Support for Nikon NRaw

[Ryan Sauvé]

Can we please get support for Nikon's NRAW codec? Resolve and Edius already have it cooked up and ready to go. This reactive rather proactive approach to codec integration is really disappointing. First it was Prores RAW (still ongoing issues) and now NRAW. How about Adobe show Nikon shooters a bit of love here?

[xaci_68]

This announcement comes as you are proud of it... 

this is simply unacceptable the support for N-raw not here already after all these years....

[R Neil Haugen]

Welcome to the discussion! More viewpoints is always (nearly always at least) more better.

Though I'm guessing you haven't read much "around here" ... as there are tons of posts more critical than yours, that have been up for years.

I've posted far more epic rants about things here, personally ... which you can still find if you wanna dig back some. As have many others.

So do feel welcomed to post rants and disagreements, but ... always keep on topic, polite, and professional. And again, the more posting, the better.

Next, history does often matter, and many readers probably don't know the history here. So I'll add that in because it definitely does matter here.

Realistically ... I'm someone who came outta stills, where we went from Mamiya RB67 ProS 6x7 medium format film rigs, to Nikon "35mm" bodies for digital, and have only used Nikon cameras for our pro studio since 2002. My last "new" Nikon was a D3, btw. So I've a history with Nikon since the D200 era, through all the cameras since. Up to that D3 that I loved using.

But then I migrated to video, which meant leaving Nikon. Because Nikon didn't have decent, pro-usable video even well after the D3 was replaced.

The missus newest camera, as a stills shooter, is a year old Nikon, an amazing camera in all, and yea, it does Nikon RAW ... though she primarily shoots stills still.

But ... as someone well versed in all things Nikon, I had to go outside the Nikon environment to get good video kit. So I now shoot most of my video production on BlackMagic cams. Because quality versus price ... Ursa Mini Pro 4.6k G2, and BMPCC4K for b-cam.

Before getting my first BlackMagic camera, and as a Nikon user, full set of lenses et al, it was frustrating to see Canon go hard into video, and Nikon ... not at all. Then finally, Nikon made some small video moves, but ... tepidly. And because Nikon was so tepid in developing the video capabilities, there was no one, in much of any pro video workflows, shooting Nikon. Up until about two years ago. Period.

So two years ago, finally! ... Nikon jumped in, big time, but ... they were now at the end of the line of a ton of cameras, that were already out there. And all of which had been out for quite some time, and many of which had far more users working pro video.

Which explains why Nikon video support was not a huge priority for most app companies, really. And just as Adobe announced they were working on Nikon raw, Nikon bought Red, and things went totally fluid. As a long-time self-employed busisness person, I understand so well having to make priority decisions you don't like but must make because of the situation at hand. Reality bites badly, if you ignore it.

What was going to happen with Nikon formats? ... who knew? So I can see why backing off the engineer time to develop Nikon raw support made sense at the time, as frustrating as it is to many users. Including us, as if Nikon raw was supported, I'd be using that camera more for additional footage. They have clearly been discussing things quietly with Nikon but we users never hear about that stuff.

Fergus has been immensely helpful to all camera users of all brands, but he has only so many people and as noted above, they have so many cameras to support. Who keep coming out with new versions of their internal formats. Causing issues as the new versions of so many formats require nearly a rewrite of how  they're processed.

So just keeping all currently supported cameras fully supported is a right heavy load. If you look through the forum, you see the work they're having to do with several far more major-use video camera formats than Nikon raw.

So yea, I'm frustrated we users haven't had Nikon raw already, but ... I understand priorities. And also ... that I'm one user. Period. My needs will be different than every other user out there.

I totallly understand the frustration at the lack of Nikon raw support. That said ... I'm grateful Fergus has announced they are working on Nikon raw again.

It isn't a perfect world. None of the video post apps do everything and every major format. And I use other pro video software daily also. Not at all Adobe only. I even teach use of other pro video software. And Tangent panels. And ... well, other stuff. 

[Fergus H]

@Creative Spades I hear what you're saying and I'm sorry that we've lost you as a customer. 

While I can't speak to the other Adobe products you mention, I can speak to this specific example because it was my decision initially to pause work on N-RAW when its future was unclear and the demand for it was (relative to other feature requests) low. RED's SDK provides the right solution for us to implement N-RAW support. The reason we are still working on it is that the RED SDK that has N-RAW support is a beta that was released on Feburary 5 and we only incorporate shipping SDKs into our products. We're working very closely with RED and Nikon, and once the SDK is final, we will build that into our products, test it, and ship it. 

Regards,

Fergus

[Fergus H]

@xaci_68 My apologies if it seems we're proud of this. It was not the intent of my message to give you that impression; I think "relieved" is more the feeling! I apologise for the inconvenience lack of N-RAW support has caused you.  

Regards,

Fergus

[R Neil Haugen]

Fergus,

Thanks for the information. As noted, I'll be interested in using the NRAW when it's available. And as always, I appreciate your work and your posting here. Thanks.

[bflintphoto]

Over the last 3 years, if you were a Nikon shooter and edited on Premier as I was you were put in a crappy situation by Adobe.

Either use our software but you can't use the full capabilities of your camera or switch to another editing software. 

I understand that Nikon was late the to game but I wanted one system that could shoot stills and Video and N-Raw is a great codec. 

