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julie woodward

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Hope someone can help. Had my camera stolen on holiday so my replacement is 5300. I have lightroom 4 with updates installed. When I try to load the images the neff files say preview unavailable for this file. We have tried loading straight from the sd card which did the same. Light room five is not compatable with our windows so that option is out. Cant afford a new computer or updated windows at present so has anyone got any ideas how I can edit my neff files on lightroom 4?
 
julie woodward said:
Hope someone can help. Had my camera stolen on holiday so my replacement is 5300. I have lightroom 4 with updates installed. When I try to load the images the neff files say preview unavailable for this file. We have tried loading straight from the sd card which did the same. Light room five is not compatable with our windows so that option is out. Cant afford a new computer or updated windows at present so has anyone got any ideas how I can edit my neff files on lightroom 4?
Click to expand...
Googling "lightroom support for Nikon d5300" will give you the answer: Lightroom support for the D5300 wasn't added until Lightroom 5.3, I'm afraid. You have a few choices, including:
  • upgrade to Lightroom 5. Much the best option, if you don't mind paying the Lightroom upgrade price (about £60)
  • get the Adobe DNG convertor (free) and convert Nikon D5300 nefs to DNG, which Lightroom 4 should open
  • get Nikon's truly awful Capture NX-D software, and convert Nikon D5300 nefs to TIF, which Lightroom 4 will open. I really really don't recommend this option - I've included it only for completeness!
It's quite hard to buy Lightroom from Adobe, as every link takes you to the Creative Cloud where they want you to rent Lightroom and Photoshop for £8.78 a month, but you can buy the upgrade from other suppliers (e.g. Amazon).
 
Simon Garrett said:
julie woodward said:
Hope someone can help. Had my camera stolen on holiday so my replacement is 5300. I have lightroom 4 with updates installed. When I try to load the images the neff files say preview unavailable for this file. We have tried loading straight from the sd card which did the same. Light room five is not compatable with our windows so that option is out. Cant afford a new computer or updated windows at present so has anyone got any ideas how I can edit my neff files on lightroom 4?
Click to expand...
Googling "lightroom support for Nikon d5300" will give you the answer: Lightroom support for the D5300 wasn't added until Lightroom 5.3, I'm afraid. You have a few choices, including:
  • upgrade to Lightroom 5. Much the best option, if you don't mind paying the Lightroom upgrade price (about £60)
  • get the Adobe DNG convertor (free) and convert Nikon D5300 nefs to DNG, which Lightroom 4 should open
  • get Nikon's truly awful Capture NX-D software, and convert Nikon D5300 nefs to TIF, which Lightroom 4 will open. I really really don't recommend this option - I've included it only for completeness!
It's quite hard to buy Lightroom from Adobe, as every link takes you to the Creative Cloud where they want you to rent Lightroom and Photoshop for £8.78 a month, but you can buy the upgrade from other suppliers (e.g. Amazon).
Click to expand...
 
Thomas Niemann said:
Simon Garrett said:
julie woodward said:
Hope someone can help. Had my camera stolen on holiday so my replacement is 5300. I have lightroom 4 with updates installed. When I try to load the images the neff files say preview unavailable for this file. We have tried loading straight from the sd card which did the same. Light room five is not compatable with our windows so that option is out. Cant afford a new computer or updated windows at present so has anyone got any ideas how I can edit my neff files on lightroom 4?
Click to expand...
Googling "lightroom support for Nikon d5300" will give you the answer: Lightroom support for the D5300 wasn't added until Lightroom 5.3, I'm afraid. You have a few choices, including:
  • upgrade to Lightroom 5. Much the best option, if you don't mind paying the Lightroom upgrade price (about £60)
  • get the Adobe DNG convertor (free) and convert Nikon D5300 nefs to DNG, which Lightroom 4 should open
  • get Nikon's truly awful Capture NX-D software, and convert Nikon D5300 nefs to TIF, which Lightroom 4 will open. I really really don't recommend this option - I've included it only for completeness!
It's quite hard to buy Lightroom from Adobe, as every link takes you to the Creative Cloud where they want you to rent Lightroom and Photoshop for £8.78 a month, but you can buy the upgrade from other suppliers (e.g. Amazon).
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Other options are Rawtherapee and Lightzone, both quite competent at opening NEF's.
 
julie woodward said:
Hope someone can help. Had my camera stolen on holiday so my replacement is 5300. I have lightroom 4 with updates installed. When I try to load the images the neff files say preview unavailable for this file. We have tried loading straight from the sd card which did the same. Light room five is not compatable with our windows so that option is out. Cant afford a new computer or updated windows at present so has anyone got any ideas how I can edit my neff files on lightroom 4?
Click to expand...
Then converting your 5300 files to DNG (Adobe's "universal" raw format that, pretty much, only Adobe supports with any enthusiasm.) via the free conversion tool is your only option. Get it here: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=106&platform=Windows

I used to use DNG, and the image quality is fine. But other than allowing older software to support newer cameras, I don't see that it adds a lot of extra value for the photographer.

If you really don't care if you use Lightroom or not, then you have plenty of options.
  • Many free software titles use DCRaw. Which is a very good independent third party Raw development engine. Many free software titles such as Lightzone, and Raw Therapee use it. And quite a few commercial products seem to at least license components of it. You can find a list of DCRaw supported cameras here: http://www.cybercom.net/~dcoffin/dcraw/#cameras . The 5300 is on that list. If you see in the documentation that the software you are investigating uses DCRaw, then your camera will very likely be supported.
  • You can also use the software that came with your camera. I've never used a Nikon digital camera, so I can't speak to its quality. But it has been my experience with Canon and Olympus software that while the actual raw "development" (ie conversion to an actual photo file format) is usually pretty good, the overall design and user friendliness is either obtuse and difficult to learn or insultingly simple minded.
I personally use ACDSee Pro 8. I really like how it handles my Olympus orf files. But probably my second choice would be either the commercial CaptureOne, or the free RawTherapee.
 
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