I've always shot jpeg and I'm comin' on over to RAW but I'm clearly missing something....

So I shot RAW + basic jpegs on the D300. The card was formatted in camera. The itty bitty jpegs import to Lightroom just fine, but the NEF files are showing up as unsupported in LR and in Bridge. And so far I'm not finding answers online.

What gives? Did I miss a step? Any help would be hugely appreciated. Thanks!

Paige,

Same camera, same issue for me!

From what I could deduct online, it seems there might be a bug if you are running Leopard (which I am) and Lightroom.

I can't seem to get to the bottom of it beyond that, but good luck and I will be watching this thread to see if anyone can help you (and me! lol).

This may not solve your issue, but why are you shooting RAW + Jpg? Any particular reason? It increases unnecessarily the file size unless you have a specific reason to do it that way.

There are certainly reasons to do it that way, but all RAW files create an accompany jpg which is the initial image you see while import until Lightroom creates its own preview may it be by its own default settings or by any preset you use while importing.

If you do not need the extra jpg just shoot RAW.

The RAW files out of the D300 need the newest version of Adobe Camera Raw installed on your machine. This will mean an upgrade to Lightroom 1.3.1 and ACR 4.3.1 for Photoshop CS3. The D300 makes Photoshop CS2 and older obsolete.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/cameraraw.html

I was thrown for the same loop too.

Doing my best tech support impression

Paige, please provide a few details:
Operating System
Version of Adobe Lightroom
Version of Adobe Photoshop

And did you try restarting?


Indeed. When I tried to open D3 files on our other system, a G5 running OSX 10.4.11 and PS CS2 I got that nasty surprise. Luckily we already had CS3 and went ahead with the upgrade on that machine.

punk

Just downloaded the LR 2.0 beta... problem solved. Thank heavens!!!

I'm shooting tiny jpegs in addition because I'm running some tests prior to starting to do slideshows at the reception. Although the RAW import into LR 2.0 was so fast I'm wondering if those small jpegs are worth the trouble.

I love the D300 but this issue just took a few months off my life. Thanks for the help y'all! OSP continues to be the center of my universe...

David mentioned that the RAW + JPEG option really isn't necessary (in his opinion) and I agree with him. It's just more files...

HA! Paige, I had the same problem...new D300 and NEF files...but I actually convert all my files to DNG anyway so that took care of it right there. Never had a problem in LR though. Should prob update ACR though..
Still using the Fuji as b/u?

Hi Paige-

Please be very cautious in using the new Lightroom 2.0 beta, especially if you're depending on this in your normal workflow. Even Adobe admits that this release barely passes as a beta release and is really meant for testing purposes only. You might want to read the release notes (PDF) if you haven't already.

Thanks Wayne. Got any other ideas for a fix? I heard LR 1.4 was a nightmare...

As stated above, Adobe offers a DNG convertor. Just use their util, and convert to DNG, and Photoshop, LR will have no troubles reading them.

or

Upgrade to CS3, and the latest lightroom.


That's it.

Greg

I thought 1.4 was pulled.

I didn't install it after hearing of some problems - 1.3 works just fine. What does 1.4 offer that 1.3 doesn't have?

Paige, don't use 2.0 beta for anything other than playing and testing. Adobe STRONGLY cautions against relying on it for your workflow. Basically they've let it out for us to play with, and I assume get us to like it so when 2.0 is rolled out we'll all want to pony up and purchase it.

But 2.0 looks like it will be worth it.

Makes me wonder that Photoshop 1.0 looked like, and what those developers would have thought if they could look ahead to CS3 and what their program had become.

I'm sure that down the road the later versions of Lightroom will be amazing, and for photographers I'm sure that someday it will incorporate all we need of Photoshop functions.

Paige, I currently use CS2 and the latest update of LR (NOT the BETA version). All you need to do is update the ACR plugin in your programs. This is VERY SIMPLE to do, just follow the link above from Daniel. Before I switched to Canon, I used the D300 briefly and that is all you need to do. CS2 is not obsolete just because of the new camera.

Not to be contrary but it actually is in the case of the D3/D300. Adobe says the new ACR plugin doesn't work with CS2.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc03c04.3c05d4cb

Thanks everyone. I'm running CS3 & LR1.0 (now 1.3.1) just updated both and everything's hunky dory. (No, I won't be using the LR beta -- thanks for the heads up.)

Slideshows.

But if you use either Lightroom or Aperture you don't need those jpg for a slide show. Just upload your RAW files, select the one you want and allow either program to build the previews and go! By doing RAW + JPG you are taking up more space.