mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

While I agree with you I wouldn't characterize the reason as lame. Some people are very risk averse and never buy anything online. I think the OP's approach to converting his nef files is inconsistent with being risk averse and puts his images at greater risk.

traderjohn Loc: New York City

"For me the much safer alternative is to not give my credit card authorization to large company databases that will get hacked."
Do you buy anything online? Do pay for everything in cash? All of your purchases are in cash?

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Oh, it's pretty lame - I find it hard to believe that in this day and age there are many people that have no credit or debit cards, and do all of their transactions in cash, face to face. If he is risk averse, then what on earth is he doing on a computer that is connected to the internet?

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I can't argue there. Its difficult to exist in a modern industrial society without accepting some risk. But people do it to varying degrees up to and including the extreme step of living off the grid. My own brother, a physics professor and researcher for a large university NEVER buys anything on line. Any while he has a credit card for occasional use, he generally pays cash for almost everything. I'm just the opposite. I buy everything online and use cash relatively infrequently. But, I'd rather not characterize people's decisions to manage their finances within their comfort zone as lame. I'm concerned that this thread is turning into an OP bashing because of his simple statement. I hope we can refocus on what I consider a flawed process for converting his nef files to dng.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Because it adds two steps: copy and delete the hard drive copies. That is what I did at first.

But, as I’ve noted, you can set up dng converter to deposit the files in a transfer folder on the hard drive. Then you only add one step: emptying the temp folder.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

g

There are different risks. I do photography for fun. It wouldn’t bother me to lose one card worth of images. The hassle with cleaning up after a hack is of much greater concern to me. Risk has two components: probability and consequences.

I didn’t suggest I don’t buy things online. But I never authorize them to keep my credit card information on file. The big difference with the Adobe deal (and other subscription services) is that you are authorizing them to keep your credit card in their database to charge it each month.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

I don’t mind alternative views. I have compassion for the infantile name callers and just add them to my ignore list. Responding only encourages them.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Yes, no, no. What gave you such ideas and how does that add to this thread?

It is an entirelly different matter to make one time purchases than to authorize a company to keep your credit card information in their database. Large company databases are prime targets for hackers. I know because I have had several with some of my data hacked, including for example Mariott and the Federal Government Security Clearance and Target databases. None had my current credit card data.

And, for what it is worth, I have never had a card or file transfer operation corrupted. So I consider both probability and consequences of getting my credit card data hacked from Adobe as much higher than data loss.

Oh, yeah: https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425215,00.asp
Sorry you need to copy that link for it to work. It describes an Adobe hack that lost three million customers credit card data.

“Adobe said Thursday that it recently suffered a massive security breach which compromised the IDs, passwords, and credit card information of nearly three million customers.

"Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders," Brad Arkin, Adobe's chief security officer, wrote in a security alert.”

dino21 Loc: McAllen, TX

Agree with you 100%!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

One way to reduce this problem is to have a credit card with a very low credit limit.
My card has been "used" several times over the last decade or two. Each time I contacted the bank and they flagged the charge, investigated it, and cleared it after about 4 weeks.

I should also point out that there's a movement out there to get rid of cash as a valid way to pay. Some places already have instituted that.
It is my understanding that, while cash is legal tender in the US, there is no federal statute that requires a business to accept cash as payment. A business is free to create a policy on payment that can (1) refuse to accept large denomination bills; (2) refuse to accept coins; (3) accept exact change only (or more, without refund); (4) require payment by check or credit card. I'm not familiar with the details, but if a business has such a policy I would expect that it would have to be displayed to customers so they know the rules before trying to purchase something.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Agreed.



My wife was an archivist. She beat into me that I should always save the original.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

That is an OK idea. But for me it only transfers the risk. Since retirement I travel a lot in the RV for extended periods. I set up recurring billing for charges with no alternative, e.g. power and phone, because there isn’t an alternative and I don’t want to miss a payment. So those payments happen automatically. I don’t do it automatically for my active credit card because I want to check the billing each month. Caught an incorrect billing for $139.75 Friday. Got it cleared up yesterday.

So I’d have to either set up automatic payment of the small limit card, or do it manually each month: another step.

Airlines have only accepted credit cards for inflight purchases for a long time. But they aren’t supposed to keep your card info in a database once the transaction completes. Although transactions can be hacked too it seems much less frequent than large Corporate databases.

vbhargava Loc: San Diego

You could run the DNG converter directly on images stored on the card but write them on your computer or an external disk (where ever you store your lightroom images). This way you are not writing anything back on the memory card. Then you can import the images into lightroom. You can now plug back the card to your camera- no need to re-format and continue shooting.

IDguy Loc: Idaho

Yes, that might work. Will Lightroom copy the folder images if I do that, or just point to that folder?

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Lightroom does not copy the images at all*. It only points to their location. If you want to back things up you have to be sure to include that folder. The backup built into LR ONLY backs up the catalog.

* On import, LR has the option to copy files from the source to a given folder. If the original folder is on your hard drive, you wind up with two copies of the files on your hard drive. Redundant.