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Nikon 990 raw

Hi Chieh, i'm going crazy here :'( i have a nikon 990 which has had the ir cutoff filter removed and replaced with a 87c filter....i love black and white infrared digital photography!

Up to now i've been shooting in TIFF file format, but the files are large and they are preprocessed with camera specific sharpness and exposure, etc, so i can't post process them like you can with RAW files.

Just learned that there is software that can allow the 990 to shoot in diagnostic RAW mode which will give me far superior quality in a smaller file size then TIFF.

The scary part is the exposure counter doesn't give a acquit count of the exposures remanding on the CF card and if you expose the last shot on the card, the card will become corrupted and you will loose ALL of your exposures. How do i prevent this from happening?

Also I've spent the last few days visiting different digital web sites claiming to have just the soft ware that i need. So far i've downloaded: phototopc-3, ppc3_05, ppc300.zip, cp990fw1, cpixraw_v0.03zip, dcraw.exe, and raw2nef_v0.09zip Which of the software mentioned above do i have to install to be able to shoot with my Nikon 990 and edit the RAW files using Photoshop CS2?

Thank you- howard

hojo9
Fri, 3 Feb 2006 13:22:23 -0800

The card may not corrupt to the point of losing all your data (I don't have a 990). Based on the Nikon Coolpix 950 that I documented in the Hacking Digital Cameras book, when you fill up the card in RAW mode, the camera will simply display system error. You can reset this system error by turning the camera on an off.

You are right that the card will be corrupt. But it is only corrupted to the point that the last image is stored on the card, but not updated in the FAT. Therefore, the only way to delete that last image is to format the card AFTER YOU DOWNLOADED ALL OF YOUR DATA.

I haven't tried to get Nikon Coolpix 950 raw file to process using Adobe Camera RAW that's in Photoshop CS2. It's been something I wanted to do in the back of my mind. The dcraw.exe you download will be able to process your pictures just fine. Recently, I posted an article called "dcraw by example" on this site. I believe that article will help you understand how to use dcraw.

Chieh Cheng
Wed, 8 Feb 2006 15:02:01 -0800

Chieh, i have your book "Hacking Digital Cameras". I'm still having a problem trying to get photopc to set RAW Diagnostics mode for my E990. I have a USB cable only, do not own a serial cable. I even tried cpix and RAW2NEF software and that did not help. Is there any other software out there that will set RAW Diag with E990 and USB cable? If not guess I'll have to pay $30.00 for a serial cable. :'(

hojo9
Fri, 10 Feb 2006 10:18:34 -0800

Do you mind showing us the error message you get from Photopc?

I'm not sure if Photopc supports USB connection. When I tried it with the Nikon Coolpix 950, I used the serial cable. And it took about a minute to set the RAW mode . . . I had thought the camera had hung at first, but it does take time.

The cpixraw.exe program found at the following link claims that it works with USB. But it sound like you already tried it, eh?

Nikon Coolpix 2500: Research of E2500 v1.1: E2500 File Formats: RAW format

Later I will figure out the Nikon Coolpix 950 serial cable pin-out. It will help you build one yourself, if you choose to do so.

Chieh Cheng
Fri, 10 Feb 2006 14:22:43 -0800

I see the marching ants on the control panel of the E990, but the LCD
monitor shows no image, it's a dark blank screen like in the off
position. When i go into C prompt {windows XP Pro} and type photopc
id DIAG RAW, O/S says "do not recognize internally or externally
photopc. This is when using my USB cable.

hojo9
Fri, 10 Feb 2006 17:24:23 -0800

I believe the error message you are actually getting is

C:\>photopc id DIAG RAW
'photopc' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

This is an operating system error, not a photopc error. This error means your Windows XP could not find the photopc.exe executable in the PATH or the current directory.

First of all, download the photopc.exe version that support USB here: Remote Control Driver and GUI for the Nikon Coolpix 990, 950, 880, 775, and 995 Digital Cameras. This web page also contains a lot of troubleshooting tips for your Nikon Coolpix 990. You'll want to download the "Microsoft Windows 32-bit executable (with USB support): photopc-3.05J22."

