Cant't read D70s NEF

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Deedee Tee - 17 Sep 2005 04:50 GMT

I just set up a new PC with Windows XP sp2 (with Nikon's thumbnail fix
for XP sp2), Photoshop CS2 and Nikon Capture 4.3.1. As far as I know,
I have the latest updates of everything.

I am trying to open a few D70s NEF files which I have opened
successfully on another PC with Nikon Capture 4 (don't know which
release/patch number). When I open with Nikon Capture, a dialog says
"Nikon Capture Editor - Can't open file C:\...". When I open with
Photoshop and the "Nikon NEF Plugin.8Bi" installed by Nikon Capture,
the plugin displays an empty preview, then when I press OK it says
"Adobe Photoshop - Could not complete your request because of a disk
error". If I open with Photoshop and the Adobe Camera Raw plugin, of
course it fails because of the unsupported WB encoding. All the above
software opens correctly JPG and other formats.

Any suggestions? If not, it looks like I have to forget about shooting
raw, at least with this computer.

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Bob - 17 Sep 2005 05:13 GMT

>I just set up a new PC with Windows XP sp2 (with Nikon's thumbnail fix
>for XP sp2), Photoshop CS2 and Nikon Capture 4.3.1. As far as I know,
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>Any suggestions? If not, it looks like I have to forget about shooting
>raw, at least with this computer.

Try different NEF files or files from another media, sounds like those files are
corrupt...

Try to load them into a hex editor and see if you can spot anything wrong!

( frhed.exe is a good editor )

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Deedee Tee - 17 Sep 2005 06:24 GMT

>>I just set up a new PC with Windows XP sp2 (with Nikon's thumbnail fix
>>for XP sp2), Photoshop CS2 and Nikon Capture 4.3.1. As far as I know,
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
>( frhed.exe is a good editor )

Thanks for the suggestion - I should have thought of it myself. Test
NEF files copied straight from the camera are opened fine both in
Nikon Capture and Photoshop, so the problem is with the old NEF files
copied over from the previous PC. What happened to all these NEF
files, and why it did not happen with JPG or other files, for now
remains a mistery. At least I had converted some of these NEF files to
JPG on the old PC, so it's not a total loss.

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Ed Ruf - 17 Sep 2005 10:57 GMT

>Thanks for the suggestion - I should have thought of it myself. Test
>NEF files copied straight from the camera are opened fine both in
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>remains a mistery. At least I had converted some of these NEF files to
>JPG on the old PC, so it's not a total loss.

Are these raw or edited NEFs? There have been changes along the way and if
saved from an old copy of Capture, maybe that's the problem. You can search
Nikon's tech support site knowledgebase.
----------
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 (Usenet@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
See images taken with my CP-990/5700 & D70 at
http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

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Deedee Tee - 17 Sep 2005 13:28 GMT

>Are these raw or edited NEFs? There have been changes along the way and if
>saved from an old copy of Capture, maybe that's the problem. You can search
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>See images taken with my CP-990/5700 & D70 at
>http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

You are right that these NEF files have been edited with something
that changed them, I just discovered what. I changed the IPTC Caption
field of the unusable NEF files with ThumbsPlus version 7, adding one
line of data (locality name etc.). It appears that ThumbsPlus does
more than just change the IPTC data. The change is irreversible.
Erasing the added data with ThumbsPlus still leaves the files
unreadable. JPG that have been edited in a similar way remain
readable.

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Ed Ruf - 17 Sep 2005 15:22 GMT

>>Are these raw or edited NEFs? There have been changes along the way and if
>>saved from an old copy of Capture, maybe that's the problem. You can search
>>Nikon's tech support site knowledgebase.

>You are right that these NEF files have been edited with something
>that changed them, I just discovered what. I changed the IPTC Caption
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>unreadable. JPG that have been edited in a similar way remain
>readable.

Hopefully, you have archived the original, non-edited versions. In not, a
lesson learned the hard way.

Can you still open these in your older version of Capture? Just curious.
----------
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 (Usenet@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
See images taken with my CP-990/5700 & D70 at
http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

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Deedee Tee - 17 Sep 2005 16:33 GMT

>Hopefully, you have archived the original, non-edited versions. In not, a
>lesson learned the hard way.

The problem is, I realized only one month later that something was
wrong, so by this time I had already reformatted all CF cards (where I
usually let all pictures sit until I need the space). I have interim
backups on DVDs, but the files were already edited.

Actually, I did not mean to take raw files, because I had not
experimented sufficiently with it, but I went in the field with the
camera set to raw from the previous day, and realized it only after
the first 20-odd shots. Wonderful how much one learns from these
experiences.

>Can you still open these in your older version of Capture? Just curious.

No, they don't open with anything I tried (four versions of Nikon
Capture, Photoshop CS2, Pixmantec RawShooter). The thumbnail preview
is still there in all files, so not everything has been mangled. I
sent e-mail and a mangled file to Cerious (the distributors of
ThumbsPlus). We will see their response - it seems to be a plain
software bug.

