NEF files from D3 with AdobeRGB not properly colour managed

[vish]

When shooting in RAW (NEF) with the D3 set to AdobeRGB PM doesn’t properly colour manage these files. This is on Vista Business SP1 (4 GB of RAM) with PM 4.5.4 and 4.6b.

- NEF files with AdobeRGB set in camera are flat looking.
- setting PM to assume AdobeRGB if undetermined change nothing.
- extracted JPEG from NEF is not considered as a valid image file by Nikon View NX.
- extracted JPEG from NEF if opened with Photoshop CS3 gives error "...no valid ICC...", manually assigning AdobeRGB and saving in PS CS3 fixes this problem and View NX then recognizes it too.

Kind Regards,
-v

[dennis]

Does PM show the images as AdobeRGB (put the {icc} variable in your Info text to find out)?

Can you tell me what options you used in the extract JPEG preview command?

What is the firmware version of the D3?

Are these NEF files straight from the camera or have they been saved/processed by other software (you mentioned ViewNX).

Do you have your color management turned on (the 'c' key will toggle this)?

I can't reproduce the problem.  The only thing I can think of is that there were some prerelease D3 NEF files I saw a long time ago that had the Exif data written in a strange way (obviously to obfuscate the information and make it unreadable by other software).  That is why I ask about the firmware version.

We may need a NEF sample of yours to verify.  If so we will contact you privately with the upload instructions (no need to post it here).

--dennis

[vish]

PM does show right profile - I always have {icc} variable in my Info text.

I tried different combination of options while extracting JPEG previews selecting/deselecting "Embed ICC Profile" option.

D3 firmware is: A 2.00, B 2.00. It is not a preproduction unit.

These NEFs are straight from the camera. No software was used to ingest, just drag'n'drop from card to desktop/folder.

Toggling 'c' key or using the button in the toolbar change nothing, while if the NEF is tagged by D3 as sRGB 'c' key or the button works as expected - turning on and off colour management.

I have no issues with the same NEF files from the same D3 tagged with AdobeRGB if I open them on my Mac (OS X 10.5.6, PM 4.5.4) or on another computer (Vista Premium w/o SP1, PM 4.5.3.1).

This post describes similar behaviour,but with Canon camera:
http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=3754.0

-v

[dennis]

I found the issue.  It has to do with the system missing the Adobe RGB profile.  On the Mac it comes installed with the OS, on Windows unless you have Adobe products (e.g. Photoshop) installed then it is not present (other than perhaps a Nikon version).  I fixed the issue and it will be in the next 4.6 build (and we will also patch 4.5).

--dennis

[vish]

thanks dennis

i copied manually AdobeRGB1998.icc into:
C:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers\color\
now PM can colour manage NEF files tagged with Adobe RGB

-v