Nikon P6000 and a little thing call NRW

It turns out that NRW, the new raw format the P6000 will be writing to instead of the standard NEF, that leverages the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is causing quite the stir on the Internet.

From what I’ve preliminarily read, WIC acts as an interface between the operating system and the raw file. This is good for several reasons.

Raw files are a relatively new phenomenon in the computing world, even though they’ve been around since the early days with the Nikon D1 back in1999. What raw files are, for the uninitiated, is the camera data taken straight from the sensor and written to a file. Sometimes a low-resolution (or high-resolution) JPEG is embedded so that it makes previewing the images faster on a computer. The raw file has had no post-processing done in-camera, so it’s up to you to “develop” those files through special raw-processing software such as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, Apple Aperture, and some other well-known brands that I just simply can’t remember. I should just redirect people to this post when they give me that funny look when I say I still need to develop my digital photos. “What? Develop? That’s only for film!”

Operating systems have only recently started to support these files though. Because they don’t fall under the universal accepted umbrella that is JPEG and were used by a relatively small portion of camera users (and even then some DSLR users don’t use RAW due to space and speed considerations), OS manufacturers did not bother with them. Microsoft’s own RAW Image Thumbnailer and Viewer was released back in 2005 (I had been exclusively shooting raw files since about late 2004, so between that time the raw files would be displayed as generic icons in Windows Explorer). But now with the advent of consumer DSLRs dropping to as low as $400 without looking hard, Microsoft (and I assume Apple as well, though I don’t know how raw files are handled on there) has perked up. With Vista and WIC though, things have changed for the better.

Since the sensor data is hidden away in the raw files and all raw files are proprietary to the camera manufacturer, Windows previously could not render anything in the shell (raw-processing software reverse engineers the raw files, if I recall correctly). It looked for a JPEG or a TIFF or whatever it could read and it wasn’t there. Now once you download your camera manufacturer’s codec, Windows can see what the raw file looks like and it renders it properly in the shell. Any application, Windows included, just needs to apply the correct WIC codec and it can render the image perfectly and consistently. It makes sense that this ability is provided at the OS level instead of the individual application level. Boy, I get off on a ramble often, don’t I?

Long story short, the Internet is claiming that Nikon is locking away its files for good. Using WIC, they can let you see the image through the code “looking hole”, but they’re actually keeping all the information close to their hearts. If this is the case, companies like Adobe and Apple won’t be able to see the internal workings of the format and thus you won’t be able to process raw files using Lightroom or Aperture, because they’re looking through the same codec “looking hole”. Why do this at all? Well, Nikon sells their own little raw-processing suite called Nikon Capture NX, which costs about $200 CAD. So this seems likely it’s essentially a business move. The plot thickens.

It is a bad thing if what everyone is saying is true – that by writing to NRW and utilizing WIC, Nikon P6000 owners will only be able to process their files using Nikon Capture NX and on Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista. Camera manufacturers should be OS-agnostic, but it still is up to them what they want to do.

Ultimately, I’m pretty sure this whole argument will be a non-issue, like the Nikon D2X white balance encryption fiasco a couple years back. The Internet lives for company-bashing and over exaggerations like being held “hostage of both Nikon (bad) and Microsoft (worse)”.

I doubt P6000 owners will be limited to Windows. Nikon makes a Mac version of Capture NX, so they aren’t a pure Microsoft shill. Adobe and Apple will eventually find a way around the limitations of NRW and fully support the P6000 and its NRW format. In a year’s time when the P6000′s replacement is being announced, I’m sure we’re going to look back and laugh at what a big stink this all made.

Thomas Knoll on the Adobe user forums said that WIC is “Windows only. Even on Windows, WIC is basically useless for Camera Raw/Lightroom type applications.” Nowhere did he state that Camera Raw or Lightroom won’t be able to support NRW. He just said they won’t be using WIC.

Then again, I haven’t done much research into this issue with the studying that I’m supposed to be doing, so I could be wrong, Nikon could be jerks, the NRW format could be Windows-only, Adobe and Aperture could be dead in the water and not work with the P6000, and Capture NX licenses (or downloads) will go up with the sales of the P6000. I want to say Nikon’s not dumb enough to shoot itself in its own foot by alienating both the raw evangelicals and the Apple OS X fanatics, but it’s done dumber things in the past (i.e., DX is enough! We don’t need no full-frameFX!).