September 6, 2005 – Nikon and Adobe have announced that future versions of Adobe’s Camera RAW plug-in and DNG converter will be able to read the encrypted white balance information in Nikon NEF RAW files.
The announcement comes after Nikon, starting with the D2X, began encrypting the white balance information in its NEF files, causing programs such as Adobe’s Photoshop to be unable to perform certain white balance corrections. Following the discovery in early April that Nikon had encrypted the white balance information, the company issued a press release outlining its position that users of Nikon cameras should use the company’s software to convert NEF files to TIFF files in order to edit images in programs such as Photoshop.
Yesterday’s joint announcement by Nikon and Adobe changes that position and ensures that users of Nikon cameras will be able to fully edit NEF RAW files within Photoshop. Along with the D2X, the D2Hs and D50 use encrypted white balance information; earlier Nikon cameras do not store white balance information in an encrypted manner.
