BBPro 113 and Nikon D70s

[Michal Kuhn]

Hello to all of you,

I am user of BBPro a few months (Nikon D70). Thanks for this wonderfull software it is unique on the marget.
Now I have also second body (Nikon D70s). Let me ask you few questions please :-)

1. Will be supported Nikon D70s NEF file in some short time ?
Now it will show just a small icon and if I want to convert it, I'll receive a message that this is not supported for Nikon D70s . . .

I can send to you Nikon D70s and D70 NEF file if you tell me how :-)

2. Is it possible to repair white ballance or color ballance in raw convertor (Nikon D70, Nikon D70s) ? This is painfull theme for lot of Nikon users . . .

3. Did you ever planned to add some preview window also for proofs ?

I know that thiks I've mentioned should not be so easy to implement but I had to ask you :-)

Thanks for your time you've spent on this !

Have a nice day,

Michal Kuhn

[Chris Breeze]

I don't have any sample raw files from the D70s yet. Thanks for offering to provide some sample images. If you have a website and can upload a couple I could download them onto my machine.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by repairing the white balance. Do you mean saving a new WB setting in the file? I'm working on a method of saving raw conversion parameters to file so that they can be used to reconvert the file later.

I'm not sure how useful a preview option in proofs would be as proofs is a batch operation and the preview would only be for one file.

[Michal Kuhn]

Hello Chris,

1.
You can download Nikon D70 and D70s raw file at following links
ftp://mkuhn.cz/public/D70.NEF
ftp://mkuhn.cz/public/D70s.NEF

2.
you: I'm not sure I understand what you mean by repairing the white balance. Do you mean saving a new WB setting in the file? I'm working on a method of saving raw conversion parameters to file so that they can be used to reconvert the file later.

me: That a good idea to save conversion parameters to a file, but I've ment somethink different.

If you have look at nikon D70 or D70s raw file in preview window is color, cotrast and the rest of thinks just fine but if you click on the raw conversion button you'll see a preview of the image with totally different color (contrast, brightnes etc.). You have to play a lot with histogram to achieve at least simillar colors and look of the picture like before conversion in picture preview window.

For me is easy to spent with a raw file conversion some short time to do some minor modification before I'll convert it, but reconstruction of the whole image look is taking unnecessarily longer and it's a thing which is unconvenient

This is not problem with color scheme configuration (srgb or adobe rgb which you can set in options of BBPro).
Canon raw files is working just fine, but I am a Nikon user :-(. Can you help me ?

3.
Yes, I can see your point :-)

[Michal Kuhn]

Sorry links in previous reply are wrong, use the new one following:

http://mkuhn.cz/public/D70.NEF
http://mkuhn.cz/public/D70s.NEF

It will be dowloaded like a *.tif at the end, you have to rename it back to the *.NEF :-)

[l_nes]

Hello Chris,

1.
You can download Nikon D70 and D70s raw file at following links
ftp://mkuhn.cz/public/D70.NEF
ftp://mkuhn.cz/public/D70s.NEF

2.
you: I'm not sure I understand what you mean by repairing the white balance. Do you mean saving a new WB setting in the file? I'm working on a method of saving raw conversion parameters to file so that they can be used to reconvert the file later.

me: That a good idea to save conversion parameters to a file, but I've ment somethink different.

If you have look at nikon D70 or D70s raw file in preview window is color, cotrast and the rest of thinks just fine but if you click on the raw conversion button you'll see a preview of the image with totally different color (contrast, brightnes etc.). You have to play a lot with histogram to achieve at least simillar colors and look of the picture like before conversion in picture preview window.

For me is easy to spent with a raw file conversion some short time to do some minor modification before I'll convert it, but reconstruction of the whole image look is taking unnecessarily longer and it's a thing which is unconvenient

This is not problem with color scheme configuration (srgb or adobe rgb which you can set in options of BBPro).
Canon raw files is working just fine, but I am a Nikon user :-(. Can you help me ?

3.
Yes, I can see your point :-)

It is not just Michal Kuhn who are haveing problems converting D70 raw files with breezebrowser. I have the same problem. I have used breezebrowser for several years and i have used this program to convert my raw files when i had a Canon D30. When i upgradet my equipment and bought Nikon D70 i could no longer use Breezebrowser to convert NEF files. Color / contrast etc are way off when converting a D70 nef file. It's a shame because i like this program very much i would like to use it in the future.

Looking forward to a new version :-)

Best regards.
Lars E. Nes

[Chris Breeze]

Unfortunately, unlike Canon, Nikon don't provide a decent SDK for converting their raw files.
You need to set auto-levels in BBPro's post processing options to get the best results. Alternatively you can setup BBPro to pass the image to Photoshop, PS Elements 3 or RSE 2005 for raw conversion.

[Michal Kuhn]

Hello Chris,

Thanks for your last answer but this is somewhat unacceptable for me.

you: Unfortunately, unlike Canon, Nikon don't provide a decent SDK for converting their raw files.
You need to set auto-levels in BBPro's post processing options to get the best results. Alternatively you can setup BBPro to pass the image to Photoshop, PS Elements 3 or RSE 2005 for raw conversion.

