Nikon ViewNX 2 and Aperture Issues

Question

I recently addeded Descriptions/Captions to Nikon RAW files via Nikon View NX2. I originally had these same images in an Aperture library. When I went back to view the images in the Aperture Library they were no longer readable by Aperture. Each image that had benen loaded in to Aperture and was oringalnlly visable now shows up as Unsupported Image Format. Something Nikon has done to the file seems to be keeping Aperture from seeing the NEF's properly. Has anyone else experinced this issue and if so were you able to fix it?

Answer 1

Hi Jim,
Sadly you have run into the fact that Nikon software does not treat the NEF as sacrocanct.
This is not something you would necessarily expect, as every other piece of non-camera manufacturer software PROCESSES the RAW file before it can use it...and they expect to be seeing a fresh out of camera original NEF. Nikon, being the only one that actually knows all the details of the file construction of a NEF, chose to edit the NEF directly.
Aperture's hallmark is non-destructive editing, meaning it reads the NEF, processes it, and creates "Versions" which are nothing more than a recipe of what was done to the orignal file. If the NEF that Aperture relied upon as a basis for its processed versions is no longer the pure, out of camera Nikon NEF format, then it will no longer recognize them. You may or may not be able to re-import the edited NEFs into Aperture.
I use the backup function in Aperture when I import, storing the NEFs to two places at once. I do not use View, but I did use Capture NX2 for a bit, and I always did it with copies of the NEFs, never the ones I was managing in Aperture.
I guess my bigger question is why are you using View, and why didn't you add the captions in Aperture?
Hope this was helpful,
KJ Doyle