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Issues with Nikon Z8 RAW pics in Photos

I shoot RAW with my Nikon Z8. I saw that a number of folks were having issues for some time, but then folks started reporting that Apple finally started providing support for the Z8 so that you could view photos in preview in Apple Photos. But none of the photos that I imported are working. I still get the whitish screen with no preview. I am running the latest version of Sequoia (15.1) on my iMac. Do I need to re-import the photos of do something else? Any advice very much appreciated. Thanks.

Posted on Nov 4, 2024 9:35 AM

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9 replies

Nov 4, 2024 11:31 AM in response to smulvay

Here's a section of the Z 8 manual p437:


You can see that Nikon offers 3 different forms of RAW files. Apple accepts Lossless compression RAW files, but not the others.


I use High Efficiency*, which is not supported. But I don't expect the Photos app to be very useful for RAW files anyway. Photos doesn't seem to offer anything special for RAW files.


I have my Z 8 save jpgs on the SD card and NEF files on the CFexpress card, and I import the jpgs to Photos. I use those jpgs to curate my pictures, rejecting most of them. Many of the jpgs are lovely on their own, But for the ones that seem like they could benefit from RAW information I edit them with either Nikon's NX studio (free!) or Adobe's Lightroom classic (subscription--bah!) I get the best results I can for these selected images with these RAW editors, and I save a jpg that I can import to Photos. I sometimes find that I can further improve the image some with Photos own editor.


I'm using an app called Raw Right Away to show NEF thumbnails and allow QuickLook on NEF files.

Nov 4, 2024 1:07 PM in response to smulvay

The Z 8 produces nice jpgs--a great reason for the Z8 having two memory cards. RAW is especially useful when the exposure is way wrong or the ISO is so high that there's lots of noise, and Lightroom Classic is great with those situations. So I always have a jpg and RAW data, both.


Adobe has a free Adobe DNG Converter that I haven't used, but other people recommend it. It converts things like NEF files to Adobe's DNG RAW files that Photos can read. But unlike Lightroom, Photos offers no extra adjustments other than those that work for jpgs.

Nov 4, 2024 12:08 PM in response to Richard.Taylor

Yep, found the setting. Much thanks. I guess the good news is that I have no issues working with the files in LRC and/or photoshop. I just like to see them show up in Photos will all my other pics. Disappointing that I won't be able to do that until I make the change. I really appreciate thought the quick reply on this. Very helpful!


Issues with Nikon Z8 RAW pics in Photos

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