While looking for a RAW file viewer, I found Nikon NEF Codec instead

Software
1

I was looking for an open source RAW File Viewer and then stumbled across Nikon’s NEF Codec. Nikon says, “The NEF Codec module allows NEF (RAW) files to be handled as easily as their JPEG and TIFF equivalents”.

I installed the codec and yep, my NEF raw files can be viewed in Windows Photo Viewer just like any other image (although not as quickly). Thumbnails also appear in the the file folders.

Perhaps others already knew about the NEF Codec (or manufacturer Codecs in general) But I am pleased with finding this solution as opposed to using a separate raw file viewer.

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Does it display the actual raw file, or the embedded JPEG?

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I think it just displays the embedded JPEG. Works for me, I just wanted visibility.

Comments say; Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Windows Photo Viewer now display the previews embedded in NEF (RAW) images.

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The NEF from a Nikon D800 contains three jpeg images. They can all be extracted:

exiftool -JpgFromRaw -b AGA_1234.NEF >j.jpg
exiftool -OtherImage -b AGA_1234.NEF >o.jpg
exiftool -PreviewImage -b AGA_1234.NEF >p.jpg
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5

Thanks for the example command-lines … :grinning:
my (entry-level) Nikon D3300 NEF file output also contains these 3 jpegs.
All I ever knew about until now was the embedded full-res jpeg.

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From the ExifTool documentation, this extracts all embedded images:

exiftool -a -b -W %d%f_%t%-c.%s -preview:all dir

You can replace dir with a specific filename.

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