NEF is an abbreviation of Nikon Electronic Format. If you haven’t guessed already, it is a proprietary file format developed by the widely popular Nikon Camera. It is called a RAW file type because it retains everything captured by the Nikon camera just like any other unprocessed image file.
RAW file types are popularly known as Digital Negatives as they contain everything captured by your camera including image metadata, camera model, sensor, lens, camera settings, and other information.
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NEF file is typically stored in a lossless and uncompressed format with no hue, tone, sharpening and white-balance applied. You can modify the instruction sets inside the file content. This shouldn’t degrade the original image quality. With the right tools, you can convert your NEF RAW files to other popular file formats such as JPEG, GIF, TIF, TIFF, PSD, PNG, BMP and TGA.
How Do I View RAW NEF Files?
RAW NEF files can be viewed with the right codecs. If your computer is unable to load them, you might want to grab the official toolkits released by Nikon namely ViewNX2 and free Capture NX-D.
You can, alternatively, download the Microsoft Camera Codec Pack from techno-giant that adds compatibility for not only NEF but also other popular image file types such as RAW, RW2, CR2, CRW, PEF.
If you’re a photographer with a licensed version of Adobe Photoshop, you should be able to view, manipulate and convert RAW NEF files with ease. This shouldn’t be an option for layman as it requires technical proficiency in advanced photo editing and manipulation.
Android users can download a freeware app called Google SnapSeed from the search-engine giant at no additional cost.
How Do I Find Duplicate RAW NEF Images?
Windows doesn’t have any in-house functionality to find duplicate RAW NEF images. PictureEcho is a specialized tool that searches for duplicate photos on your computer. It supports Windows 10, Windows 8.1/ 8, 7 and Vista.
With PictureEcho, the results are almost instant unless you have a large dataset with tons of GBs of images. The best thing about it is that it will never delete any files on its own. You will be prompted to choose an action- whether to move your files to a new folder or delete them.
You can select one of the following selection criteria:
- Select By Image Locations: You can select images by the parent folder to retain or delete your files. For example: If some of your important documents are stored in C:\Users\User_Name\Desktop\MyFiles, click on Select Action | Select by image locations. Add the folder and use the Unmark button.
- Select Image By Size: PictureEcho allows you to batch select files by their size. Use the Retain smaller image in each group option to select all smaller file versions in each duplicate group, or use Retain bigger image in each group to mark all larger-sized files.
- Select Image By Screen Resolution: You can also select images based on their resolution. You can select low or high resolution images depending on picture quality you want to retain.
- Select Image By Version: With these options, you can select the newest and oldest image version.
The steps to find and delete duplicate RAW NEF image files are as under:
1. Download and install PictureEcho.
2. Click on Add Path.
3. Choose the folder(s) you want to scan for duplicates. You may add as many duplicate folder(s) as you want.
4. Use the Exact Match.
5. Click on Start Search. Wait for a while.
6. Once the duplicate scan is finished, you’ll be able to see all image thumbnails on your screen. Your images are grouped in different pairs based on matching/ similarity criteria.
7. Click Select Duplicates, and choose your preferred selection criteria.
8. Click Select Action and decide what you would like to do with your duplicates.
