Open D610 RAW Files .NEF

*UPDATED* Adobe Lightroom 5.3 and Camera RAW/DNG Converter 8.3 support the Nikon D610 as of December 12, 2013.

Nikon Electronic Format used in .NEF file is the Nikon RAW image format. Photos in RAW mode contain direct sensor and camera data including the camera type and settings. In order for a program to be able to properly read and understand the file, the program needs to know the exact model. Because the D610 is a new camera model, your editor or picture viewing program may not understand the format and will not be able to open or edit the D610 NEF file until the program is updated.

In general you can either update your program to a new version (when available), or use a converter to change the file to another format that is supported (.DNG).

Programs:

ViewNX2 – Version 2.8.1 of this software is included with the D610. It can open and save the RAW .NEF file as TIFF or JPEG. You can download ViewNX2 from Nikon.

CaputreNX2 – A commercial program developed by Nikon for advanced editing including high performance 64-bit compatibility for use on modern operating systems. The updated version of CaptureNX2 is able to open D610 files: download version 2.4.4 update from Nikon to get the newest camera support for the D610. Owners of Capture NX (version 1) can buy a discounted upgrade.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 – Users of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 can update to version 5.3 for official D610 RAW support. Download Lightroom 5.3 for Windows and Macintosh. Lightroom 4 and earlier will not be updated to support the D610. You can use the Adobe DNG Converter to change the .NEF to Adobe .DNG to open in older versions of Lightroom.

Adobe Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC – Adobe has released Camera RAW version 8.3 that adds support for the D610. Older versions of Photoshop CS5 and earlier do not support the D610, instead you may use the Adobe DNG converter (see below).

Adobe DNG Converter – The Digital Negative Gallery (DNG) converter will convert Nikon D610 .NEF files to Adobe .DNG format. These .DNG files can be opened using many programs, including older versions that do not support D610 NEF files directly. Adobe added D610 .NEF support in DNG Converter version 8.3. Download Adobe DNG Converter 8.3 for Windows and Macintosh.

Nikon Transfer – Not recommended! If you have trouble opening the D610 .NEF files using the latest versions the programs that are supposed to have D610 support, you may have used an old version of Nikon Transfer program to copy images from your camera. It is known to corrupt .NEF files and can cause problems opening them. If you have corrupted .NEF files you can download this repair program.

ExifTool – This program will allow you to alter the EXIF data stored in the Nikon .NEF file. Because the D610 shares the same sensor and many settings with the D600, you can modify the EXIF data in your RAW .NEF image files to change the camera model to D600. Then any program able to open a D600 file will be able to open your D610 .NEF file using any program that supports the D600. Download ExifTool. After you install the ExifTool, use the following command line:
exiftool.exe -model="NIKON D600" *.NEF

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