Nikon Advisory - For Immediate Release
(April 22, 2005)
The Nikon D2X professional Digital Single Lens Reflex camera has
received widely positive acclaim for its overall performance and image
processing quality. Recently, speculative statements which appear to be
based on misunderstandings and misinformation about the D2X camera’s
“encryption” of certain white balance data have propagated on the
internet.
The purpose of this advisory is to clarify this matter with facts and
explanations.
The Nikon D2X is capable of producing high quality images that can be
saved in a variety of file formats, including the proprietary Nikon
Electronic Format (NEF), standard TIFF and several levels of standard
JPEG compressed files.
The NEF, a Nikon proprietary raw file design, was introduced with the
Nikon D1 Camera and Nikon’s original Capture software. The combination
of Nikon camera, in-camera image processing, NEF file format and
in-computer image processing with original Nikon Capture software was
developed as a system that faithfully saved image files that represent
the camera settings made manually or automatically by the photographer
at the time a picture was taken.
Nikon’s preservation of its unique technology in the NEF file is
employed as an action that protects the uniqueness of the file. At the
same time, Nikon makes available a software developer kit (SDK) that,
when implemented appropriately, enables a wide range of NEF performance,
including white balance, for Nikon photographers and their productive
use of the NEF file.
Since the inception of the system, Nikon has always provided
photographers with choices about how they might use the system’s
performance and enjoy high quality images. Nikon’s choices for opening
and processing NEF files have been and continue to include:
- Nikon Capture software
- Plug-in for Adobe’s Photoshop
- Nikon PictureProject software
- Nikon View software
- Availability of Nikon Software Developer Kit (SDK) and the
software that has been developed using the SDK
Through use of the Nikon Software Developer Kit, authorized
developers can produce software by applying creative concepts to their
implementation and adding capabilities to open Nikon’s NEF file and use
NEF’s embedded Instructions and Nikon’s Libraries. Nikon photographers
reap benefits from independent developers’ approaches, because it allows
the photographer to open and process their NEF images.
After a developer’s software is created using the Nikon SDK, a NEF
file can be opened, edited in either TIFF or JPEG format, and then saved
in formats available in the developers’ software. This process has been
available since the first Nikon SDK for NEF.
With each introduction of a new Nikon digital Single Lens Reflex
model, Nikon updates the available SDK selection to provide new
information; this is the situation with the D2X, D2Hs and D50 models. As
stated above, application for the Nikon SDK is possible for bona fide
software companies that send Nikon a written application for the SDK.
Once approved, the SDK is provided to the developer at no charge and
they are authorized to use it.
Nikon has provided its confidential SDK software to many software
developers. With the Nikon SDK, developers may design excellent and
creative compatibility between the NEF and their software, all without
compromising the integrity of the NEF’s original concept, and ensuring
that work done by the photographer during the picture taking process can
be incorporated into the rendering of the image.
The trilogy of performance, from Camera-to-NEF-to-Capture, has
evolved though several generations of Nikon Digital SLR models,
improving along the way. As a proprietary format, Nikon secures NEF’s
structure and processing through various technologies. Securing this
structure is intended for the photographer’s benefit, and dedicated to
ensuring faithful reproduction of the photographer’s creative intentions
through consistent performance and rendition of the images. Discussions
propagated on the internet suggesting otherwise are misinformed about
the unique structure of NEF.
Nikon’s Camera System, NEF and Capture software are a tightly knit
system, and they are all developed through the cooperative efforts of
Nikon’s design teams, and this collaboration results in achieving the
highest image quality.
Nikon strives to provide photographers with excellent picture taking
performance, compatible Nikon in-system image processing performance and
by extension, compatibility with additional software developers’
products, with the ultimate goal of delivering a high level of integrity
for a photographer’s creative vision.
Nikon continues to welcome dialogue with bona fide software
developers. |