ACR useless for D850 NEF files?

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
I did all the Adobe updates so ACR and PS could read the new D850 RAW files.

Usually, a photo opened in the ACR window will look the same once opened in Photoshop. Not the case here!

The way a photo looks in ACR is much different than it looks once opened in Photoshop. The problem is that the way ACR displays the photo is so bad you can't tell if adjustments made in ACR are any good! It's easier to go straight to PS and make the adjustments there first, then use the ACR filter just for exposure or other minor tweaks.

ACR - Note the blowouts and strange posterization:

D850ACR.jpg

The flat image with no adjustments, opened in PS, with no blowouts or posterization:

D85_0051OrigNEF.jpg

The JPEG from the camera with no adjustments:

D85_0051SOCJPG.jpg


And for those curious about the D850 resolution, here is an 11% crop from a different shot. This was using the JPEG file:

D85_0052CROPJPG.jpg


As you can see from the file numbers, I'm still in my first hundred shots. This weekend will be the time for some serious testing and comparison to the D800.
 
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Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I did all the Adobe updates so ACR and PS could read the new D850 RAW files.

Usually, a photo opened in the ACR window will look the same once opened in Photoshop. Not the case here!

The way a photo looks in ACR is much different than it looks once opened in Photoshop. The problem is that the way ACR displays the photo is so bad you can't tell if adjustments made in ACR are any good! It's easier to go straight to PS and make the adjustments there first, then use the ACR filter just for exposure or other minor tweaks.
I'm seeing several posts from people processing D850 raw files with ACR/PS without issue... This is the first complaint of this nature I've heard.

I'd contact Adobe if I were you.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Well I am on the road right now but I just had another thought. The only raw files I've opened since the update were the d850. I should probably go back and test D800 and Sony raw files to see if they display properly after the update. That would tell me if the problem is related solely to d850 raw files or if the update just screwed up the ACR display in general.
 
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Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Sure enough, I just got home and opened a D800 RAW file in ACR and it has the same bizarre posterization. Useless as an editing tool, so I'll try a total re-installation of the whole thing. Something about this new upgrade screwed up ACR.
 

Blade Canyon

Senior Member
Fixed it! I went to the Adobe Community Forum and someone else had a different problem with the very new ACR upgrade. Adobe suggested going into ACR Preferences and de-checking the "Use Graphics Processor" box. That fixed it instantly.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
Fixed it! I went to the Adobe Community Forum and someone else had a different problem with the very new ACR upgrade. Adobe suggested going into ACR Preferences and de-checking the "Use Graphics Processor" box. That fixed it instantly.

That is the Adobe fix all,its like clearing your cache on here :D
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Fixed it! I went to the Adobe Community Forum and someone else had a different problem with the very new ACR upgrade. Adobe suggested going into ACR Preferences and de-checking the "Use Graphics Processor" box. That fixed it instantly.
Thank you for posting your solution!

What this means is the video card, or on-board graphics chip-set, in your computer is not compatible with the latest version of ACR. Updating the graphics driver might resolve the issue. Generally speaking it's beneficial to have the video card handling the graphical processing but, as you can see, it's not absolutely essential.

....
Ad B said:
I have to remember this as soon as I receive my D850...
You will only need to do this if your graphics solution is incompatible with the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
BTW, Paul, there is no cover for the hot shoe included with the D850.

(Wasn't that you who complained years ago?)
The missing hot-shoe cover has been a running joke for some time and I've thrown some wood on that fire, but only with tongue-in-cheek. The REAL credit, I think, goes to Backdoor Hippie for his epic, six-page thread entitled, The D750: What it Doesn't Come With Makes Me....

I throw away any hot-shoe cover I come across since I find it a lot easier to put a flash in the hot-shoe when there's not some stupid piece of plastic in the way. Funny thing is, they keep popping up in the strangest of places. I've found them in my sock drawer, in my shopping cart at the grocery store, that little fifth-pocked of my jeans and the secret snacks drawer I have in the kitchen that Jesi doesn't know about. I found one jammed in the DVD player the other day, there was that one in the cat's litter box, the toaster crumb-tray and I found, like, twenty of them under the passenger seat a couple days ago. Funny thing, it wasn't even my car! I've had the mail man deliver them but... FedEX really took the crown when I got a palletized delivery.

.....
 
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