How to transfer RAW NEF files to lightroom?

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I bought my wife a nikon D600 and we have found out it uses Nef files. We can not get them into lightroom to edit RAW files. I've searched online and seen you need to use viewnx 2 to get them into lightroom, but we can not get lightroom to import the files. It will bring them up in lightroom but you can't edit them and it will not let you import them.

I have converted them to TIFF files but when I check Viewnx it still shows them as nef files.

Could someone help me out in getting the RAW files from Viewnx 2 into lightroom?

Are there easier ways to get the RAW files from the D600 into lightroom the by using the nikon program?

If you need to use the nikon program is there a way to have it automatically take all photos imported from the camera, and have it convert them to TIFF and move them to lightroom in one push of the button instead of having to manually do each step?
 
What version of Lightroom are you running? The reason why the NEF files won't open in your LR is because your install of Adobe Camera Raw isn't up to date. You may have to upgrade to LR4 if you're on LR3. If you don't want to upgrade, you could always convert the NEF files to DNG and then import them into Lightroom.
 
What version Lightroom? Googling the D600 and Adobe specifically, it looks like Lightroom 4.3 will read the files.

If that's not a free update for you (i.e. you are on 3.x) then you can get the NEF to DNG converter from Adobe for free, and Lightroom should read the resulting DNG files with the same capabilities it would have with the NEF files.

EDIT: Seriously? A 6-minute tree? I wasn't out the in Googlification that long!! :dopey:

But I'll offer this additional explanation: The RAW filespecs are not published by the camera makers, so 3rd-party software folks like Adobe have to reverse-engineer the files every time a new camera comes ouot. Added camera features, such as resolution, and even new lenses being available, will alter the RAW file format.
 
We have the newest version, we just downloaded it a few days ago. I got the RAW pictures on there but it was by converting them to tiff and then having to import them again from another folder.

I'll play with it later some more. she was the one who tried it first so i don't know exactly what she did.
 
"Newest version?" What version do you have, and what makes you say it's the newest? If it's not 4.3, it's not the newest.
 
wfooshee
"Newest version?" What version do you have, and what makes you say it's the newest? If it's not 4.3, it's not the newest.
Click to expand...

I'm running 3.4.1 and when I go to update it says the latest update version is 3.6. So it may be easy for one to think they have the latest when in fact they don't. Just the latest that's available as a free update I think.
 
wfooshee
"Newest version?" What version do you have, and what makes you say it's the newest? If it's not 4.3, it's not the newest.
Click to expand...

What made me think it was the newest is when I hit update it said you have the most recent version :)
 
Well, 4.3 is supposed to read RAW from the D600 according to what I see. Still, you might check the Adobe site and look for "Camera RAW Update."

The reason I double-checked is exactly what Mikeybc said. The update check doesn't go beyond your major version number. 3.x only gets newer 3.x, to get a 4.x update you already have to have some version of 4.

3.x users have to buy an upgrade to 4.x
 
Two quick notes (without reading much of the above):

- Lightroom 4 only works on Windows Vista and 7; not XP;
- Lightroom 4.2 and 4.3 are the only versions that will recognize the D600's RAW files.
 

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