Is Nikon Aiming to Drop Mac Support?

Details in recent product releases have made Mac users owning Nikon photo materials upset and worrying about the compatibility for future Nikon RAW file format on Mac OS X. It started with the release of the Nikon photo editing application, Capture NX, in its version 2.0, expected for years and finally made available couple of weeks ago. While the speed and reactivity of the Windows version has been dramatically improved, it seems that the Mac version was not that much optimized. Then, beginning of this month, Nikon unveiled its new flagship compact, the Coolpix P6000. While loaded with plenty of nice functions and capabilities, a little sentences made Nikon photographers using Mac (so a large percentage of them) worried. Instead of using its standard RAW file format known as .NEF, Nikon decided to create a new format, now identified as NRW RAW. The format is not the main problem in itself, but rather what is implied:

"COOLPIX Picture Control NRW (RAW) files can only be processed in-camera. NRW (RAW) files are compatible for use in-camera, with ViewNX (Windows version only available early October 2008) or with WIC (Windows Imaging Component)-based applications. Capture NX, Capture NX2 and NEF files are not compatible with NRW (RAW) images".

The reaction from the Nikon users community was quite rapid and unanimous. The website http://heim.ifi.uio.no (http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/blog/?p=103) published an interesting analysis:

Tying NRW to WIC is a bad idea! It is bad not only because it is Windows-only (no Apple OS X or Linux support), or because it is owned and controlled by Microsoft. It is really, really bad because it makes your RAW-data subject to bit-rot... But the bad news doesn’t stop there. WIC means that when you no longer have access to the magic codec, you no longer have access to your RAW data. Today, this means that while you will soon have access to your P6000 NRW data on Windows XP and Vista (because Nikon have said they intend to produce a codec for the Windows running on Intel Pentium-type CPUs), you will not have access to your RAW data on an Apple or Linux system (even if those systems supported WIC, which they don’t), because Nikon plan is to offer the codec on Windows only. And what about the situation, say, ten years in the future? Perhaps Microsoft has abandoned Vista by then and we all use something else? ...But if Nikon is arrogant enough to not let me access my own camera RAW data except through a system that makes me a hostage of both Nikon (bad) and Microsoft (worse), I think I’ll pass on this one"

One of the most respected Nikon photographer and expert Thom Hogan posted his comment and quick review of the P6000 on his website, and made it clear that new Nikon's RAW format was a bad idea:

. Looks like I need a new Coolpix bumper sticker to add to my collection: Skip the P6000

It would not only impact Apple or Mac uses, but potentially all users of non Nikon and Microsoft photo edition application such as Aperture, Adobe Lightroom, etc. (independently of the OS). Thomas Knoll summarized the situation in a post on Adobe user forum...
"WIC is Windows only. Even on Windows, WIC is basically useless for Camera Raw/Lightroom type applications".
Seen, as the last step of the current move, Nikon and Microsoft made a common press release two days ago for announcing their partnership to enter into cross-licensing agreement. The official goal is "to further the development of each company’s current and future product lines". another part of the PR is rather vague and can already indicate how Microsoft could design a DRM-like system for our own RAW photo files:

Microsoft and Nikon have a long history of collaborating to bring high-quality, cutting-edge consumer products to the market, including wireless cameras and RAW processing technologies. The companies believe that this patent cross-licensing agreement will substantially benefit customers of consumer products including digital cameras. Both parties will be able to innovate openly with each other’s technologies, enabling new features and products to come to market.

For sure one will have to follow closely the story, but in a near future, if you shoot photos with a Nikon gear, you might be lock to Windows OS and Microsoft applications... Maybe we should already try to contact the European commission to point out the potential issue.