NEF File Documentation

Overview

Feature Value
Format Name Nikon Electronic Format (NEF)
File Extension .nef
MIME Type image/x-nikon-nef
Type RAW Image File Format
Developer Nikon Corporation
Compression Lossless (optionally Lossy)
Color Depth 12, 14, or 16-bit
Color Space sRGB, Adobe RGB
Metadata Support EXIF, IPTC, XMP
Multi-Page Support No
Transparency Support No
Layers Support No
ICC Profile Embedding Yes
Camera Compatibility Nikon DSLR Cameras
Advantage High Image Quality
Disadvantage Larger File Size compared to JPEG
Typical Usage Professional Photography, Image Editing
Native Application Support Nikon ViewNX, Capture NX-D
Third-Party Application Support Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom; GIMP (with UFRaw plugin)
Editing Non-destructive with supported software
File Interchangeability Wide due to popularity among professional photographers
Recoverability Higher chance to recover details from shadows/highlights