you have transferred it into CNX2, you convert it back to a raw NEF and proceed from there, though as you say you will not get the whole menu of CNX NEF Raw processing.

I wonder what would be unavailable.

James
Suffolk

<I suppose a compromise would be to open the non-NEF in the non-CNX2 separate programme in order to convert it to a tif, and to do only that i.e. make no edits at that point. Once you have transferred it into CNX2, you convert it back to a raw NEF and proceed from there, though as you say you will not get the whole menu of CNX NEF Raw processing.>

The compromise you describe is not unusual. Some photographers like to use specific RAW converters - Capture One is an example. Many of these programs are bundled with the camera and available for free. View NX2 is a RAW converter for Nikon.

You use the term transfer. That is not exactly right as you don't transfer files to Capture NX2 - you simply open the file from whatever location is appropriate. It remains in the original format - TIF, JPEG, or NEF and can be edited in Capture NX2.

At any point in the editing process, you can save the file and it retains any edits in a permanent manner. OR you can choose Save As and elect to save the file as a NEF - even if it was never a NEF and was created by converting a Fuji RAW file into a TIF. In this case, it becomes similar to Nikon NEF files in that all edits you are saving are now lossless and may be reversed.

From that point forward, the file has a .NEF extension and will appear to be a regular NEF file.

So you are not really "transferring" the file into CNX2, and you are not really "converting it back to a raw NEF", but those are fine lines in terminology and your overall idea is correct.

The items that are not available are the same that are not available with a straight from the camera JPEG. You cannot change any Camera SEttings - Picture Control, White Balance, or in-camera Noise Reduction. In version 2.3.0 that whole section of camera settings is simply not shown. In addition, you cannot adjust Exposure in the Quick Fix section. I think everything else is available, but there may be differences in the ability to fully apply those changes (for example, you might create more noise with some settings).

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Hallo Eric,

Thank you – 99.99% clarity now! The list of CNX2 edits not available if one converts a non-NEF raw file to a tif, then opens it in CNX2 and makes it a near-NEF by saving it as a NEF, includes adjustments to white balance.

I use WhiBal, which relies on photographing a subject with a grey card in the picture. Then you select Camera Settings ->White Balance -> set Gray, then click with the eye-dropper on the grey card and the colour balance is corrected immediately.

Is that not possible in CNX2 when the raw file converted to a tif in a non-Nikon programme is saved as a NEF?

That is something which I would grievously miss.

Thanks again for your patience.
Best wishes.

James Harper
Suffolk UK

<Is that not possible in CNX2 when the raw file converted to a tif in a non-Nikon programme is saved as a NEF?>

Sorry - it does not work. I tested it with a JPEG. You don't even have the Camera setting section.

Now in the Color section, you can still adjust saturation and warmth. And with a control point, you can adjust warmth. But the only true adjustment of white balance using an eyedropper or sampling tool is Nikon camera specific.

One thing to be aware of is not all cameras and software treat the same color temperature equally. Daylight ranges from 5200 to 5700 depending on your software. And there may be a tint applied as white balance is rendered from a RAW file. So if you are adjusting white balance, the best thing to do is get it as close to correct as possible in camera. Small adjustments are still possible, but they are adjustments to color rather than true adjustments to white balance.

Eric Bowles
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>I use WhiBal, which relies on photographing a subject with a
>grey card in the picture. Then you select Camera Settings
>->White Balance -> set Gray, then click with the
>eye-dropper on the grey card and the colour balance is
>corrected immediately.

Glad all that exchange took place after I went to bed, otherwise I would have been up all night!

In your TIFF derived NEF you can correct colour using the grey card technique.

Do this by loading the grey card TIFF into CNX2 and creating a "Levels and Curves" Adjustment step and using the Set Neutral Point dropper (same terminology as in White Balance correction) available in that step.

Then copy that step to the other TIFF derived NEFs of that set of images.

I often use this technique.

Peter

PS If nothing better is available then could the Fuji supplied software be used to produce the required TIFFs?

http://www.pastoralsystems.co.nz/photography/

Sincere thanks to all who contributed to this useful discussion, Eric in particular. I am now clear what the issues and possible solutions are, and I hope that other Nikonians may have found the debate useful.

Thank you Peter for your advice about adjusting the white balance with an eye dropper via Levels and Curves. I will experiment with that.

What would the world be like without Nikonians? (This is a rhetorical question not designed to start a new debate).

Best wishes,

James
Suffolk UK