Converting .nef files to .jpg

[LizzieL]

Does anyone know how to convert .nef files (images taken using 11 year old Nikkon DSLR) to .jpg file, without buying some new software.
I have tried opening the nef files with Microsoft photos, then saving as jpg, but this keeps the same file size (ca 15 Mb) but shrinks the picture size and drastically reduces quality.
With my old laptop which used Windows Vista, I had Photoshop, which did the conversion nicely. But my Photoshop disc won't work on Windows 10 laptop.

[Midase]

Plenty of online converters. Here is just one https://www.freeconvert.com/nef-to-jpg

[LizzieL]

Plenty of online converters. Here is just one https://www.freeconvert.com/nef-to-jpg

thank you, that works much better than the way I was trying before. And it doesn't need a drop box account or cloud storage. It has changed the colours a bit, but I can always tweak them a bit.

[arthurk]

IrfanView (free) appears to open .nef files with its Camraw plugin (part of the standard plugins set), and it also has a batch conversion feature.

I don't have any .nef files to test it with, but if it worked, I personally would prefer to do it that way rather than online.

[LizzieL]

Thank you, that seems to preserve original colours better. File size is a bit smaller than on-line method, but good enough for what I need. And much quicker.

[arthurk]

Glad that worked - IrfanView often seems to tackle more or less anything you throw at it.

I've also discovered another free option for you - FastStone Image Viewer, which in spite of its name is also an editor. For general editing I prefer this to IrfanView, but I've just checked what it can do beyond my usual requirements. It also opens .nef files and has a batch converter, so for an outlay of precisely zero it might be worth trying too.

[Ray T]

.nef is a “Raw” format so files can’t be directly converted to .jpg without a certain amount of tweaking which is why you’re seeing differences in colour.

It’s not a case that you need to find the application which gives you the best colour. Raw files simply haven’t had the same amount of processing as .jpg files and are used specifically by those who prefer to decide for themselves rather than let the camera make a decision for them.