After downloading the executable, I suggest putting it in a directory that is easy to access, such as "Deaktop". Open up your Command Prompt. It should default to "C:\Documents and Settings\{username}>". {username} is your user name on Windows XP. Type "cd Desktop" to enter the "Desktop" directory. Type "dir" and hit enter to check that "photopc.exe" is in that directory. If not, you have made a mistake and must retrace your steps (or start over). If you see photopc.exe in your current directory, then you are good to go.

Plug in your camera and type the following command to enable raw:

photopc -u id "DIAG RAW"

Make sure you use double-quotes in the command above. The "-u" switch enables USB mode.

Chieh Cheng
Fri, 10 Feb 2006 18:50:01 -0800

followed you instructions. Command prompt found file on desktop. I typed exactly as below and Comand Prompt says "Was unexpected at this time"

hojo9
Sat, 11 Feb 2006 12:42:35 -0800

Is that the entire error message? If not, would you let me know the what is the exact error message? Thanks.

Chieh Cheng
Sun, 12 Feb 2006 11:30:30 -0800

Yes Chieh, that was the full message. Are you using a flash card larger then 32MB? Does photopc work with 512MB or 1GB compact flash card? I ordered a serial cable for the E990 because it doesn't look like I'll be able to install diagnogestic RAW with a USB cable. Have been using Windows for a few years and DOS before that, but this problem has got me stomped.

hojo9
Sun, 12 Feb 2006 18:57:24 -0800

I'm not sure if chaning to raw mode has anything to do with CompactFlash cards . . . I am using 64 and 128 MB cards.

You are not using a batch script, right? A quick search indicates that "Was unexpected at this time" is a common error message output by the command-line and the batch language. Make sure there is no "photopc.bat" in the same directory as "photopc.exe".

Chieh Cheng
Mon, 13 Feb 2006 11:39:38 -0800

I don't think I'm using a batch script. I searched both in windows search and Commmand Prompt for photopc.bat and it came back nil.

hojo9
Mon, 13 Feb 2006 15:18:56 -0800

Try posing your question to the coolpix990 - Nikon Coolpix 990 User's Group. It seems to be an active group. They have the same equipment you do and may have encountered the same problem you have.

Chieh Cheng
Tue, 14 Feb 2006 11:09:45 -0800

Chieh, i checked out the 990 user's forum and the dates were in the year 2000 and 2001, tried refresh and did not see any reply for 2005 or 2006 for my USB problem. I got a serial cable today and when i plug in to camera the marching ants do not movie in camera control panel they remain stationary, and the LCD monitor goes blank. Does your marching ants move when you hook up your serial cable? I checked in the BIOS and serial ports are enabled. I paid $30.00 for this serial cable from Adorama. Tried Command Prompt photopc id "DIAG RAW", and I got message "photopc" is not recognized as an internal or external command operable program or batch file. Should i download a different version of photopc to work with my win XP O/S, E990 and serial cable?
-howard

hojo9
Thu, 16 Feb 2006 15:04:27 -0800

Ok, I tried it on my 950 again tonight. The serial cable is plugged into the computer and connected to the camera. I turned the camera on, the LCD displayed the battery indicator and the ants. But the ants are not moving. I issued:

photopc id "DIAG RAW"

The ants starts marching for exactly 51 seconds. The photopc program did not return any status during that time. Finally, after 51 seconds, the march ants stops and photopc returns with the following phrase on the computer:

Starting in folder "\DCIM\100NIKON"

My serial port is set to COM1, the default for photopc. Make sure you are using COM1. If not, you'll have to tell photopc which port you are using.

Like I said earlier, when you get the "'photopc' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file." message, it means photopc.exe is not in the current directory. You need to be in the same directory as where photopc is residing. Let us know how it goes. Good luck.

Chieh Cheng
Fri, 17 Feb 2006 02:27:31 -0800

I've read these posts....and downloaded the files needed to get my old E990 to get into RAW mode... for some reason I can't get it to work? can anyone help?
I really want to try Raw for HDR images with my 990.

Rick
Tue, 16 May 2006 01:15:10 -0700

This all looks very interesting. I was thinking or purchasing a Nikon P5100, does this hack work for raw on the p5100? Cheers!

lgwhi
Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:49:05 +0000

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