Computer not downloading photos correctly from camera
Okay here is the thing. I have a Nikon D3100 which I've had for a year or so and I couldn't be happier with it but today when I went to load my latest photography onto my laptop (HP laptop) it only downloaded some. It downloaded half of the photos fine but the other half of them it didn't. They just came up as NEF File (.NEF) and had no information on them what so ever. I've never experienced this before and it's extremely frustrating. Could it be that I recently downloaded a printer to my computer so now the download process is different? Also just in case it helps I have a Sony card reader and a Kingston SD card.
Are you using a usb card reader? If not get one and this problem will be gone.
Assuming you are using an USB port on your computer then the only things left are the memory card itself. Or the card reader. Some people are rough inserting a memory card into a reader. That is why I don't use the readers found in the store that prints my pictures. I order them on line!
1.memory cards do not last forever and are the weakest link between the card reader and the memory card. I would suspect the memory card first. Certainly you have more than one memory card, so take some practice shots on a different memory card and see it that loads properly.
2. If it does load properly, then the memory card is at fault if not then the memory card reader.
But before you go running out to buy a new card reader. Try rebooting your computer. Especially if you own a PC! This is one of the reasons I switched to a Mac. Much less grief!
NEF is Nikon's raw image format. It is the highest quality format that the camera can output, but it can't be used like JPEGs without additional processing. Windows won't detect NEFs as images until you download the NEF codec:
http://www.nikonimglib.com/nefcodec/
You can also download ViewNX, which lets you turn the NEFs into JPEGs or TIFFs:
http://support.nikonusa.com/...il/a_id/61
If you have Photoshop CS5, Lightroom 3, or the latest GIMP, these can work directly with NEFs. The Adobe DNG Converter can also be used to convert NEFs to other formats if you have an older version of Photoshop or Lightroom:
http://www.adobe.com/...moid=HTENB
I personally recommend sticking with raws, which is one of the big reasons to use DSLRs over compact cameras.