How should NEF files from my D300 be dealt with?

Question

I have a D300 and CS2. I have the CS2 version of Lightroom, PS and Bridge. I've been researching NEF files and their compatibility with the adobe applications I have. I'm confused on the best way to work with NEF files produced by the D300 directly with the versions of PS, Lr, and Br that I have. I hope I can work with the NEF files directly with the adobe products.
I've learned the following from what I've read. I think each version of Ps, Br, and Lr are very picky on which versions of NEFs they will support. This is due to the constant tweaking of the NEF format. The support for a certain NEF is dependent on when the version of Ps, Lr, and Br were released. In other words, there is only good support for the NEFs that are created by current cameras at the time of the release of the Adobe software. The new software doesn't support the older NEFs.   And the older software doesn't support newer cameras.
I've also read that I can get around this by converting the NEFs to a DNG file. The articles I read were a little old, but there seemed to be some concern about whether the dng format would stay around for the future. I don't think it had gained a lot of acceptance.
Can someone please tell me the best way for me to work with RAW files in the adobe software that I have. Is there a plug in available for CS2 that will allow me to use the NEFs produced by my D300? Is my only option to convert these to DNGs before using them, if I want to keep my current version of Ps, Lr, and Br?  If I convert them to DNG is the White Balance data available in Ps or Lr? Or, is the only other option to buy a more recent version of the adobe software? I don't plan to buy any new software now because I can't afford it. Even if I did, I'm concerned about backwards compatibility. Nikon considers the regular D300 as old. I don't think adobe does a good of supporting older camers in the newer software.
Can someone help me understand the best way to go about this. Thanks in advance for any help.

Answer 1

All that changes in the NEF file between cameras is the usually camera name line. This is shown by using a Exif editor such as Exif tool and changing the camera name to one supported in the version of ACR used by your particualr version of LR or PS
When ever a new camera comes out Adobe profiles the sensor to produce a calibration file for use in LR and ACR, so if you just change the camera name you will be stuck with the old calibration data and colour reproduction may suffer. You can,of course, use Adobes free tool to produce your own calibrations.
Adobe updates ACR and LR around every three months to include calibration data for any camera released since the last update. These updates are free. However once LR or PS reaches a new full release these updates are no longer provided. You have a choice, when working with older software, of either updating to the new version, or using Adobes free DNG converter to convert the file to DNG. Nothing is lost in this process. All the original data is retained. Obviously whatever new things may be included in the latest versions of either ACR or LR will not work in the older versions. So if you use the DNG converter on a camera released since LR 3 came out you can use it in LR 2, but the lens correction tool will not work. Equally if you have LR 3, but only have CS 4 or older versions of PS, you will have to render the file in LR before PS can recognise the lens corrections applied.
You say that Adobe doesn't do a good job of supporting older cameras. This is strange. All older cameras are fully supported in LR and PS. Adobe have never dropped support for any camera and they also provide the DNG format which ensures both backward and forward compatibility with their software.
As far as acceptance of DNG as a container for RAW information from cameras not gaining acceptance, again a strange thing to say. Presently it is the only open and documented format available. It has been submitted to the ISO for acceptance as an international standard. It is also used natively by several major camera manufacturers, including Hassleblad, Leica and to some extent by Phase one. There really is presently no other format around. If the manufacturers wanted to get together to develop an alternative nothing is stooping them. Unfortunately the two big players in the market, Canon and Nikon, resist this and continue with their own propitiatory formats. Whilst these may be supported into the future it isn't guaranteed. However as DNG is a fully documented format there is no more reason to think it will stop being supported than any of the other standard formats (such as pdf, tiff and swf) developed by Adobe.