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LR 5.7 and Nikon D7200. unable to import NEF files.

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
March 20, 2015
9 replies
42790 views

I have LR 5.7 and a brand new Nikon D7200. I upgrades LR3.x to 5.7 and now i am unable to import NEF files. Is there a solution? did i do something wrong?

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Correct answer Joshua Cohen

What you did wrong is expect an unsupported camera to work. I don't see this camera here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html

In fact it's not even on the newly released ACR 8.8 list. I'm guessing you'll have to wait for the next update cycle (2-3 months).

lordjohn48

Participant

‌Unfortnately Adobe are playing silly buggers and are forcing users to go to Lightroom CC or LR 6 in order to get support for the Nikon D7200. I bought a D810 last year and within 4 weeks Adobe released an update for LR 5 for D810 support. The D7200 has been out more than 4 weeks and there is no update as yet for LR5.

As far as I am concerned LIghtroom CC / LR6 is virtually unusable on a MacBook Air that had no issues with LR5 added to which it has a host of bugs. I would assume LR6 is better on a fast machine with a graphics processor and heaps of RAM.

As a secretary of a photographic club I am not recommending any members to upgrade to LR6 unless they have a specific need such as D7200 support.

I would like to think that Adobe will release an update for LR 5 for D7200 support in the very near future but I suspect they are playing the marketing game.

Per Berntsen

Community Expert

There won't be any more updates for LR5.

Use the free DNG converter, and import the DNGs in LR5.

Product updates

lordjohn48

Participant

‌The issue with the DNG converter is that you cannot change the profile in LR like you can if you import the RAW file.

teslacoil_atx

Participant

It wasn't apparent from the "Release Notes" that comes up to tell you of the new version of Lightroom but it DOES support D7200 NEF. After you elect to purchase, make sure you select from the Lightroom version dropdown your previous version of the software and you can get Lightroom 6 for $79 USD. In addition to the D7200 NEF file support, they added panorama stitching, HDR processing within the software, and facial recognition.

I could not find a way to link to the section of Adobe's site so you may need to open your version of Lightroom and use the Help menu to Check for Updates and follow the links. Ensure you change the version to an upgrade (assuming you have a previous version) to get the upgrade price.

kcossabo

Known Participant

I just updated via CC and the new version Lightroom CC, ROCKS with the D7200 !!!!

And WHO Said it would take Adobe MONTHS to fix this.... weeks my friends, and the cloud delivered!!!!

kenb71003878

Participating Frequently

‌

Here's how I got it to work.

1. Install adobe 8.8 dng converter. Make shortcut to desktop.

2. Install (30 day free trial) of UltraEdit.

3. Open NEF with ultra edit and change 7200 to 5500 and save.

4. Drop NEF file on converter and convert.

5. Import DNG in Lightroom

J

jsyt

Participant

The solution maintaining RAW files in the workflow is explained here : Nikon D7200 RAW NEF Hack for Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop - YouTube

In summary (for Windows):

Install the exiftool by Phil Harvery : ExifTool by Phil Harvey

From a command line, run in your directory with D7200 files the command "exiftool -P -MODEL="Nikon D5500" *.nef"

(This changes the camera model in the NEF file into D5500 while maintaining the creation time of the files; exiftool has to be in your PATH or in the same directory as your NEF files.)

Use Adobe DNG Converter to convert the resulting NEF files into DNG.

Import the DNG files into Lightroom the usual way.

It worked for me.

Todd Shaner

Legend

jsyt wrote:

The solution maintaining RAW files in the workflow is explained here : Nikon D7200 RAW NEF Hack for Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop - YouTube

There are bound to be differences between the D5500 and the D7200 camera profiles. When it becomes available you'll need to "undo" the changes made with EXIF tool for ALL of the NEFs changed to D5500 model. Some people have also reported that the images don't look right when using the D5500 profile.

Jim's suggestion is a good idea! Just shoot raw + JPEG and process the JPEGs for now. You may find some of the new JPEG modes and settings in the D7200 are useful even if you primarily shoot raw images. That's one of the few things that sets the camera manufacturers apart–In-camera image processing. My prediction is they will get so good that it will be hard to beat using a single raw file. This includes applying lens corrections and extending dynamic range through real-time in-camera HDR processing. I believe the D7200 has this capability already. Give at a try!

V

v. thomasw8779686

Participating Frequently

I don't have the answer, but just wanted to say, I have the same problem. I hope there is a fix for this.

JP Hess

Inspiring

There is a fix for this, but you won't like it. Simply wait until there is an update or upgrade that supports the camera. A few months ago Canon released a new model and purchasers were screaming here on the forum for several weeks, blaming Adobe for not caring about their customers or being up to date. There were pointing fingers and blaming everyone for something that just happens sometimes. The D7200 was released at a point in time where it is necessary to wait for Adobe to catch up. Believe me, within a few weeks (?) Support will be added, and this whole issue will be in the past. If the D7200 is never supported by Adobe software, I believe it will be the first Nikon camera that Adobe has decided to not include. It just takes time. In the meantime, it really won't break the camera or do any damage that I'm aware of to shoot JPEG images and familiarize yourself with what the camera can do.

V

v. thomasw8779686

Participating Frequently

Thanks, guess I have to wait, but is the NEF format new to Nikon? I had a Nikon D5300 and didn't have problems with importing into Lightroom. Perhaps I didn't have any raw files.

B

BigReach

Participant

I think one thing that needs to be pushed is for these manufacturers to adopt a DNG format option. After learning about DNG in detail due to this problem, it makes no sense why manufacturers would not use DNG that solves so many of these stupid compatibility problems. It's a win for software companies, consumers, and manufacturers.

