NEF file size increase in PP (ViewNX2)

[Polyglot92]

You hit the nail on the head, the camera is compressing the NEF's, the software isn't. I shoot uncompressed 14 bit files and there still is a bit of file expansion but not to the degree if I shoot compressed or lossless compressed.

As discussed earlier, get some bigger drives.

Do you happen to have your camera set up to store NEF's on your memory card in lossless compressed format? If so, I suspect that on first opening them, ViewNX will expand them to their full uncompressed size, which is much bigger. With the D300, for example, a lossless compressed 12-bit NEF is typically around 13.4MB in size, while an uncompressed NEF is 19.4 MB. That seems like about the amount of increase you're describing. Once the NEF has been decompressed, I doubt that ViewNX would bother re-compressing it before saving the changes, as the main function of the compression is to save capacity on the memory card, not on the computer hard disk. I'm also not sure how editing changes may impact the ability of the lossless compression algorithm to work properly.

Ray

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35 to 4 x 5 - NPS Member

I am also coming to the conclusion that ViewNX and CaptureNX decompress compressed NEF files from the D5000 (and some others, like the D90 I believe) and do not recompress when saving while other raw converters never touch the NEF files and write their instructions to small sidecar files and/or their archives.

Definitely a plus point for all raw converters not designed by Nikon, especially when you shoot a lot and keep at least 2 backups as everybody should.

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D5000 - Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR - Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G - Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR - Canon PowerShot S3

 

[Polyglot92]

After looking at both the D5000 User Manual and the in-depth product review on this site, it appears that the D5000 always stores NEF's in compressed format, at around 10MB per file. The size of an NEF+JPEG file with JPEG-fine is about 16 MB. So it could be either that View NX expands the file to a standard uncompressed size, or it may be that after opening and rendering the file, it always includes a JPEG-fine along with the saved NEF. Either might explain the size expansion you're seeing. But I still don't know for sure what's happening - I'm only speculating.

Ray

Great minds think alike, Ray ;-) ( http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=37803219 ). Too bad they don't seem to have many of those in the Nikon software department, or they would have figured out by now how to keep the data compressed as there is no gain from expanding an already compressed file (whatever is lost through the initial compression, if any, won't be recovered). If third party converters can handle NEF files without blowing them up needlessly, certainly Nikon software should be able to do that, too.
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D5000 - Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR - Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G - Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR - Canon PowerShot S3

 

[JBP]

The fact that other raw converters can't and/or don't read the NEF accurately and keep edits in a side car that needs to be archived and accounted for IMO is not a positive.

You are not the only person who shoots a lot, I do it for a living on FX bodies which generate much larger files than you D5000. As mentioned but somehow ignored on your part, hard drives are cheap, multi bay storage devices are common and easy to fit into the workflow. Upgrade your storage and life will return to normal.

I am also coming to the conclusion that ViewNX and CaptureNX decompress compressed NEF files from the D5000 (and some others, like the D90 I believe) and do not recompress when saving while other raw converters never touch the NEF files and write their instructions to small sidecar files and/or their archives.

Definitely a plus point for all raw converters not designed by Nikon, especially when you shoot a lot and keep at least 2 backups as everybody should.

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35 to 4 x 5 - NPS Member

 

[Polyglot92]

The fact that other raw converters can't and/or don't read the NEF accurately and keep edits in a side car that needs to be archived and accounted for IMO is not a positive.

You are not the only person who shoots a lot, I do it for a living on FX bodies which generate much larger files than you D5000. As mentioned but somehow ignored on your part, hard drives are cheap, multi bay storage devices are common and easy to fit into the workflow. Upgrade your storage and life will return to normal.

I am also coming to the conclusion that ViewNX and CaptureNX decompress compressed NEF files from the D5000 (and some others, like the D90 I believe) and do not recompress when saving while other raw converters never touch the NEF files and write their instructions to small sidecar files and/or their archives.

Definitely a plus point for all raw converters not designed by Nikon, especially when you shoot a lot and keep at least 2 backups as everybody should.

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35 to 4 x 5 - NPS Member

I am aware of harddrive cost. I didn't ignore that recommendation, I hear you. I just didn't comment on it because at the moment it is not the way I prefer to go. I don't do this for a living.

As for which software reads NEF files accurately, that is debatable, once we have defined what accurately means. I don't believe that aspect has much or anything to do with the way the information is stored within the file or separately.

Anyway, we collectively found the answer to my question and I hope it helps others when they come across the phenomenon. Those who are happy with the interface, way of rendering NEF files, features and PP results of Photoshop, Lightroom, DxO etc. will get the added benefit that their compressed NEF files don't get blown up. That's good to know.
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D5000 - Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR - Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G - Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR - Canon PowerShot S3

 

[Polyglot92]

It took me a while but I finally found a workaround which may help others:

Only now I noticed that there is a button at the bottom of the ViewNX adjustment panel which contrary to the file menu allows you to save the file under a different name. What I do now for most files to which I have just applied white balance or level adjustment is save the edited NEF file under a different name, convert to Jpeg, and then erase the edited, blown up NEF file and only keep the original and the Jpeg. Saves me about 7mb per file and my originals don't get touched without the need to copy back and forth from another backup location as I did perviously. Must have missed the documentation of the Save As button... or was it Nikon?

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D5000 - Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR - Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G - Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR - Canon PowerShot S3

 

[aesmith]

If I remember rightly in Viewnx you don't actually need to save the NEF at all if you don't need to keep it after the JPG conversion.

Personally I would prefer the "sidecar" method, as I don't like the idea of re-writing the raw files. Not because of the size issue, but just the idea of writing back to the raw file implies a risk of corrupting it.

 

[Polyglot92]

If I remember rightly in Viewnx you don't actually need to save the NEF at all if you don't need to keep it after the JPG conversion.

Personally I would prefer the "sidecar" method, as I don't like the idea of re-writing the raw files. Not because of the size issue, but just the idea of writing back to the raw file implies a risk of corrupting it.

In View NX once you have made even the slightest change you must save the NEF file before you can generate Jpeg of the modified file. Without this imposed requirement life would be a lot easier. What you do with the saved NEF after you have created the Jpeg is your decision.

I don't like the writing to the NEF file because of what it does to the file size, even if the size increase seems to stem from the size of the newly embedded Jpeg, but any serious photographer will have at least one backup of his original files so file corruption shouldn't be a problem (unless it is detected too late).
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D5000 - Nikkor AF-S DX 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G ED VR - Nikkor AF-S 50mm f/1.4 G - Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm VR - Canon PowerShot S95 - Canon PowerShot S3

 

[Josef Troch]

I'm experiencing the same issue with ViewNX 2.



But the interesting fact is, that old ViewNX (version 1.1.1) does not

behave that way - it does not increase NEF file size at all. I cannot

imagine what's the reason for this bad change...



Anyway, old ViewNX is much less powerful in photo adjustments.