NEF Files and Shooting in Raw

[dean]

Am I wrong in assuming that NEF is only a Nikon thing?

Yea, NEF is a Nikon thing only. Nikon Electronic Format

[dean]

NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) RAW file
The NEF file format is unique to Nikon and provides considerable benefits over the other file formats. Files can be saved in camera as uncompressed or compressed at approximately 50-60% of the original file size using Nikon's advanced compression algorithm. NEF files saved in camera are referred to as NEF RAW files. NEF files are not processed in camera to RGB data like JPEG and TIFF images using the cameras image processor. Image processing instructions are left with the file, then processing can be executed with more accuracy by Nikon software installed on a computer rather than in the camera.

Images saved in NEF format maintain the high quality of the original photograph, adjustments to settings such as White Balance, Advanced Raw, Curves, Colour Balance, Unsharp Mask and Size/Resolution are not applied to the original image data, but are instead saved separately in the same file as a separate set of instructions. These instructions can be changed by the user in Nikon software but can be reverted back to the original set at any time as long as the file remains a NEF file.

The instructions are only applied to the original image data when the image is saved in another file format (JPEG, TIFF etc), this minimizes any loss of image quality that may be produced when the image is edited. Save images in NEF whenever you are unsure of how they will be used or when you want to process the original image in a number of different ways.

NEF images can be opened in the following software applications, Nikon View 5, 6, PictureProject or Nikon Capture 3, 4 (available separately). It is also possible to open NEF files in Adobe Photoshop 5.0 or later (Photoshop LE excluded) and Photoshop Elements using the Nikon NEF filter suppiled with Nikon View 5 or 6 and PictureProject.

The advantages of the NEF (RAW) file format
- As the images are constructed of 12bit data they have many times the tonal range of 8bit images, allowing for finer adjustment of colour and improved detail in shadow areas.

- The Nikon software only ever stores the users image edit instructions as a second set of instructions within the NEF file adding to the camera’s own original instructions which were saved at the time of image capture. Editing an image does not affect the original instructions in the NEF file.

The advantages of this are:
A) the original data is never lost, it is always possible to “undo” any image manipulation as the original image is never altered.

B) Each time a image variation is produced by editing, only a new set of processing instructions is saved within the NEF file, a few KB rather than several MB.

- Alternatively image edit instructions can be saved separately in a Settings file, loading of Settings files takes a few seconds compared to a few minutes to load and display the same high resolution data multiple times in other image editing programs. This advantage alone results in major savings in disk space and speed.

Saving Converted NEF files in Nikon Capture
When NEF (RAW) is selected as the chosen file format in camera, images are saved as 12bit NEF files, the advantages of saving images in this file format are clear above. When a TIFF or JPEG file is open in Nikon Capture it is possible to save those files as NEF files with an Instruction Set so that they can be returned to their original state at any time. The new NEF file created will still have the same bit depth as the original JPEG or TIFF file. This type of file is called a NEF file (as opposed to NEF (RAW) file) because only NEF images saved in camera are created from RAW data.