NEF can be different between manufacturers, by how the fields are ordered in the file. That's it, it contains all the same information, but in different order. This is why companies like Adobe need to make a stupid update is to read the order of the file. Plus dealing with those stupid sidecar xmp files is ridiculous. If everyone followed DNG then life would be good, for everyone. Also, DNG has better compression, so you can get more shots per card and hard drive. If Charlie Sheen was here right now, he'd be running around the room yelling at the top of his lungs, "WINNING! WINNING! DNG IS WINNING!"

I encourage you to go ape sh*t on Twitter, Facebook, etc...and complain to Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc...to adopt the free and open DNG format to prevent this from happening ever again.

It took 8 crazy guys to get the American Revolution started apparently.

ssprengel

Inspiring

The math for DNG Profile system is deficient in extreme lighting situations. I can’t imagine a camera manufacturer adopting the DNG specification until things are better than what they can do in house, since if the competition didn’t and could create better photos they’d be at a disadvantage for doing so.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

There is no reason for camera manufacturers to use the DNG profile system at all though. It is just a container for raw data and you can store any metadata you want so they can do all the proprietary processing you want. There is no technical reason why Nikon/Canon couldn't use dng and get identical raw rendering to their nef/cr2 files. It is a Nikon/Canon marketing decision to use their own proprietary format, not a technical one.

Expecting camera manufacturers to adopt dng is a complete pipe dream for other reasons though. It is pretty clear that the big two have no clue whatsoever about how their customers actually use their cameras and what are issues that really impede their work. Clearly very few or none of the executives are photographers themselves and few of the engineers are either. Workflow is a really big problem and the big two camera makers keep getting it wrong and appear to actually actively impede it by pushing their own terribly flawed software on us. Instead they give us solutions that do not actually work like wifi that only works with cellphones and then only if you do a series of incantations and are lucky. Even if it works it is extremely slow and unwieldy (looking at you Nikon - your wifi stuff is worse than useless). It is crazy that the pro with the big Nikon D4 has to juggle flash cards into readers and laptops to get their images somewhere while if you have a cellphone, you can have an edited image online with just a few taps. No wonder that DSLR sales have been plummeting over the last years. Clearly they have no idea what we really want. They honestly think that everybody uses their raw software and if not would be better off using it, so they have no clue we want interoperability with third party software from the get go. That seems inconceivable from how hard many complain but very little ever reaches them. Read this: "Camera Makers Don’t Really Pay Attention" for an insiders perspective on this.

BigMouse

Participating Frequently

For those users of a newer models of a Nikon camera, including D7200...........................

Nikon's View NX-i software will be your best option until Adobe makes their updates available. It is very simple to open the nef files in view nx-i and convert to tif. Then import to Lightroom, PSE or PS and work what you wish.

Are those working in photography for money seriously shooting jpg?

View NX-i can be downloaded from the following link:

Nikon Imaging | Global Site | ViewNX-i

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

Oh and one caution: There is a large chance that since no support showed up in ACR 8.8, there will be no support in LR 5.8. This means that one might have to go to LR 6 to get D7200 support natively since that could come out any time now.

kcossabo

Known Participant

Well LR6 would be fine for me, as a cloud subscriber that would be fine, and once again a plus of the cloud, but right now, there is limited value in using LR5 and no Nikon D7200 RAW support. As an amateur on this, I am amazed that this is not more publicized that new cameras do not work for 1/4 of the year with Adobe? Kinda like a foot note on all the reviews of 'should you upgrade to D7200'.

Thank you for the note, my decision is pay $30 to wait, and use a crippled program (the only way I could see to put it, but I know it is not the software's fault, it is the adoption cycle), or drop the cloud, and resubscribe when they support my Camera? I would NOT today get Adobe Create Cloud for Photographers with this camera, so why keep it was my point, and the reason would be to access the old libraries I have.

I went from Aperture to Lightroom a year ago, and be curious on what Apple's new Photos will support. It might steal me back from Adobe, even though it will be feature lacking, the feature of supporting my camera is a BIG feature.

Once again, thank you all.

J

Jao vdL

Community Expert

Well LR6 would be fine for me, as a cloud subscriber that would be fine, and once again a plus of the cloud, but right now, there is limited value in using LR5 and no Nikon D7200 RAW support. As an amateur on this, I am amazed that this is not more publicized that new cameras do not work for 1/4 of the year with Adobe? Kinda like a foot note on all the reviews of 'should you upgrade to D7200'.

I would agree with this. There is no third party support whatsoever for these brand new cameras. Adobe is not the one to single out here as Aperture and every other raw converter doesn't support it either. This should be a main reason to wait to upgrade. It is widely reported on by the independent reviewers (e.g. Tom Hogan always notes it as a problem and he keeps railing on this as something Nikon gets wrong every time) but the sites that depend on sales somehow or are part of sales conglomerates do not draw attention to this.

I went from Aperture to Lightroom a year ago, and be curious on what Apple's new Photos will support. It might steal me back from Adobe, even though it will be feature lacking, the feature of supporting my camera is a BIG feature.

Apple adds support by updating the system raw conversion libraries, so Photos supports what Apple supports. Traditionally they have taken about twice as long as Adobe to add support for new cameras. You can see what they support currently here: OS X Yosemite: Supported digital camera RAW formats - Apple Support

J

Joshua CohenCorrect answer

Participating Frequently

What you did wrong is expect an unsupported camera to work. I don't see this camera here:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-suite/kb/camera-raw-plug-supported-cameras.html

In fact it's not even on the newly released ACR 8.8 list. I'm guessing you'll have to wait for the next update cycle (2-3 months).