Make D40 NEF Files Compatible With Older RAW Software

The Nikon D40 was introduced in late 2006. However, for persons who own older RAW software made prior to the D40-s introduction, there is a "hack" of sorts that lets these older software packages work with the D40 regardless. How? It's done by making the D40 NEF files appear as if they're D70 NEF files, simply by changing the model number information (but absolutely nothing else) in the D40 NEF files.

This is especially useful for owners of Nikon Capture 4.4, an older version of Nikon Capture that, while lacking the fancy-features of Nikon Capture NX (the current version of Nikon Capture now offered), nonetheless is plentifully-featured and is much less of a computer "hog" than NX. (Capture 4.4 was last updated for the Nikon D200.) I, for one, find that Capture 4.4 runs beautifully on my 1.8 Gigahertz, 512 Meg RAM, 64 Meg Video RAM machine. By contrast, NX is horribly slow and almost impossible to use on this system of mine. Some have even said that you need 2 Gigabytes of memory (!!) for it to run decently.

Apparently, structurally-speaking, the D40 NEF RAW files are identical to the D70 NEF RAW files (both are 6mp models), the only difference being the section in the EXIF data which states which camera was used. As a result, if you could change the portion of the D40 NEF RAW files where the D40 model number is specified, and make it state the model number as being the Nikon D70 instead, Nikon Capture 4.4 will handle the D40 NEF RAW files just fine. (So will other programs, too, like the free 3rd party RAW Shooter Essentials, Nikon View 6.2.5, and the Photoshop 7 plug-in.)

There is a "hack" online that does just that--it takes the D40 RAW files and changes the section where D40 is mentioned as the camera model and changes it to D70. Voila--Nikon Capture 4.4, RAW Shooter Essentials 2006, and the Photoshop 7 plug-in will now handle the D40 RAW files.