NEF files in Lightroom?

This is a simple question for fellow Lightroom users who take NEF RAW files: do you convert your files to DNG format once you import to Lightroom, or do you leave them as NEF files? If you want, please explain your rationale. I'm trying to decide upon the best course of action for my LR imports.

I converted my NEF's to DNG for a while but quickly lost interest. Simply put, I just don't see the upside.

I have never converted my Nefs to Dng, don't see the point.

I think if I get a D5 and my LR5 doesn't recognize the NEF I will convert the files into DNG

Michael Jaeger said:

I think if I get a D5 and my LR5 doesn't recognize the NEF I will convert the files into DNG

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I have this problem with my D750 NEF files because I can't see them with Windows Photo Gallery. At times I have converted to DNG to save space on my hard drive. When I did that, I moved the NEF files to a portable hard drive and used the DNG to edit. Since my second slot is jpeg, I can view them with Windows Photo Gallery but use the corresponding NEF files for editing. Now that I removed some of my older files, I have a little more room on my hard drive and just use the NEF.

@BackdoorHippie mentioned that some online contests require the original RAW files, not DNG, so it's a good idea to just use your NEF files if you have enough space on your hard drive.

Hard drive space is cheap so keep them in raw because you spent all that money on your camera to have the best pics!

Leave all my images as RAW. Have never even considered converting to DNG

No one has ever given me a good enough reason to convert to DNG. NEF is where mine stay


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I don't convert to DNG. No reason to unless/until Nikon goes under and editing tools stop supporting their RAW format natively.

hark said:

I have this problem with my D750 NEF files because I can't see them with Windows Photo Gallery.

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You can download and install the Adobe DNG Codex so Windows can show thumbnails from DNG files.
Adobe - DNG Codec : For Windows : Adobe DNG Codec 2.0 : Thank You

Same thing for Windows showing NEF thumbnails, the Nikon NEF Codex:
Nikon | Download center | NEF Codec

Same as all above. Don't see any reason to convert to DNG. I just keep the NEFs.

WayneF said:

You can download and install the Adobe DNG Codex so Windows can show thumbnails from DNG files.
Adobe - DNG Codec : For Windows : Adobe DNG Codec 2.0 : Thank You

Same thing for Windows showing NEF thumbnails, the Nikon NEF Codex:
Nikon | Download center | NEF Codec

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Thanks for this. The last time I checked, I had the latest version. This works...sometimes. For example, if I am looking at a folder of NEF images, I can right click on any image and access the Details info in the properties. However, if I open the image to view in Windows Photo Gallery then access Details from the image's properties, the Details are blank. Weird. Like I said, I can access the info while viewing the entire folder so it's not a total loss. Just strange. This is what I see when viewing an unedited NEF from the D750. The same thing happens with NEF files from my D610 and D7100...and even DNG files from them.

I don't think I have Windows Photo Gallery, but with these Codex, I can see the details in both DNG and NEF from Win7 file manager. I really think Adobe provides better details, so the Thumbnail image part is really all that I use of the codex, and it is very handy. And I don't bother with DNG anymore.

NEF, always.

I've accumulated a lot of digital images of varying formats over the years and viewing them in Windows always presented a 'challenge'. Eventually I invested in the FastPictureViewer Codec Pack. Not cheap but it's performed perfectly since I bought it over 2 years ago.