Progress on recognizing Nikon .ndf (dust reference) files?

[cdwiler]

There was a thread about three years ago that indicated this was being worked on. Is there a solution? At present Photo Mechanic doesn't seem to import these files despite being set to "copy RAW and non-RAW Photos"; this is the most serious problem since they need to be handled individually in a file manager or using Downloader Pro for a complete download. And then they don't appear in the Photo Mechanic browser so they are easy to overlook when moving files.

[Kirk Baker]

There was a thread about two years ago that indicated this was being worked on. Is there a solution? At present Photo Mechanic doesn't seem to import these files despite being set to "copy RAW and non-RAW Photos"; this is the most serious problem since they need to be handled individually in a file manager or using Downloader Pro for a complete download. And then they don't appear in the Photo Mechanic browser so they are easy to overlook when moving files.

What thread was that?

Do you have a sample files you can send us?  Preferably as a zip archive?

-Kirk

[cdwiler]

About three years ago.... it came up on a search for:   .ndf

http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=490.msg2304#msg2304

Zipping the file only saves about 1% so here is the regular file. If it doesn't upload, let me know where to send it, or I can post it on my own server. Note that this isn't an image that we expect to see, but it is important to have it copied from the flash card with the other files like a .wav file, and then to have its presence noted with some kind of icon. It is NOT associated with a particular image file, but keeping track of the time it was generated is important. Normally I sequence my new file names in Photo Mechanic by the time they were shot, taken from the metadata.

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[Kirk Baker]

About three years ago.... it came up on a search for:   .ndf

http://forums.camerabits.com/index.php?topic=490.msg2304#msg2304

Zipping the file only saves about 1% so here is the regular file. If it doesn't upload, let me know where to send it, or I can post it on my own server. Note that this isn't an image that we expect to see, but it is important to have it copied from the flash card with the other files like a .wav file, and then to have its presence noted with some kind of icon. It is NOT associated with a particular image file, but keeping track of the time it was generated is important. Normally I sequence my new file names in Photo Mechanic by the time they were shot, taken from the metadata.

What version of Photo Mechanic are you using?  We added support for showing unknown file types as 'proxy' thumbnails some time ago.  It is optional and can be found in the View menu.

Ingest should copy all files it encounters except for files considered to be 'system' files.  'System' files should never appear on a camera card under normal circumstances.

-Kirk

[cdwiler]

Kirk,

I am using the current version, 4.6.1. I have been simply upgrading over the last several years as newer versions are released, and I missed the addition of the "switch" you pointed out. My manual is old enough that it doesn't mention it either. The bottom line is IT WORKS in terms of making the NDF files visible, and I can rename in batch mode and keep everything in order as long as I remember to sort by date/time taken first. So thanks for pointing this out.

> However, I still can't get the program to download the NDF files from the flash card. So far, only Nikon Transfer seems to do this properly. Am I missing another setting in Photo Mechanic?

Frankly, I had not been using the dust reference feature for the past several years, but I am getting ready for an African trip and I know from experience how bad the dust situation can be there, particularly with the bodies that do not have automatic cleaning systems.

[Kirk Baker]

> However, I still can't get the program to download the NDF files from the flash card. So far, only Nikon Transfer seems to do this properly. Am I missing another setting in Photo Mechanic?

Frankly, I had not been using the dust reference feature for the past several years, but I am getting ready for an African trip and I know from experience how bad the dust situation can be there, particularly with the bodies that do not have automatic cleaning systems.

Are you certain that Ingest isn't downloading it for you?  If you're using custom folder naming based off of data found inside photos (EXIF, Maker Notes) then it is likely that the dust-off files are ending up in a different place since some variables when used with the dust-off files will evaluate to empty strings and will end up in a different location.

-Kirk

[cdwiler]

Got it.

I normally download into a folder named for the extracted shooting date; when I changed this to the fixed name "George" it downloaded properly. So do I assume that the Ingest function cannot extract any information from these non-standard files during the download? The viewer seems to be able to use this data for sorting - at least the capture time - so it is not as if it is completely unavailable.

[Kirk Baker]

Got it.

I normally download into a folder named for the extracted shooting date; when I changed this to the fixed name "George" it downloaded properly. So do I assume that the Ingest function cannot extract any information from these non-standard files during the download? The viewer seems to be able to use this data for sorting - at least the capture time - so it is not as if it is completely unavailable.

PM just doesn't know about the format of those files yet.  I looked at the sample you posted and it does have EXIF data in it that I think could be parsed pretty easily...  I'll let you know what I find out.

-Kirk

[cdwiler]

I would really appreciate that - the variables I use for folder naming are:   {mn0}{day0}    These are available now when renaming files sequentially that have already been downloaded. Meantime, I will use "George" on a nightly basis and rename it when I have everything downloaded - I normally sequence several bodies in daily folders by time shot, then rename sequentially K{mn0}{day0}-{seqn}        (K stands for this year)  

When files are downloaded, I also use {h24}{min}{sec}{ssec}-{fnm4} after the month and date to get a good unambiguous sort by filename, but I can work around this part for now by resorting on capture time. This depends on synchronization of the clocks in the bodies, of course, but Nikon Capture makes that part easy to do periodically.

Thanks again.

[Kirk Baker]

I would really appreciate that - the variables I use for folder naming are:   {mn0}{day0}    These are available now when renaming files sequentially that have already been downloaded. Meantime, I will use "George" on a nightly basis and rename it when I have everything downloaded - I normally sequence several bodies in daily folders by time shot, then rename sequentially K{mn0}{day0}-{seqn}        (K stands for this year)  

When files are downloaded, I also use {h24}{min}{sec}{ssec}-{fnm4} after the month and date to get a good unambiguous sort by filename, but I can work around this part for now by resorting on capture time. This depends on synchronization of the clocks in the bodies, of course, but Nikon Capture makes that part easy to do periodically.

For that last part you can use the "Adjust Capture Dates and Times..." command in the Tools menu.

-Kirk