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BALawson
Known Participant
April 4, 2021
Question

Nikon Z5 NEF thumbnails blank

  • April 4, 2021
  • 2 replies
  • 1144 views

I can't view Nikon Z5 NEF (RAW) thumbnails in Photoshop CC v22.2. They just come up with the basic NEF symbol. I know Camera RAW supports the Nikon Z cameras, so what's going on?  I paid good money for this camera, partially for the Nikon color rendering, and I don't want to convert to Adobe's DNG format. If Adobe can't fix this I'll just stop using PS and use Nikon's new NX Studio. It isn't as comprehensive or flexible or fast, but at least it's faithful to the camera settings and it does come with a monthly bill. 

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    2 replies

    *Photonic
    *Photonic
    Known Participant
    July 17, 2021

    I am having the same miserable problem with my Nikon Z5 NEF's that I attempt to download using Adobe Bridge's Photo Downloader. NEF's from my Nikon D750 and raw files from my Pentax K-70 have their image thumbnails rendered normally as they always have. However, the image files will download and appear in Bridge normally. Here's what I get when inserting my Z5 card into my card reader:

    Also, I can not convert my NEF files to DNG via Photo Downloader like I do with my Pentax raw files. I get this error message:

    When I connect my Z5 directly to my Windows PC via a USB cable, the read images appear normally as thumbnails. However, Photo Downloader will still not convert my NEF's to DNG's.

     

    davescm
    Community Expert
    davescmCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 4, 2021

    Just for clarity - which thumbnails are you referring to?

     

    Nikon Z5 files can be opened in Camera Raw 12.4 or later and the current version is 13.2 so you should have no problems in opening them. Bridge should also display them correctly provided both Bridge and Camera Raw are up to date.

     

    If you are referring to the thumbnails in the dialogue you see in File > Open  then that uses the operating system (e.g. Windows 10) to display the thumbnails so your operating system would need to support the thumbnails for your camera.

     

     

    Dave

    D Fosse
    Community Expert
    D FosseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    April 4, 2021

    Dave is right. All these Photoshop dialogs that display thumbnails, open, save etc, are operating system dialogs. They are called by Photoshop, but generated by the OS.

     

    Any raw file thumbnails you see in Windows are jpeg previews embedded in the file by the camera. It's not the raw data.

     

    So this is an issue between your camera and the operating system.

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