Nikon's compressed High Efficiency (and High Efficiency*) NEFs, from the Z8, Z9, Zf, Z6III and Z50II, use a compression the underlying RAW engine cannot decode directly. Since version 1.4.2, imagic edits, scores and exports the full-size JPEG these files carry inside themselves instead, so culling and editing both work; earlier versions showed no error at all and simply did not respond to any slider.
Frequently asked questions
My camera isn't on that list. What happens?
A RAW format imagic does not recognise cannot be opened for editing. If you hit this, email help@imagic.ink with the camera model and file extension so we can look at adding it.
Does the High Efficiency NEF fallback lose quality compared to a normal RAW?
It edits the embedded full-size JPEG rather than the original sensor data, so it has less dynamic-range headroom than a fully decoded RAW. It is a real photo at full resolution, not a thumbnail, just already compressed once by the camera itself.
Do similar compressed-RAW formats from other brands work the same way?
Only Nikon's High Efficiency NEFs have this specific fallback today. If another format fails to respond to edits, email help@imagic.ink with a sample file.
Related
Other common issues
Still stuck?
Email help@imagic.ink and a person replies, usually within hours.