Adobe DNG and a question about Lightroom 2

[Kyle D]

Hi Everyone,

I have been a very happy Nikon Capture NX and now a Capture NX2 user and love the program to death for the results I can easily obtain with it. I've also set up a nice workflow with it and manage to do 95% of my post work in it.

Unfortunately, it has a serious lack when it comes to database/organization tools/abilities. So, I've been looking into Lightroom 2 for it's database/organization features.

With the above in mind, I was wondering if you right metadata to an NEF using LR2 if it gets saved in the NEF or as a sidecar xmp file? Also, how do the results of the NEF processing in LR2 compare to the output from NX2?

Finally, how many people convert their files to the DNG format and use it? Can it be used like a regulat NEF format? Does it allow you to change everything as if it was an NEF file? Does anyone convert the files to DNG and then backup the original raw files as well as the new DNG files?

So, if someone could enlighten me to these things that'd be great.

Thanks!

[300m]

Kyle
I have been using LR for over a year and an half now. Started with ver 1.2. I shoot raw and bring my NEF files in to LR and do an instant conversion to DGN. I do not use the sidecar files but let LR convert right to the DGN format. All the metadata is saved to the file just like NEF. That is one of the options. I have a D200, 10MP. Files in DGN are smaller than NEF. I backup my originals, but my primary focus is on my converted files once I bring them in. I have 3 internal drives and 3 external drives. I use an 300G FW800 external for the NEF files and two 750G eSATA drives for backup with two 1TB internals for the photos, plus 500G fof my system drive. I also backup my Cat every 3 mo to DVD's

[Art Scott]

Like 300M said.....I to use LR2 (started with v1) and I bring my raws into LR and change to DNG before starting to work on them.......I also bak up my original files.....currently using 3 -1tb drives first drive has all photo files - raw-converted DNG- processed to either tif or jpg and the other 2 -1tb drives are my back ups.........as I fill the main drive I will get 3 more drives each has a start date and end date......as long as one knows what date a photo or wedding was taken it is easy to find....................