Lumariver Profile Designer and DCP profiles for Nikon Z7

[fdisilvestro]

Hi,

There is currently a minor issue when creating a DCP profile for the Nikon Z7 with Lumariver Profile Designer (LPD), at least on Windows.

When creating a DCP profile with the default option "Use ACR Color Matrices", the export fails, indicating that it did not find the Adobe Standard Profile "Nikon Z 7", even if you have ACR 11 and/or DNG Converter 11.

It turns out that the DNG created with LR or DNG converter has the UniqueCameraModel tag "Nikon Z 7", and the Adobe profile is NIKON Z7 (all capitals). LPD is case sensitive, so it will not identify the file.

Workarounds: there are 3 possible workarounds (confirmed with torger)

1.- Uncheck the option "Use ACR Color Matrices": The drawback is that the white balance of the raw file is no longer valid, so you have to adjust manually the WB

2.- Rename the Adobe Profile as "Nikon Z7 Adobe Standard.dcp", tipically in the following path (Windows):

    C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\CameraProfiles\Adobe Standard (For some reason, this is the only Nikon profile provided by Adobe with all capitals)

3.- Edit the UniqueCameraModel tag to "NIKON Z 7" (all capitals), using a hex editor. This has to be done only on the reference image(s) used to build the profile.

[MauriceRR]

Imho, this option is not really useful anyway... 

[Alan Goldhammer]

IIRC, Nikon has added extra data to the RAW file and that is why it's not usable by the Profile Designer.  Did Torger say whether there would be a patch to the software?

[fdisilvestro]

IIRC, Nikon has added extra data to the RAW file and that is why it's not usable by the Profile Designer.  Did Torger say whether there would be a patch to the software?

uh? The only issue is that Adobe wrote the standard profile name for the Nikon Z7 in uppercase while the tag in the DNG is not. Other than that, there is no issue and you can create the profiles using any of the three workarounds.
 

[Alan Goldhammer]

uh? The only issue is that Adobe wrote the standard profile name for the Nikon Z7 in uppercase while the tag in the DNG is not. Other than that, there is no issue and you can create the profiles using any of the three workarounds.

This is what I read a while back at Thom Hogan's website and I have no idea whether this is the issue that is causing problems:

"When will we get a raw converter that understands the Z images?"

A better question than you think. According to my friend Iliah Borg, the Z series uses a completely new structure for the tags/data in its NEF images. The compressed data is in the same form, but in a different place, for instance. This means that it won't be quite as simple as taking the D850 converter routines and substituting out the Z7 name for D850 ;~). Iliahs' LibRaw team has already done some of the work, so a RawDigger beta already understands uncompressed NEFs. I suspect that both RawDigger and FastRawViewer will both get quick updates.

I also expect we'll see Capture NX-D updated right around first shipment of the Z7. Nikon does seem to be cooperating more with Adobe these days, so I wouldn't be surprised to see a reasonably quick update from them, too.

But there's more going on now to consider: the changes in EXPEED6 now produce different sharpening and styles (looks) for JPEGs. So creating LUTs for the Adobe product that match up JPEG output versus NEF conversion is going to take some work and time, too.

[fdisilvestro]

Most of it has been sorted and none of it affects Lumariver Profile designer. All you need to create a profile is a DNG (for DCP profiles) or a TIFF for ICC profiles. Once Adobe supported the Z7 and Z6 in the DNG converter, the profile could be created.

The uppercase issue only affects the Z7 and not the Z6.

In regards to other software mentioned by Thom Hogan:

Capture NX-D: Newer versions support the Z series and its OOC colour rendition is perhaps the best compared to LR and C1

RawDigger and FastRawViewer are now compatible too