Nikon Capture NX conversion to DNG

[Mike Yang]

Greetings,

I would like to use Nikon's Capture NX software as part of my workflow because I like it's editing capabilities and style. Ideally I would make my changes in Capture NX and export to DNG. Along these lines, I have the following questions:

1) Can Capture NX export to DNG while keeping all changes to the picture?
2) Is the DNG from Capture NX a linear or raw DNG file?
3) What are the pros/cons of linear vs. raw DNG?
4) Do Adobe products (photoshop, bridge, etc.) use linear or raw DNG?
5) In the DAM book, Peter talks about the many benefits of DNG (I'm sold!).  Is he talking about linear or raw DNG?

Thanks very much in advance!

Mike

[WIanB]

Hi Mike,

I am not a user of DNG so cannot answer all of your questions but:

Answer to question 1. No, neither Capture NX or NX2 can convert to DNG. You will have to use either Adobe DNG converter or Lightroom to convert your NEF's to DNG. With NEF files being a 'closed' Nikon format the resulting DNG file will not show any NX/NX2 adjustments.

Ian

[Mike Yang]

Thanks for your reply Ian.  Your reply concerns me because I have a lot of files that I have post-processed using Capture NX.  I would hate to lose all of the post-processing work I did when I convert to DNG.

I don't suppose anybody knows of a workaround to this?  Maybe convert NEF -> TIFF -> DNG?

Cheers,
Mike

[WIanB]

Mike,

Yes that would work. Export your NEF's from NX as 16 bit TIFF files and then convert to DNG.

Ian

[WIanB]

Forgot to say you will Lightroom to convert TIFF files to DNG as the standalone DNG converter will only convert RAW files.

Ian

[peterkrogh]

Mike,
Capture NX workflow is pretty much incompatible with DNG.
Peter