Nikon Electronic Format
Revision as of 14:22, 19 January 2010 by Evelyn McLellan (talk | contribs)
Main Page > Documentation > Format-specific preservation issues > Nikon Electronic Format
Also known as
- NEF
- Nikon Image Format
- Nikon Digital SLR Camera Raw Image File
File extension(s)
.nef
Format registry information
Significant propties
Preservation action plan
- Possible normalization to Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) format
- Library of Congress states that Adobe Digital Negative (DNG), Version 1.1 may be emerging as a standard preservation format for raw camera images. Adobe provides a free (but not open-source) Adobe DNG Converter designed for downloading to Windows or Mac computers.
Preservation issues
- Xena incorrectly guesses the file type as TIFF and normalizes as it would a TIFF, with the result that a very large file (e.g. 70 MB) is normalized to a very small one (eg. 250 KB) with considerable loss of data. Changes to the raw file (ie: alterations done in image editing software) are stored in a separate XMP file, which Xena also does not recognize, and does not normalize together. This means that any edits added by the creator are removed.
- NEF is a proprietary format with an unpublished specification.
- NEF files can be very large - 70 MB or more.
More information
- NEF is a raw (i.e. pre-processed) image format produced by Nikon cameras.
- Information on NEF files is available at Library of Congress Sustainability of Digital Formats: Camera Raw Formats.