ASP doesn't show raw NEF files

[cwebster]

I just bought a new Nikon D600 and some lenses to switch from my Pentax K10D/K20D gear. I've always shot in raw to give me full control over the final image. With the Pentax cameras, I set them up to output PNG files but the Nikon only offers NEF. This format is listed in the AfterShot Pro file types but for some reason they're not showing up in the editor. In fact, I had to copy the files manually from the SDHC card. Although the download showed it was moving files, they never ended up anywhere on the hard disk.

So, 2 problems:
1. Download doesn't get either JPG or NEF files from the Nikon-formatted SDHC card. There's no errors and it behaves like it's downloading, counting off files and their downloaded and imported, but nothing is there when it's done.
2. After manually copying a mix of JPG and NEF files from the Nikon-formatted SDHC card, the browser only shows images for the JPGs. The NEF files are invisible to ASP.

I'd appreciate any help with this. I've been using Bibble Pro for a long time and AfterShot Pro since Corel bought out Bibble.

Thanks in advance,

Cal Webster

[SteveCase]

Camera not on supported list.

"D4, D40, D40x, D50, D60, D70, D70s, D80, D90, D100, D200, D300, D300s, D700, D800, D800e, D3s, D3x, D3, D2x, D2h, D2xs, D2hs, D1, D1h, D1x, D3000, D5000, D3100, D5100, D7000, 1 J1, 1 V1, P6000, P7000"

[cwebster]

Camera not on supported list.

"D4, D40, D40x, D50, D60, D70, D70s, D80, D90, D100, D200, D300, D300s, D700, D800, D800e, D3s, D3x, D3, D2x, D2h, D2xs, D2hs, D1, D1h, D1x, D3000, D5000, D3100, D5100, D7000, 1 J1, 1 V1, P6000, P7000"

Thanks, I saw that too but the D600 has only been out a short while. Like the D800, I'd expect it to be supported soon after.

What does that have to do with downloading and opening NEF files, though? I should still be able to see the raw files in ASP.

[jknights]

Since Corel got rid of the original Bibble development team in July 2012 they have little or no capability to develop new RAW support for cameras that are newly released.

In fact the last Nikon camera that had RAW support added was the Nikon D800E and that was in March 2012.
So with respect to your D600 raw support I would not hold your breath!!
I too would like a D600 but I am not too worried as I can always use Capture Pro 7, Lightroom or Photoshop ACR for my RAW processing.


I have used Bibble since November 2000 so it is a considerable loss to me to see Corel more or less dump the product.

I have sent the following email to the Corel CEO but I dont expect I will even have the courtesy of a reply or acknowledgement of its receipt.

=========================================================================================================================
Dear Mr. Berquist,
I am writing to ask for your help and advice with regard to your Corel product AfterShot Pro.

I first bought a Bibble license in November 2000 and have continued to use the product up to this day where it is Corel Aftershot Pro. I have provided my time to Bibble and Corel to test the beta products and have provided feedback into this process for the last 12 years.
Since Corel acquired the Bibble 5 product in 2011 the level of support and communication around the product has been very reduced.
This does not reflect well on Corel as it looks as though the acquisition was done for no purpose other than to spend shareholder money.

As a long term customer I feel that if a company acquires a product then it must have some long term use or plan for the product.
Since 2011 there has been one release of the Bibble5 product that was rebadged as AfterShot Pro version 1.0.0.39 and a few spot feature upgrades, with the last meaningful upgrade occurring in March 2012.
By meaningful, I mean not some tidying of code but a functionality improvement or fixing of major bugs.
Since March 2012 there has been no release of functionality that allows new camera owners to use their new cameras and shoot in RAW format as AfterShot Pro does not provide support for these new formats. This means that potential new customers will not purchase AfterShot Pro as their camera will not be supported.


Please can you advise me of a contact person in your organisation (email address) who can give me some information and help with regard to:
1. What are the future plans for AfterShot Pro - short term and long term.
2. Is there any intention to release new improved functionality for the product.
3. Is there any intention to sell the product to a third party.
4. Is there any intention to release the original source code from Bibble5 or AfterShot Pro to the open community so that the product can be improved. If Corel does not intend to improve the product itself then it seems only reasonable that they allow the original code to be used under license. This license would be so that it is not sold in competition to Corel but allows additional functionality to be added to the product and the code remaining under open source licensing.


Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Regards
Dr. J.M.Knights

[cwebster]

Thanks for the info Dr. J. That's disappointing news. I did get that feeling after the shoddy way the Linux RPM was built. I build RPMs all the time and this doesn't even folow basic Red Hat conventions.

I like your idea to release the code under open source license if they're not going to support it. Their download links imply they'll still accept money to buy it. It would be quite unethical to do that if they don't intend to support it.

