Nikon Z7II RAW Files Display Issues on Apple Devices

[revlis7]

Hello everyone, I posted a question in the Nikon section, but since it involves the Apple system, I thought I'd see if there are any other suggestions here.

I have a Nikon Z7II with firmware version 1.62, and it has always worked very well. I often import and view RAW photos on Apple devices because it’s convenient to add them to the Photos album for selection. However, yesterday while testing my camera, I found that Apple devices display obvious color blocks and color casts when handling Nikon RAW files. You can refer to the images below for details.

What’s even more frustrating is that this issue exists not only on my old Mac running Monterey 12.7, but also on the new Sequoia 15.4, and even on all iOS devices in my home. Moreover, it’s not just a display issue—the exported JPG files from the RAW files also have the same problem. This means I basically have to give up the possibility of editing RAW files on Apple systems.

Viewing the same photos on the camera itself or in NX Studio is totally normal. I also tried shooting the same photos with my old D3 at home, and did not encounter this problem. It seems to only happen with the Z7II. So I’d like to ask if anyone else has encountered a similar situation, and whether it could be due to my camera settings. Thank you!

View from macOS Photos

View from Nikon NXStudio

 

[Pierre Lagarde]

... This means I basically have to give up the possibility of editing RAW files on Apple systems.

...

Hi,

Don't want to talk for others, and I could be wrong, but I think most people are using dedicated softwares for RAW editing on Mac (LR, C1, DXO etc) that all work flawlessly for the most.

Also, it seems there are too many bugs in Apple's Photos RAW editing and many new comes each time there is an update (just google "Apple Photos Raw editing issues" and you'll see that, even for Canon, I think).

This bug, for instance, still haven't been corrected in Ventura's last update (I just checked, out of curiosity) : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254806194?sortBy=rank

Though, while checking this, I wasn't able to reproduce your issue.

Some tried to change this setting too, to avoid copy of their original pictures (seems it can change the behaviour of Photos to some extend) : 254141725

Also check these information pages :

https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/guide/photos/phtbb0eb4eb1/mac

https://support.apple.com/en-us/104964

https://support.apple.com/fr-fr/guide/photos/phtbef5d6fa4/mac

And last, maybe try to upgrade to latest OS update releases.

Hope this can help.

 

[AndyGordon]

Personally as a long term mac user I wouldn't use Apple as a serious raw decode engine for anything, it comes with too many limitations and they are far too slow at adopting cameras, and even then sometimes only partially adopting them - think compressed raws for example

I'm sure it works exceptionally well for iphone images or jpegs/heic, but I wouldn't go beyond that

Ps - not going to be your settings if you have just provided a nef to photos. If you have provided a matched jpeg/raw files then it might be in there somewhere

 

[revlis7]

I agree with you guys—using Apple systems to process RAW photos might not be a good idea. I now realize that different systems handle RAW files inconsistently, which is an issue I hadn't previously considered.

 

[revlis7]

Some updates. A friend mentioned this might be an issue with Apple's system handling high-resolution RAW format photos, it might not only happen to Nikon cameras. When I tried shooting at 20 megapixels, the issue no longer occurred.