How to Download Your Nikon D5300 Photos with ViewNX 2

Built into ViewNX 2 is a downloading tool you can use with your Nikon D5300 called Nikon Transfer 2. Follow these steps to use it to transfer pictures to your computer:

1. Attach your camera to the computer or insert a memory card into your card reader.

   Depending on what software you have installed on your system, you may see a dialog box asking you how to download your photos. If the window that appears is the Nikon Transfer 2 window, skip to Step 3. Similarly, if you see a Windows dialog box that contains the Nikon Transfer 2 option, click that option and skip to Step 3.

   If nothing happens, travel to Step 2, which shows you how to launch the Nikon Transfer 2 software if it didn't appear automatically.

   

2. Launch Nikon Transfer 2 (if it isn't already open).

   Open Nikon ViewNX 2 and then choose File-->Launch Transfer or click the Transfer button at the top of the window. (If you use a Mac, the window decor is slightly different, but the main controls and features are the same.)

3. Display the Source tab to view thumbnails of your pictures.

   Don't see any tabs? Click the Options triangle to display them. Then click the Source tab. The icon representing your camera or memory card should be selected. If not, click the icon.

   Thumbnails of your files appear in the bottom half of the dialog box. If you don't see the thumbnails, click the Thumbnails triangle to open the thumbnails area.

4. Select the files that you want to download.

   Click a thumbnail to highlight it and then click the box in the lower-right corner of the thumbnail to select that image or movie for downloading. Here are a few tips to speed up this process:

   • Select protected files only. If you used the in-camera function to protect pictures, you can select just those images by clicking the Select Protected icon.

   • Select all files. Click the Select All icon.

5. Click the Primary Destination tab to display options for handling the file transfer.

   

   Specify these options:

   • Primary Destination Folder: Open this drop-down list and choose the folder on your computer's hard drive (or external drive) where you want to put the pictures.

   • Create Subfolder for Each Transfer: By default, the program creates a new folder inside the storage folder you selected. Then it puts all the pictures from the current download session into that new subfolder. You can either use the numerical subfolder name that the program suggests or click the Edit button to set up your own naming system.

   • Use Subfolder with Same Name If It Exists: If the folder shown in the Create Subfolder box already exists, select this check box to avoid overwriting existing photo files. The program automatically assigns new filenames to the downloaded photos if the folder contains images that have the same filenames as the downloading ones.

   • Choose Subfolder Under Primary Destination Folder: If you don't want to create a new folder but put images into the existing subfolder under the primary folder, select this option. For example, if the primary folder is Pictures and the secondary folder is Nikon Transfer 2, your photos go into that Nikon Transfer 2 folder.

   • Don't Use Subfolder: If you choose this option, pictures go into the primary folder.

   • Copy Folder Names from Camera: Select this option to retain the folder structure of the memory card. That folder is placed inside whatever folder or subfolder you select via the other options.

6. Tell the program whether you want to rename the picture files during the download process.

   If you do, select the Rename Files during Transfer check box. Then click the Edit button to display a dialog box where you can set up your new file-naming scheme. Click OK after you do so to close the dialog box.

7. (Optional) Set a backup destination.

   This feature enables you to download photos to your primary drive and to a backup drive at the same time. To set up the dual transfer, click the Backup Destination tab, select the Backup Files box, and then use the other panel options to specify where you want the files to go.

8. Click the Preferences tab to set the rest of the transfer options.

   On this tab, you find more options that control how the program operates. Rather than cover all of them, which are explained quite nicely in the program's Help system (access it via the Help menu), here are three critical options:

   • Transfer New Files Only: This option, when selected, ensures that you don't waste time downloading images that you've already transferred but are still on the memory card.

   • Delete Original Files after Transfer: Turn off this option. Otherwise, your pictures are automatically erased from your memory card when the transfer is complete. Always make sure the pictures really made it to the computer before you delete them from your memory card.

   • Open Destination Folder with the Following Application after Transfer: You can tell the program to immediately open your photo program after the transfer is complete. Choose ViewNX 2 to view, organize, and edit your photos using that program. To choose another program, open the drop-down list, choose Browse, and select the program from the dialog box that appears. Click OK after doing so.

   Your choices remain in force for any subsequent download sessions.

9. Click the Start Transfer button.

   It's located in the lower-right corner of the program window. After you click the button, the Process bar in the lower-left corner indicates how the transfer is progressing. What happens when the transfer completes depends on the choices you made in Step 8; if you selected Nikon ViewNX 2 as the photo program, it opens and displays the folder that contains your just-downloaded images.