Still, it's just a NEF file. I should think it would at least display some representation of the image. JPEG output offers very little control over the final image. I'm scrambling now to get something to support my photographic workflow with my new gear under Linux. If Adobe would offer their software under Linux I'd buy it. Bibble Pro / AfterShot Pro was my only option in terms of photographic workflow. Now I'm forced to look at other options at a time when all I want to do is explore my new camera and lenses.

./Cal

[tundraquad]

Hello cwebster,

Yes indeed, most of us here are in the same situation. ASP is such a great application that I personally stick to it. However, for working on my wife's images I have to use another application (photivo) until ASP support her camera model.
True enough, we don't have as much choice.
You can forget about Adobe. They will never support linux. Capture One neither.
But if working with a program like Photivo for instance, you wouldn't waste your time. Your "workflow skills" would be entirely useful once working in ASP.

Good luck.

[cwebster]

Yes indeed, most of us here are in the same situation. ASP is such a great application that I personally stick to it. However, for working on my wife's images I have to use another application (photivo) until ASP support her camera model.
True enough, we don't have as much choice.
You can forget about Adobe. They will never support linux. Capture One neither.
But if working with a program like Photivo for instance, you wouldn't waste your time. Your "workflow skills" would be entirely useful once working in ASP.

Thanks for pointing out photivo http://photivo.org. I hadn't really looked around at other options for quite some time. From the description, it seems to cover a lot of ground. I'll take it for a spin. I like that it can handle raw files and process 16-bit images without searching for plugins. I use GIMP all the time for any real image editing. I've dabbled in Cinepaint and Luminance (aka qtpfsgui) but found them quite cumbersome. I still poke around with Luminance every so often when I get the HDR bug.

I definitely had my annoyances with ASP but I was able to quickly sort through, compare, pre-process, cull, and organize my many raw image files and have presentable jpeg images in a relatively short period of time. The batch features became indispensable. If they do discontinue ASP I desperately hope they roll the tools and features into another Corel app and offer a Linux port. Otherwise, I'll have to have a Windoze VM on standby with Lightroom or PS on it. Not terribly inconvenient but always wasteful of system resources, compared to Linux.

./Cal

[lenb]

AfterShot Pro can be tricked into recognizing Nikon D600 RAW NEF by changing the camera model
to one it knows in the NEF's EXIF before importing the file into ASP.

eg. for you Linux users out there...

$ exiftool -Model="NIKON D800" 20130507_193759.NEF

will replace "NIKON D600" in your NEF with "NIKON D800"
and ASP will then happily import the file.

I've no idea if there are any model specific hooks that we miss
or mess up by doing this, but on the few test images I've tried,
it looks sane.

[cwebster]

That's a great idea. I've used exiftool on scanned images before to document some of my old film SLR photos and to add geographic coordinates. I'd at least be able to import and process the images but then I'd have to change it back afterward.

The biggest difference I can think of between camera bodies that raw processing software would be concerned with would be the sensor itself so I guess picking one with the most similar sensor would make sense. I would think ASP has to know the geometry and pixel density and such. Trouble is that the D800 sensor, while exactly the same size (35.9 x 24mm), has a much higher pixel density (7360 × 4912 vs 6016 × 4016 on the D600). I guess I'll see how ASP interprets that. I can compare the JPEG produced by ASP to that which came out of the camera, since I've been shooting NEF+JPEG.

[lenb]

Note that you can replace the string "D800" with "D600" in a binary file this way:

sed -e 's/D800/D600/' < original-binary-file > new-binary-file

run "strings" on the file before and after to see the difference.

I'm not advocating that you do this on the AfterShotPro binary --
as it would probably violate your license and invalidate your warranty.
Corel would surely refuse to support your D600.
Oh wait, they already don't support your D600...

[lenb]

BTW, for you Linux users, darktable 1.2 is now available,
and it supports the D600 out of the box:

http://www.darktable.org/

I tried it on Ubuntu 13.4 today, and it looks worthy of consideration.
Apparently it also runs on Mac and Solaris.

[lenb]

I took my own advice and, this weekend, looked at darktable
to replace AfterShotPro.

In summary, I like it enough that I'm going to attempt a cold-turky
cut-over to darktable, and see if it sticks.

Darktable is not as fast as AfterShotPro.
Indeed, speed is a strong point of AfterShotPro.
But darktable seems to have all the editing capabilities
that I typically use, and I'm happy with the JPGs I can produce with it.
I've not used it for a very broad range
of photo types, but I'm thinking I'll use it for a while and see if I
learn to love it, or learn to hate it.

I do expect I'll miss AfterShotPro when I want to convert a few hundred
NEF's to JPG at once, but I have a pretty fast computer, so we'll see...

AfterShotPro lacked a good download-from-camera import capability.
A gap that I filled with a snappy application from Damon Lynch --
Rapid Photo Downloader:

http://www.damonlynch.net/rapid/

Darktable integrates download capability, but I still like rapid-photo-downloader
better, so I'll probalby continue using that and tell darktable to import from disk,
sort of like I did with imports to AfterShotPro.