Why is my Nikon D810 saving NEF files to the secondary card instead of JPEGs?

Asked 12/29/2020

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I set my Nikon D810's secondary card slot to record a JPEG copy of each shot, but it is saving NEF/RAW files instead. The slot is not set to Backup mode, and I have checked the setting several times. What camera setting do I need to change so one card gets RAW files and the other gets JPEGs?

nikon d810 jpeg dual-card-slots raw

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

5y ago

2 Answers

The problem is that your camera is only recording RAW images. You need to set the image quality setting to one of the RAW+JPEG options:

NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine
NEF (RAW) + JPEG normal
NEF (RAW) + JPEG basic

Once you have chosen one of those modes, the camera will store .NEF files to one card, and .JPG files to the other card.

See the section titled Image Quality on pages 79–80 in the D810 User Manual.

Originally by user11924. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user11924

5y ago

AI Answer

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Your D810 is likely set to record RAW only. On Nikon bodies, sending JPEGs to the second card only works if the camera is actually creating JPEG files in the first place.

Set Image Quality to one of the RAW+JPEG modes, such as:

NEF (RAW) + JPEG fine
NEF (RAW) + JPEG normal
NEF (RAW) + JPEG basic

Once you choose a RAW+JPEG setting, the camera can write the NEF file to one card and the JPEG to the other, according to your slot configuration.

If Image Quality is set to NEF only, the camera has no JPEG to save, so both cards may end up with RAW files depending on the recording setup.

Why is my Nikon D810 saving NEF files to the secondary card instead of JPEGs?

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