Mac Mini Unable to Read Z8 Raw Files

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GChapman

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Hello all:

I received my new Z8 on Friday and it's a beast! I am super happy with it. I went out and took some RAW shots, but was unable to view them in Apple Photos. When I download the files, I can clearly see the thumbnails, but the images are blank . The file info is there showing the size/shutter speed/ISO, etc. What am I doing wrong? I have the latest version of Mac OS.
Thanks for your help.
 
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When was your version of Mac OS updated? If it wasn't in the past few weeks it's unlikely to support the raw files out of the just released Z8. The thumbnails are embedded jpegs and will display correctly but to open the raw files for processing your editing tool has to have up to date raw interpreters and that often takes a while after a new camera is released.

FWIW, here's a fairly recent list of which camera models are supported for raw files in Apple Photos by operating system version. As of this posting the Z8 wasn't supported but I expect that will be released soon if it hasn't already been released as part of an OS update: https://www.gentlemencoders.com/extended-raw/index.html
 
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Took about 600 photos this morning with my new Z8 but when I imported the raw images into my iMac this is what I get:
Does anyone else have this issue and how did you resolve this?
Image 2023-05-30 at 9.57 AM.jpeg
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Nikon released an NX Studio upgrade recently….try importing using Nikon Transfer. I do that all the time. suggest you create new folder in the Pictures folder … you can do that from Nikon Transfer…browse for the destination folder then create one. very easy to do.
It may be that you can see your raw files. Worth a try.
 
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I have the same issue. Nikon Z8 files are being read apparently by Lightroom, Affinity Photo, all Topaz software. But not yet by the Apple Photos/Preview, or by DXO PL6 (update planned for July). Inconvenient. I hope that Nikon has sent all the pertinent information on the file formats to Apple (I would have anticipated it would have been similar to the Z9, but maybe not).

To see what RAW support is supported on your Mac, click the apple logo at the top left and press the option key. Open System Information and scroll down.
 
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Are you using lossless compressed raw? Or HE* or HE raw? The latest update of the Mac OS does not seem to display HE* or HE raw files in its finder. (There is a thread here on the forums on this point.) Not sure whether this would affect Apple Photos or other software. It does not affect Photoshop and PhotoMechanic, which still display HE* and HE raw files when run with the newest Mac OS.
 
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I think it took several months before Apple Photos got an update to natively read .NEF files from the Z9. I used a nice little program called Raw Power that you can get in the Apple app store to open and edit Z9 files until Photos was updated. I would hope that the similarity between Z9 and Z8 would mean a shorter time line, but hard to tell.
 
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jim0379 said:
I think it took several months before Apple Photos got an update to natively read .NEF files from the Z9. I used a nice little program called Raw Power that you can get in the Apple app store to open and edit Z9 files until Photos was updated. I would hope that the similarity between Z9 and Z8 would mean a shorter time line, but hard to tell.
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Thanks for letting me know about Raw Power, Jim. I will check it out. In the meantime, I can do some basic editing of the Z8 .NEF files in Affinity and go from there into Dxo. Just not the way I usually do things. As I mentioned, I expect most software should be compatible in the near enough (I hope) future.
 
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Might want to check downloads available from Nikon's website. I seem to recall having to download/install the NEF codec to be able view raw files on my Surface with the OS's photo viewer. I still haven't found this to be the best way to view my files though since there is something about the Microsoft photo viewer that seems to want to try to "correct" the files (exposure, color, rotation, etc.), so it may be similar for Apple. I've found Nikon's NX Studio software to be a decent way to quickly view files but there are probably other options.
 
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OwlBeBack said:
Might want to check downloads available from Nikon's website. I seem to recall having to download/install the NEF codec to be able view raw files on my Surface with the OS's photo viewer. I still haven't found this to be the best way to view my files though since there is something about the Microsoft photo viewer that seems to want to try to "correct" the files (exposure, color, rotation, etc.), so it may be similar for Apple. I've found Nikon's NX Studio software to be a decent way to quickly view files but there are probably other options.
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Thanks! NX Studio works pretty well, I will be using that for the time being.
 
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mbunak said:
Took about 600 photos this morning with my new Z8 but when I imported the raw images into my iMac this is what I get:
Does anyone else have this issue and how did you resolve this?
View attachment 62294
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I tried opening the file by sending it to Photoshop but it was unreadable by Photoshop. Consequently I uploaded the NEF files to NX studio. I found out that if I exported out the files as TIFF from NX, Photoshop could read it. However as I was deleting the unwanted photos in NX, all the photos vanished and I could not find them again in NX. I had already deleted them in iPhoto but fortunately they were still in trash and I could recover them. Below are the first few photos from my new Z8. Very frustrating to use NX Studio! I don't understand why Nikon didn't make it compatible with Mac.
3-Z8D_0523 copy.jpg
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3X2-Z8D_1004 copy.jpeg
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3-Z8D_0316 copy.jpg
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Nice shots but this is an Apple thing. They take a while to add new RAW formats. Nikon had a reason for making it different than the Z9. There are workarounds. You have Adobe so use Bridge. I like HE* format but MacOS doesn't even show thumbnails of those. PIA. So I use Bridge.
 
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I would strongly recommend that anyone with a Z8 camera having the problem of imported RAW (uncompressed) photos coming up as blanks in the Apple "Photos" app, write to Apple using their feedback website, ASAP. The more complaints that they get, the more likely it is that the problem will be fixed sooner.

To give Apple feedback on problems, or suggestions on improvements, to their software or hardware, go to: www.apple.com/feedback
 
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jim0379 said:
I think it took several months before Apple Photos got an update to natively read .NEF files from the Z9. I used a nice little program called Raw Power that you can get in the Apple app store to open and edit Z9 files until Photos was updated. I would hope that the similarity between Z9 and Z8 would mean a shorter time line, but hard to tell.
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After reading your comment about RAW Power, I contacted the app's developers last night, to ask if RAW Power will work with Nikon Z8 photos. (Always better to ask, BEFORE spending your money.)

I was told that, at present, it does NOT support Z8 photos, although it IS planned for the next release of RAW Power. (No date given.) Also, it is planned to support UNCOMPRESSED RAW Z8 photos. So be mindful to use THAT file format when that next version of RAW Power comes out. (When the next version comes out, it still might be a good idea to confirm with the developers exactly which Z8 file formats are supported. Things may change between now and then.)
 
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