Ultimately, as someone heavily invested in Nikon, I was forced to jump ship.

I mean it's been 3 years......

[Creative Spades]

Hello @Fergus H 
While you might have been with Adobe for a few years, I was an Adobe way before you, I was a user since 1996, Ps 4 (not the gaming console) and I have been speaking to Adobe Europe, South Africa, and North America for years. Quite a few fixes were done in collaboration with the Adobe support team and myself while working on a movie that I edited in Premiere. 

I was offered to be an Ambassador for Adobe Italy, but I honestly could not endorse something that I did not believe anymore was worth my time.

Your excuses and the excuses brought up by other Adobe Apps are not plausible as the Adobe cost is extremely high, and was the leader in the market, now, after bleeding subscribers left-right-and-center, still, Adobe is deaf to the Pro-Users. You can see this in the advertising, focusing only on low-end AI photo-retouching (and honestly bad design).

Nikon is being heard just because they bought our RED, if it wasn't for that bold move this conversation would have been trashed loooong ago. 

Nikon also favours the best of the best, and becoming their ambassador means being the best of the best. A badge of Honor...The point that Adobe is missing—and you as well—is not that you "lost a customer", Adobe lost the pride of who would love working and being considered an Adobe professional, while now, very few professionals in the movie industry would even care if Adobe offered it; while we all know that if the competitor (which shall remain nameless) offered anything close to a badge everyone would wear it with pride.

Not just my opinion...but the opinion of many other Pros in the film industry...
but what do I know, probably nothing after 30 years in editing bahbahahah

[R Neil Haugen]

Just curious ... you mention "a competitor" ... does that competitor support ProRes RAW? 

Asking because in my experience, none of the pro video apps supports everything. 

[Creative Spades]

Hello @R Neil Haugen 

Apple Pro Res was released in 2007, Adobe Premiere Pro began supporting ProRes RAW with the release of version 14.2 in May 2020.
We can beat around the bush as looooong as we like...but one of the most expensive design suites cannot behave like this. This is not an open-source crappy free software, where ranting is not allowed. Paying customers (like me and many others) have based entire companies on Adobe with 30 to 40 accounts paid. No Excuses.

And to add more to the plate, any client that comes to any designer, editor, photographer, or cinematographer and gives the answers and "support" that Adobe has given me and many others through the years, all of us would be without a job.

This is not a rant, but me stating a fact.
My passion and love for the red A, was unconditional. The moment we were fixing problems and interfaces while I was editing a movie with the higher support team was a great moment...but then Pros were left behind. Audio problems never fixed' stabilization that would not work or leave a blue marker after the rendering...then don't even get me started on the rendering.

Listen, we all know the problems,and flipping the blame on other companies is way too easy. But the undeniable fact is that other software houses are giving away the whole kitchen sink for close to nothing and delivering things that Adobe is not. 

I just don't find this fair.

[R Neil Haugen]

You do realize that "the other company" is giving away their software totally as a loss-leader freebie to get people to buy hardware, right? 

I don't criticize either company for their profit models. I've got enough of "the other company's" kit to have a couple spare licenses for their Studio version in a drawer. In all, they're a good company.

But they make their profit, and pay their staffers, by selling hardware, not software.

What hardware does Adobe sell? Huh? 

Right. End of comparison.

My point is neither that company nor Adobe supports every 'major' camera format out there. Both make software that has bugs and long-standing things that many users would like changed. All my colorist friends have long lists of the things that are either bugs or poor layout, running through several major versions, in that other app. So what?

They are both good companies. Period.

And that doesn't make either of them bad, just ... human. All humans have to make choices for what they can get done. Set priorities. Companies do too. And every group of humans, like every individual human, will make slightly to majorly different choices.

I use several software packages, none of which are just perfect. All have things that I'd prefer were otherwise. And it will always be like that.

As an individual, and perhaps member of an organization, you also get to make your own choices. Which is good. There are options. Use what works.

Complain, post rants, suggest changes, of course! But in the end, use whatever gets the work out the door for the nice clients what pay your bills.

I've got friends that simply think the other company's software is by far the most intuitive UI ever possible. And that's great ... for them.

For me? After near a decade of use, I still have to remember where some of the menu options I don't use all the time are buried. As that app has so many places that menus are parked on every page. Different on every page. No, for me, it ain't an intuitive UI.

Which is fine. Who cares? We all work differently anyway.

[johnnyoakes1]

The announcent that Adobe Premier will support Nikon N-RAW is indeed very good news. I know Resolve is supposed to be the coolest software out there but I find it exteremely hard to use and uneccessarily comlpicated as far as colour grading is concerned. I have tried going through multiple nodes only to achieve the same result in Premier in a few steps with Lumetri Colour on a few adjustment  layers. Looking forward to the update. Jonathan

[HalfRes]

Fergus, can you confirm if Nikon RAW support will be across the media core to After Effects and Media Encoder? Thanks. 

[R Neil Haugen]

I do know the same "engine" is used for Premiere and MediaEncoder so it would definitely apply in both.

From my understanding, Ae has its own encoding engine design, but to my knowledge hasn't had fewer codecs/formats than Pr. I would expect Ae to handle it if for jo other reason than it would have to forvthe Dynamic Link to work.