D80 + Aperture woes (Workaroud needed)

[Jesus]

I bought a Nikon D80 in China during a trip for a very reasonable price (with kit lense it was approx. £400 cheaper than UK price), and before I go any futher, it has to be said that the camera itself is brilliant, when it comes to the camera itself and the pictures that come out of it. However, on my journey I shot around 1700 (1696 to be precise) pictures in RAW (.nef for all those Nikon camera buffs). The problem is that these RAW image files are incompatible with Aperture, of which I am a proud user. Is there any free (or reasonably inexpensive) software that can either convert all these RAW files to Jpeg until Aperture is updated, other than the bundeld software as I am on intel and thus is dog slow. Or better yet is there any photo editing software that will work with these RAWs for a reasonable price(£150-£200)?

Sorry for any bad spelling/grammar, I have just got off my flight from Shanghai to London and I am seriously jetlaged

 

[GeeYouEye]

Aperture doesn't do NEF's? That's news to me...

but at any rate, your camera should have come with the appropriate software.

 

[Jesus]

http://www.apple.com/aperture/raw/cameras.html

no D80

 

[ChrisA]

I bought a Nikon D80 in China during a trip for a very reasonable price (with kit lense it was approx. £400 cheaper than UK price), and before I go any futher, it has to be said that the camera itself is brilliant, when it comes to the camera itself and the pictures that come out of it. However, on my journey I shot around 1700 (1696 to be precise) pictures in RAW (.nef for all those Nikon camera buffs). The problem is that these RAW image files are incompatible with Aperture, of which I am a proud user. Is there any free (or reasonably inexpensive) software that can either convert all these RAW files to Jpeg until Aperture is updated, other than the bundeld software as I am on intel and thus is dog slow. Or better yet is there any photo editing software that will work with these RAWs for a reasonable price(£150-£200)?

Sorry for any bad spelling/grammar, I have just got off my flight from Shanghai to London and I am seriously jetlaged

You can convert the NEF files using the software supplied with your camera. I think "picture Projectis is free and comes with the camera and they include a tail version of "Nikon Capure" with is much better. If not you can download fom the Nikon web site. "Capture" is free for 30 days and then I think $100 and you just might like it. There are other RAW converters one very good one is "bibble" (http://www.bibblelabs.com) and it has a 30 day free trail too. and a price arount $100 if you like it. Many people think that both of these programs make better conversions then Aperture. (They certainly offer better control of the process then Aperture does)

But you can save to a 16-bit TIFF file and import that to Aperture. This format preserves the color depth of the RAW file. If you save to JPG then Aperture and Photoshop can'r do as much. You will have to decide if you want need TIFF or JPG. It is a space trade off. The TIFF preserves the information inside the NEF file but is HUGE (like 100MB) but the JPG is compact.

So, your workflow would go first through either Bibble or Nikon Capture NX then from there you save as either JPG or TIFF and then import to Aperture. Many people would argue to keep this workflow even after Apple suports your camera.

 

[Jesus]

You can convert the NEF files using the software supplied with your camera. I think "picture Projectis is free and comes with the camera and they include a tail version of "Nikon Capure" with is much better. If not you can download fom the Nikon web site. "Capture" is, I think $100 and you jut might like it. There are other RAW converters one very good one is "bibble" (http://www.bibblelabs.com) and it has a 30 day free trail too. and a price arount $100 if you like it. Many people think that both of these programs make better conversions then Aperture. (They certainly offer better control of the process then Aperture does)

But you can save to a 16-bit TIFF file and import that to Aperture. This format preserves the color depth of the RAW file. If you save to JPG then Aperture and Photoshop can'r do as much. You will have to decide if you want need TIFF or JPG. It is a space trade off. The TIFF preserves the information inside the NEF file but is HUGE (like 100MB) but the JPG is compact.

So, your workflow would go first through either Bibble or Nikon Capture NX then from there you save as either JPG or TIFF and then import to Aperture. Many people would argue to keep this workflow even after Apple suports your camera.

Thanks, downloading now

 

[ChrisA]

NEFs are different for every camera model

Aperture doesn't do NEF's? That's news to me...

The format of the NEF file is different for every camera model. The whole point of "RAW" is that it is just "sensor data" that is yet to be converted into an image. So the format of the data is very closely tied to the camera's CCD sensor.

 

[Jesus]

The format of the NEF file is different for every camera model. The whole point of "RAW" is that it is just "sensor data" that is yet to be converted into an image. So the format of the data is very closely tied to the camera's CCD sensor.

Precisely

 

[Abstract]

I wonder if Adobe Lightroom Beta supports the Nikon D80. It's similar enough to Aperture, except with better editing and worse organization and feel (according to some people).

 

[bearbo]

is the adobe camera raw part of lightroom? or is it just a plugin for photoshop... anyhow, here, this prob will help
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3541

 

[jayb2000]

http://www.apple.com/aperture/raw/cameras.html

no D80

As of Dec 2nd, the D80 and D200 are listed now!

 

[tiggle]

I convert all my nefs into DNG files using adobe dng convertor. If aperture supports DNG, this will work very well. I think you can convert all the images at one time.

 

[tiggle]

Just checked the aperture website and it says that the download for raw support for D80 is now available. Problem solved then!