Photo 2 for iPad can't open Nikon Z9 HE files with Apple Core Image RAW

[Walter Rowe]

iPad Pro 11-inch M2 running the latest iPadOS

Affinity Photo 2 2.0.3

I set the Photo 2 Assistant Raw ENGINE preference to Apple Core Image RAW. I try to open a Nikon Z9 High Efficiency raw file. IPadOS opens the raw file just fine. Photo 2 opens to a black Developer panel. If I press √ to move on to edit the file it creates a layer for the image but it's still black. See the attached video, raw file, and screenshots.

WPR_3751.NEF

[DM1]

11 hours ago, Walter Rowe said:

IPadOS opens the raw file just fine.

That’s probably the jpg associated with raw image. I can’t open the raw in Apple or Affinity with Apple or serif raw engines. Have you checked list to see if format used is supported?

[Walter Rowe]

I also tried this and iPadOS Photos does not display the raw file. The iPadOS 16 web page claims support for Nikon Z9 with no footnotes about lack of High Efficiency support.

[DM1]

19 minutes ago, Walter Rowe said:

no footnotes about lack of High Efficiency support.

🤔

[MEB]

Hi @Walter Rowe,
I believe Apple Core Image RAW doesn't support High Efficiency. Have you tried to change it to lossless? It should open in Apple Photos and Affinity as well (with the Apple raw engine selected at least).

[Walter Rowe]

8 hours ago, MEB said:

Hi @Walter Rowe,
I believe Apple Core Image RAW doesn't support High Efficiency. Have you tried to change it to lossless? It should open in Apple Photos and Affinity as well (with the Apple raw engine selected at least).

@MEB Lossless works fine. The point of the exercise is to validate that HE is supported. Affinity claims it supports HE if you change the Raw ENGINE to Apple Core Image RAW. It seems iPadOS Apple Core Image RAW doesn't support HE even Apple's website claims it does.

[Walter Rowe]

Adding this link documenting that Apple claims iPadOS 16 supports the Nikon Z9 and no footnotes document limitations.

Digital camera RAW formats supported by iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213267

[MEB]

Hi @Walter Rowe,
As far as I know Apple Core Image RAW doesn't support High Efficiency RAW's. I understand Apple does say so (apparently without any restrictions) but neither the iPad OS nor macOS Ventura Apple Photo's apps are able to read these files, neither RAW Power or Pixelmator Pro which also use the RAW engine provided by Apple. The Apple Forums are also full of complaints about the lack of support for High Efficiency * and High Efficiency compression settings.

If you don't want to switch to lossless compression (which I understand generates way larger files) and have a desktop available you can keep the high efficiency setting and convert the NEF files to DNG using the latest Adobe DNG Converter (15.1.1). Affinity Photo can open the generated DNG's without issues (both with Serif and Apple engines).
Alternatively on iOS, Lightroom for iPad might be able to read them or convert them to DNG at least - I haven't tried this so can't guarantee it will work.

[Walter Rowe]

@MEB .. the point of the post was to document that Nikon Z9 HE files is NOT supported. It turns out to be an Apple problem. Affinity's documentation says we can switch to the Apple Core Image RAW for RAW Engine and get support. That turns out to be false - because Apple doesn't provide the support Apple claims.

I filed a feedback request with Apple.

Ideally Serif Affinity also should use their corporate relationship with Apple to also file a report.

[walt.farrell]

14 minutes ago, Walter Rowe said:

Affinity's documentation says we can switch to the Apple Core Image RAW for RAW Engine and get support.

I'm curious what Affinity documentation says that the Apple Core Image RAW supports the Z9 HE files, as I haven't seen that. Can you help me locate it?

[Walter Rowe]

While it doesn't mention the Nikon Z9 HE file format explicitly it does direct us to use Apple's Core Image RAW for support for other formats. Going to Apple's web page for iPadOS 16 and macOS Ventura then leads one to believe we can get support for the Z9 HE file format using Apple Core Image RAW.

It isn't Serif's fault that Apple improperly documents their support for the Nikon Z9, but Serif could get Apple to fix their docs or their Core Image RAW library.

 

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, Walter Rowe said:

While it doesn't mention the Nikon Z9 HE file format explicitly it does direct us to use Apple's Core Image RAW for support for other formats.

 

Thanks. And it also directs you to the Apple documentation to see which they support. 

It's all up to Apple to get their documentation correct.

[neversink]

Quote

 

We will just have to create DNG files from the HE NEF. I can do that in Capture One.

 

[Walter Rowe]

It isn't something I really need. I just read it in the documentation and decided to try it.

This is an Apple Image Core RAW issue. This is NOT an Affinity issue.

[v3rlon]

I just want to point out that if you shoot a Z9 HE or HE* file to save space, then convert it to DNG or TIFF using NX Studio or ACR or any other tool, it just uncompresses it and makes it slightly larger than it would have been shooting lossless in the first place.  So you are adding steps and processing and not getting a real benefit