Will LR4 read metadata from NX2 NEFs

Question

Hello, I can't seem to find an answer to this, so perhaps someone can assist:
I have just bought a refurb' imac 27" and have imported my photos to the imac, inside a folder I have created inside picture called 'Lightroom 4 photos'
The photos were originally NEFs on my windows laptop, and were imported/edited originally using the Nikon programs transfer, view nx and capture nxw,  They all contain my copyright info etc, and have been keyworded. I am about to import them into LR4, but a little niggle is stopping me. I understand that LR4 won't read my NX2 edits, but can't find out whether a) LR will read the existing metadata so I have to do nothing, or b)I will have to enter all metadata again into lightroom.
I have about 800 photos, so wouldn't be a huge problem if I needed to re-enter
I would appreciate any help, and further comments, Thanks
Roy Kaye

Answer 1

Hi finesse99,
NxToo was designed primarily to be able to use NX2 as editor in a Lightroom-centric workflow. Where Lightroom-centric means, among other things: Lightroom is for metadata, NX2 can be used for develop edits.
To make a longer story shorter, there is no specific feature to transfer metadata (e.g. keywords and ratings) from NEFs, as written by NX2, to NEFs in Lightroom (catalog).
There is a way to do this, which should be fine for a one-time shot (not optimal for a convenient ongoing workflow), e.g.
* transfer metadata to xmp using exiftool command:
exiftool -xmp -b {filename}.nef > {filename}.xmp
Note: this will overwrite all of your existing xmp files.
(consider puting this in a batch file, or just change the filename of an exiftool executable to implement batch mode, for example - this filename will do it: 'exiftool (-xmp -b -o %d%f.xmp).exe', but *won't* overwrite existing xmp files, so you'll need to pre-delete them)
(another option is to use a shortcut to pass parameters - documentation on exiftool website...)
Drop all of your nefs on the exiftool executable, shortcut, or batch file, then read metadata in Lightroom.
Lightroom will incorporate the part it understands (e.g. ratings and keywords) and leave the rest, so it's a fairly safe operation, although *do* backup your catalog first just in case.
Consider re-saving xmp of all nefs afterward, in Lightroom, so xmp files are re-populated with all Lr-supported metadata, if you like having the xmp sidecars around and up2date. Otherwise, all xmp files can be deleted, since NX2 metadata will be now be in Lr catalog.
The other option I mentioned previously (extract jpeg previews from the NEFs in Lr so NxToo transfers metadata to the jpegs, then sync the jpegs back to the nefs using RawPlusJpeg or Syncomatic) will not work, since Lr metadata will take priority over NX2 metadata. (one could easily modify the code to change this behavior, but that would take lua coding know-how).
If you need help with the my plugin(s), please contact me outside the forum. help with exiftool can be done in-forum since people don't get so irked when I help other people with software that wasn't written by me personally .
Rob