Irfanview v 4.57 doesn't rotate Capture NX2 edited portrait NEF photos correctly

[TimR]

Irfanview v 4.57 doesn't rotate Capture NX2 edited portrait NEF photos correctly.


Irfanview v 4.54 does do it correctly.



NB this only applies to NEF files that have been edited in Capture NX2. Prior to the NEF file's modification in Capture NX2, Irfanview 4.57 displays portrait NEF files correctly.

Link to example file: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aun5Go97_mojgqsf...vHxyg?e=Zr4gQR

OS: Windows 10 64 bit
Irfanview version: 4.57, 64 bit
Computer: Core i7, 8GB RAM

I have submitted a bug report to Irfan Skiljan.

Thanks,
Tim.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Thank you for your bug report. It is refreshing to see one that is done correctly.

I found that if I uncheck "Try to load embedded preview image," then the image is rotated to portrait.

[Jacal]

This could perhaps be due to inconsistency in metadata, introduced by the Nikon's editor:

---- EXIF ----
Orientation: Horizontal (normal)
---- MakerNotes ----
Rotation: 270

Two raw editors do have problems with this file. RawTherapee shows the raw file correctly, but not the preview. darktable does just the opposite.

Let's see, what the developer will say.

[TimR]

Bhikkhu Pesala Glad you found the bug report up to scratch. I did follow your sticky "how to."
Thanks for the suggestion regarding unchecking "Try to load embedded preview image," unfortunately while it does correct the orientation it also destroys the magic of Irfanview for me, in that it slows down image browsing and I can't see my edits.

Jacal That is good detective work, thanks. When I first noticed the issue, I did try using exiftool to investigate the issue, but ended up corrupting the NEF metadata and making the file unusable when I tried to fix it. Possibly I could pursue that furthur, but it would be better if Irfanview could cope with Capture NX2's handling (or lack thereof) of metadata. I have thousands of images edited with it, and the thought of fixing them is not appealing.

[TimR]

I had sent a bug report to the developer, using the email address in the 'About Irfanview...' window in Irfanview, but just received a bounce message.

Is that the correct email?


Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
irfanview@gmx.net (irfanview@gmx.net)
Your message wasn't delivered. Despite repeated attempts to deliver your message, a connection to the remote server couldn't be made.
Contact the recipient by some other means (by phone, for example) and ask them to tell their email admin that it appears that your email system is unable to connecto their email system. Give them the error details shown below. It's likely that the recipient's email admin is the only one who can fix this problem.
For more information and tips to fix this issue see this article: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=389361.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

The address seems to be correct. It is the same as shown on the website. Perhaps the mailbox is full?

[TimR]

Prompted by Jacal I did a bit more investigating. After rotating images images in Capture NX 2 and then using exiftool to extract the embedded preview it appears that Capture NX2 regenerates the embedded preview by doing a physical rotation of the pixels (probably lossless). No rotation or orientation metadata (that I could see) is changed in the NEF file. The extracted preview has no orientation or rotation metadata set. So it appears that the correct handling of Capture NX 2 NEF files when "Try to load embedded preview image" is checked is to ignore any orientation metadata and just display the embedded preview image 'as is.'

Bhikkhu Pesala Ok, I'll wait a day and resend the bug report to the developer.

[TimR]

I received a reply from Irfan Skiljan to my bug report, it is quoted below. He confirms the bug.


--------------------------------------------

Hi Tim,

Thank you :-)

Yes, there is a new RAW plugin ... and some things could be slightly different ;-)

=> I will ask the LibRAW guys.
---

This seems to be a problem/case: the preview image needs rotation ... but the RAW image doesn't (according to EXIF) => the plugin reads the RAW-exif and doesn't rotate.

If you disable the Preview option in
Properties->Plugins, the RAW image will be "OK".

[TimR]

Irfan Skiljan has patched IrfanView so that it handles portrat orientation preview images in Capture NX2 modified NEF files correctly. Here is his respone to my emails. I have tested his modifications, and they seem to work well.

Hi Tim,

OK, the LibRAW guys can't help ... some things are not yet possible there.
But I found my own hack for LibRAW ;-)

Please try the current test version of IrfanView/plugins:

64 bit:
http://www.irfanview.info/test/iview64_test.zip

Unzip over your existing IrfanView files (EXE and DLLs, over version
4.57) and use it normally.
(admin rights probably needed to replace the old files)
------

Please test with your RAW files ... are there are (new) problems?
----

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

Thanks for the update. It works fine for me.