
How to open a NEF file?Ī NEF file must be transferred from a Nikon camera to a computer for viewing and editing. NEF files are not compressed and are often referred to as digital negatives. It is a RAW file format, which means that it includes all of the information about the image captured by the camera’s sensor, such as data about the camera used to take the photo and the settings that were in place when it was taken. Both are free.Nikon Electronic Format (NEF) is a proprietary file format for Nikon cameras.

I highly recommend SumatraPDF or MuPDF if you're after something a bit more. You may or may not need an add-on or extension to do it, but it's pretty handy to have one open automatically when you click a PDF link online. Most web browsers, like both Chrome and Firefox, can open PDFs themselves.

It's completely fine to use, but I find it to be a somewhat bloated program with lots of features that you may never need or want to use. Adobe created the PDF standard and its program is certainly the most popular free PDF reader out there. Most people head right to Adobe Acrobat Reader when they need to open a PDF. PDF files always look identical on any device or operating system. The reason PDF is so widely popular is that it can preserve original document formatting. The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a universal file format that comprises characteristics of both text documents and graphic images which makes it one of the most commonly used file types today. However, NEF files are meant to be post-processed first before converting to JPG. If you do not have access to programs that can open NEF files, we recommend converting them via our NEF to JPG tool. Since NEF is proprietary to Nikon, the best program to use for opening and editing a NEF is Nikon’s Capture NX2 or a post-processing software like Adobe Lightroom.Ĭonverting a NEF file to a non-proprietary format is as simple as opening it in an image-viewing application and saving it as a TIFF, JPG, PNG, GIF, PSD, or any other popular format.

Nikon Electronic Format (NEF) is a proprietary file format for Nikon cameras.