Me: Nikon has sdk and is awailable for free but (maybe it's not that kind of sdk you can use BBPro, I can't judge . . . ?) this is not only one think I want to mention, even small utility called dcraw which has a source code public awailable (source is just 200kb) can do that type of conversion better. Bibble can also do it correctly.

When I am first time saw BBPro I've decided to buy it immediatelly because it somehow impressed me (fast raw (nef) files previews which work exactly as they have to work). I just want to tell you that I am a legal BBPro license owner and I am just awaited better support than this . . .

Sorry to say, but recomendation to use autolevels from man like you . . . .? You have to know that this is a stupid idea because autolevels will newer give me or to you exact collors as you shot. It is useless, try to answer something little better . . .

Like I'll invest some of me time to fix your problem and thanks for that you provided to me sample RAW (NEF) files and some usefull informations to make my software product even better, to be usefull also for some of Nikon D70 users.

Or you may have to write on your web pages BBPro is not usefull with Nikon D70 camera, which is so popular in this time, but sorry, Nikon is responsible for everythink bad in my software!

I suposed that I don't have to mention that you did not answered me somethink like yes, Nikon D70S raw files will be supported in next version of BBPro or some other guestion.

I think you sould have just little more of respect to people spending some time to write for you some usefull tips and asking for some bug fixes because they may are not a software pirates but a license owners.

Please be so kind try to invest just a little of your time to check what you can do . . . and not for I can do . . .

If you dont want to help or you just not have a time or you are not interrested in, just give me informations how to receive my money back. I'll stop to use this software immediatelly.

Thanks for your time you've spent to read this,

Michal Kuhn

[Chris Breeze]

Thanks for the D70s raw file. I have downloaded it and done some preliminary tests. It is similar to, but not identical to D70 raw files.

Nikon do have an SDK but it doesn't not offer sufficient control over the raw conversion settings to be of much use.

I will take another look at the dcraw code as it looks as though it has improved substantially over the last few months. I'm constantly working to improve the raw conversion in BB/BBPro, but it takes an enormous amount of time and effort.

[Michal Kuhn]

Thank you I am appreciate this :)
I am sorry :o . Sometimes everyone from us have a bad day and I had one when I've wrote my last message to you, I was overeacted and understant that it's not always easy . . .

Michal Kuhn

[Kerry Pierce]

Thanks for the D70s raw file. I have downloaded it and done some preliminary tests. It is similar to, but not identical to D70 raw files.

Nikon do have an SDK but it doesn't not offer sufficient control over the raw conversion settings to be of much use.

I will take another look at the dcraw code as it looks as though it has improved substantially over the last few months. I'm constantly working to improve the raw conversion in BB/BBPro, but it takes an enormous amount of time and effort.

Hi Chris,

I'm a current user of BB 2.12.1, using it with both a Nikon d70 and d70s. I too, would like to see more support of Nikon files.

My main interest is in getting the EXIF data copied to the proper fields so that any EXIF reading program will properly display them. As you know, Nikon stupidly and stubbornly doesn't put ISO and lens info, etc, into the standard EXIF fields, where other EXIF readers can easily display them.

I currently use BB to batch rename the files, to include the ISO, for example. I'd much prefer just to batch the files, where the info was copied to the appropriate fields in both NEF and JPG files. I'm most concerned with the ISO and lens info.

Of course, I'd also like to see BB display/convert NEFs, but I understand the difficulty there. Nikon is such a drag with their nonsense on the SDK. I'd also like to see the same done on the new encrypted WB NEF files and would happily upgrade to the Pro version if I could just get a fix for Nikon's stupidity.

I understand that implementing Dave's code would be a big project for NEF conversions, but it seems like fixing the encryption and copying the EXIF data to the standard fields wouldn't be as much of a problem. I think you'd get a lot of business from Nikon users if that could be accomplished.

Downloader would also be a good candidate for that. In fact, that's why I'm here today, to see if Downloader will copy that stuff to the appropriate fields during the download. That would be a very cool item and I'd also purchase that software. ;)

Thanks

[jdykstra]

Chris, I too would like to see the raw conversion feature work better re white balance with Nikon raw images.

I realize that you can't support everything, and that Nikon is making this harder, but I think there are a fair number of Nikon users out here that _want_ to use your product and support your business. Using another product to do raw conversion is ok as a temporary workaround, but doing so undercuts the value of BBP to simplify workflow.

There's one aspect of this I don't understand. Why can the "View Actual Image" command get the white balance correct, while raw conversion cannot?

I'm using a D2X with firmware 1.0, if it makes a difference.

-- John

[Chris Breeze]

View actual image is displaying the 6M Pixel JPEG embedded in D2X raw files (also D70, D70s and D2Hs) and so it doesn't need to convert the raw data.

[jdykstra]

View actual image is displaying the 6M Pixel JPEG embedded in D2X raw files (also D70, D70s and D2Hs) and so it doesn't need to convert the raw data.

Ah. Then you might want to change the alert that shows on the screen while the image data is being prepared. It says something like "Converting raw data."

[I can't check it right now because I'm not on the machine I use for imaging work.]

-- John