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Ed Ruf - 17 Sep 2005 16:54 GMT

>No, they don't open with anything I tried (four versions of Nikon
>Capture, Photoshop CS2, Pixmantec RawShooter). The thumbnail preview
>is still there in all files, so not everything has been mangled. I
>sent e-mail and a mangled file to Cerious (the distributors of
>ThumbsPlus). We will see their response - it seems to be a plain
>software bug.

Even ThumbsPlus doesn't open them? I feel your pain. I came back from
vacation to find my Archos Gmini 220 corrupted 20-30 % of ~9 1 GB CF card
transfers to it.
----------
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 (Usenet@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
See images taken with my CP-990/5700 & D70 at
http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

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Hunt - 17 Sep 2005 16:39 GMT

>>Are these raw or edited NEFs? There have been changes along the way and if
>>saved from an old copy of Capture, maybe that's the problem. You can search
[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>unreadable. JPG that have been edited in a similar way remain
>readable.

Deedee Tee,

Can you Open these files in ThumbsPlus? If so, you might do a Save_As (same
name, different location, or same location, different name). I use ThumbsPlus
side-by-side with NC, PS, and many other programs, and it has never caused me
a problem, however, I have never Opened and edited a NEF in it.

One caveat - Nikon, Capture/View/et al, will replace your PS ARC file with
its/their own. Same name, but different. Do a Google.Groups search on the two
Photoshop NG's for the exact location (there are at least two different
locations) in PS, that this file is copied. Replace, or rename, them with the
latest ARC file from Adobe's Web site. Remember, there are two different
folders that Nikon will place this file into, and the name is the same as
ARC's. Once you have replaced/renamed BOTH, with ARC 3.1.1 (I think this is
the latest) try PS again.

Good luck,
Hunt

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Deedee Tee - 18 Sep 2005 03:02 GMT

>Deedee Tee,
>
>Can you Open these files in ThumbsPlus? If so, you might do a Save_As (same
>name, different location, or same location, different name). I use ThumbsPlus
>side-by-side with NC, PS, and many other programs, and it has never caused me
>a problem, however, I have never Opened and edited a NEF in it.

Well, ThumbsPlus cannot open a NEF file by itself, it only invokes
Photoshop or whatever it is configured to call. The only thing
ThumbsPlus lets you do with a NEF is look at its thumbnail preview
(i.e., the thumbnail that is built into the NEF file). If you try to
rotate a NEF image, for instance, ThumbsPlus will tell you it cannot
save the unsupported file format. But if you change the IPTC
information, it goes ahead and mangles the file. This seems to be just
a plain bug.

Thanks to everybody who provided advice on this thread.

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Ed Ruf - 18 Sep 2005 12:37 GMT

>Well, ThumbsPlus cannot open a NEF file by itself, it only invokes
>Photoshop or whatever it is configured to call. The only thing
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>information, it goes ahead and mangles the file. This seems to be just
>a plain bug.

I would think the inability to open a NEF would be a n indication not to
use it on NEFs at all. If it can't open them, how is it supposed to know
how to add IPTC info? Doesn't sound like a bug to me, unless the authors
explicitly claim this capability.
----------
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 (Usenet@EdwardG.Ruf.com)
See images taken with my CP-990/5700 & D70 at
http://edwardgruf.com/Digital_Photography/General/index.html

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Deedee Tee - 18 Sep 2005 14:57 GMT

>I would think the inability to open a NEF would be a n indication not to
>use it on NEFs at all. If it can't open them, how is it supposed to know
>how to add IPTC info? Doesn't sound like a bug to me, unless the authors
>explicitly claim this capability.

Since ThumbsPlus is already aware that it cannot handle NEF files
(e.g. rotate them), to handle such a file in the case of IPTC data
without issuing any warning and destroy it in the process _is_ a bug.
Allowing users to perform an operation that knowingly cannot be
carried out successfully is a bug, by all definitions.

Unless, of course, NEF files contain standard IPTC fields that are
supposed to be handled in the same way as other formats, in which case
mangling the file while doing this is caused by some other program
error, i.e., a bug (granted, of a different type). Either type of bug
can and should be corrected.

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larrylook - 17 Sep 2005 13:05 GMT

This sounds dumb but what about renaming them? Sometimes tif photos get
saved without the .tif suffix at the end of the name on my computer, and
won't open up, and if I rename them adding the .tif suffix at the end of the
name they open up.

>>>I just set up a new PC with Windows XP sp2 (with Nikon's thumbnail fix
>>>for XP sp2), Photoshop CS2 and Nikon Capture 4.3.1. As far as I know,
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> remains a mistery. At least I had converted some of these NEF files to
> JPG on the old PC, so it's not a total loss.

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Benedikt Schenker - 17 Sep 2005 09:01 GMT

> I am trying to open a few D70s NEF files which I have
> opened successfully on another PC with Nikon Capture 4
> (don't know which release/patch number). When I open with Nikon
> Capture, a dialog says "Nikon Capture Editor - Can't open fil
> C:\...".

Try this:

1. Start NC
2. Open the files via Files -> Open within NC.

I get the same error if I right-click the NEFs and then chose "OPEN".
Double-Cliking does the trick, as open from NC and from the "light box"
(or whatever this is called in the englisch NC)

Regards

Benedikt

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