Nikon Camera RAW type not supported by CS

I just got a camera that is too new to be supported by my present version of Photoshop (v.8). I will shoot RAW files. I have different options for conversion software: update to CS2 ($150) or use one of several standalone packages (still trying to learn about what's available).

General comments about this situation would be appreciated.

Specific recommendations will also be appreciated.

It is a little annoying that the first thing you do with a dSLR seems to be getting all the stuff so you can use it. Which seems to involve computers. The first thing I always did with a film SLR was run a roll through and makes sure it worked - which meant spending some time doing photography.

sigh, Pete D.

I suggest waiting for CS3 before upgrading. In the mean time see if the free version of RawShooter will work for your images.

Doesn't Nikon provide a raw conversion software with the camera???

Guy

Also, you can download the beta version of Adobe Lightroom - it does an excellent job and will likely work just fine for a few more weeks until the full version is released.

Guy

You can also use the latest Adobe digital negative converter to convert them to DNG files, which will then permit you to open the images in CS ACR.

For long term use, I'd recommend purchasing Nikon Capture NX (or see if you can't find a leftover or cast-off copy of Capture 4.x). It's slow, it's annoying, but Capture produces absolutely the best RAW conversions available.

I am not at all impressed with CS2's handling of RAW images; it almost invariably ignores the camrea embedded settings in favor of its own.

The software that comes with the camera doesn't provide any adjustments in the RAW conversion. I'll experiment before I decide, but with the Fuji S2 the ability to "adjust exposure" in converting from RAW to TIFF was useful to me. So the release of CS 3 is imminent? I'm dizzy. Pete D.

It is true that ACR only parses the white balance data from Nikon raw files, but you can produce equally good results. You have all of the flexibility and control in ACR that you have in NX with the exception of control points. I have yet to produce an image through Capture that I could not produce equally well with ACR. It did take some time to understand ACR. The Bruce Fraser book "Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2" gives you everything you need to achieve Capture quality results with ACR.

I don't know that you can still get copies of Raw Shooter, since Pixmantec was purchased by Adobe. I have a copy of RSE 2006 that I downloaded a while back, but I doubt it has D80 support in it. Is that what you got Pete? The D80? I would be interested to know what you think about it.

PS Elements 5.0 might support the RAW files, this would be another $100 solution for now. You could even sell off PSE once you upgraded to the latest full version of CS.

Nathan

I didn't realize I managed to post the question without specifying the camera. It's the D200 if that matters. I would have gotten the D80, but I didn't want to buy all new memory cards and I like the 200's support for older Nikkors. Pete D.

RSE wont recognise D80 raw files.

I didn't realize I managed to post the question without specifying the camera. It's the D200 if that matters. I would have gotten the D80, but I didn't want to buy all new memory cards and I like the 200's support for older Nikkors. Pete D.

Capture 4.4 adds support for the D200, if you can find a copy. If you're looking for free to tide you over until CS3, try UFRaw; it has a 16-bit TIFF output option and does a reasonably good job on RAW files.

Guy, I didn't mean to imply that ACR can't handle the job, just that it's a pain in the rear-end compared to firing up Capture, doing any (minimal, usually) adjustments, and hitting Save As... and waiting for a TIFF file to pop out the other end. I was actually scared at the initial "suggestions" ACR gave me when opening NEF; there are free packages available that do a better job on images "as loaded". Turned me off to ACR before I even bothered to learn something that should be intuitive...

I have the D200 also and am just as dizzy as Pete trying to figure out the RAW conversion stuff. So this really helps. Glad you were brave enough to ask the question, Pete. I predict you'll love the D200. Would like to know what you decide on this and how it works for you, if you wouldn't mind to e-mail me.

I've been using the diddley little Picture Project software that came with the camera to download my images. Then I open them in CS as a psd file and do all my work on the images there. Would one or more of the experts here tell me what really is happening when I do that? Thanks.

Pete:
Congratulations on the new D200. I think you will really enjoy it, I love mine. But the software that comes with it is almost useless in my opinion. You can download from Nikon a free program called Nikon View. It also is limited but I think it is much better than what comes with the D200. It is good for sorting and viewing raw files and you can make some basic adjustments to the raw images in the program. Then you can save your raw file as a tiff file and do additonal adjustments is PS.
Download at:

http://support.nikontech.com/cgibin/nikonusa.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php?p_prods=42%2C44&p_pv=2.44&p_cats=185&p_cv=1.185

Hope this helps
MK

They don't include Nikon View with the camera??? That explains the questions...

I also ran into that problem when I shot the Canon 1D Mk2n in RAW and was using CS (8.0). Would have had to upgrade to CS2 to use them directly, because Adobe did not offer an updated plug-in for that camera for CS. But I just downloaded Adobe's DNG converter and converted them all. Eventually, I upgraded to CS2. With 2,300 images from a three-day blues festival, I must confess the conversion process took a bit of time. The DNG files seem a bit brighter and more saturated to my eye than the camera RAW files from all six of the Canon digital bodies I've shot. I wonder if this is true with conversions of other manufacturer's camera RAW files.

Not to hijack this thread, but is there more buzz in the industry about camera manufacturers adopting DNG as an additional capture option on their camera bodies? There was a lot of talk a couple years ago about this, because of concerns that manufacturers would stop supporting aging camera RAW formats, and that DNG would serve as a universal RAW-type option.

Update - The software included with the camera, PictureProject 1.6, is not directed toward what I want to do - get more control over images shot in camera raw. I downloaded the trial version of Capture NX. Now that's control! It is glacially slow, but it gets there eventually. It is even spectacularly slow to save TIFF files. If there is a CS2 trial out there, I'll download it and see what I think. Yes, I saw the comments about CS3, but I can't try the beta version because I'm not using CS2. It is pretty chintzy to sell a camera like the D200 without including a decent RAW file converter. It is a VERY nice camera though... thanks for the input.

Pete D.

You can try the CS3 beta for 30 days according to the license. The RAW converter in CS3 is a vast, vast improvement, judging by my initial tinkering today.

Les - The CS3 beta only works for two days unless you get a CS3 beta serial number, which requires you having a valid CS2 serial number. I know the application says 30 days when you start it up and it asks for the serial number, but Adobe has stated that it actually will run only for 2 days.

Pete - You can download CS2 and try it for 30 days before you are required to purchase a serial number.

Kind of an aside, but why do you need a CS2 license to beta CS3? I'm still using CS, but I'd try 3 before 2 if I could...

Thanks for discussing this.

Pete D.

Pete:
Were you able to download and try the free Nikon View Raw program?
MK

Yes, I also dowloaded Nikon View. NV certainly lets me open the raw files, but I don't see any conversion options. You can dump it into another program, like Photoshop, but the options are limited to exposure adjustment and color balance. At least it comes over with 16 bit color . . .

Pete D.