RAW / NEF Files

koreasparkling

After connecting the accounts and receiving the notification that the files had been moved, I began going through albums one by one to make sure each photo/video had been moved to SmugMug successfully. My Phanfare files were mostly organized by year, so I started with 1999... and was pleasantly surprised that everything was perfect... Until I got to 2004 when I began shooting digital and have a lot of RAW (Nikon NEF) files. Apparently NEF files aren't supported by SmugMug (now I remember why I never chose them over Phanfare!).

How is it possible, with other services like Amazon Photos popping up, that SmugMug doesn't support RAW files?

Does SmugMug simply reject the raw files during move from Phanfare and not notify the customer?

Does this mean that I have to go through all of the photos in my Phanfare account and download the NEF files one by one?

evansmug

Hi there,

First, glad to hear your migration is complete! Regarding RAW files (such as NEF) - it's true that we don't currently support them. We tried to be transparent about this on the FAQ page, found here: smugmug.com/phanfare. Supporting RAW files is something we're considering for the future, but since the functionality didn't exist at the time of the Phanfare migration, you would indeed have to retrieve them from your Phanfare account. Fortunately, you'll still have access until 5/28.

We do also offer a page within your SmugMug account to access files that may not have transferred over. Not a guarantee that the NEF files will be there, but I'd check (smugmug.com/phanfare/download).

I know this causes an inconvenience for you. Given that perfect parity between Phanfare and SmugMug does not exist, our primary goal with this process was to ensure that Phanfare customers could have some option to get at least the vast majority of their files safely and seamlessly transferred over. That way you wouldn't have to start from scratch.

It may be possible that Phanfare can help you out with retrieving your RAW files in a more efficient way. I'd send them a note at phanfaresupport@carbonite.com and reference your concern. I'll also pass it along to them.

Best,
Evan

MikeLaurel

Hi @koreasparkling,

I haven't looked at Amazon or Google photos, so I don't know what their RAW offerings are (I don't shoot RAW...I'm just trying to keep our family's photos organized, preserved, and presented and RAW is one more thing that would take time that I don't have because my wife and I seem to take a lot of photos). My perception is services like SmugMug would give you a better site than the other free services, but I suppose it depends on which features you want.

Probably with the free services springing up, it's putting pressure on the paid services (for example, SmugMug rescued PictureLife's photos last year...good for SmugMug for doing something here). It seems like we're going to be left with fewer options, overall. It's kind of like iTunes for free killed the paid music organizer/player app industry and we're stuck with a lesser set of free features and an occasional paid app.

Zenfolio seems to still be around and going. They include RAW (max 2GB) with your subscription at any level. That might be an option for you to explore. You can use Upload Junction to move photos between SmugMug and Zenfolio if you want to try it out. That doesn't solve your current problem of getting all your RAW files off of Phanfare, but it might be a longer-term option for you to explore (if Upload Junction migrates your non-RAW photos well).

Although SmugMug lacks some important features I found on Phanfare, I do give the SmugMug team a lot of credit for trying to be helpful in the transition.

MikeLaurel

Also, if you go to Upload Junction, you'll see it works with a few other online services. I'm less familiar with them then Zenfolio, but they might be other options for you to explore.