Conversion to 8 bit?

[TheSeeingEye]

Hello, I have just downloaded and installed XnView MP onto a Win 10 pro PC for the first time. I have selected a folder with 800 Nikon raw (.nef) files to browse through. When I click on the first and subsequent images I get a pop up window that ONLY allows conversion to 8 bit? There is no alternative?

Is the conversion to 8 bit only for viewing or are the underlying image files converted from 16 bit to 8 bit? If so how can I avoid this?

I have taken a look at the FAQs and was unable to find the same issue?

In anticipation of help, thanks .

cheers
Ian

[cday]

Hello, I have just downloaded and installed XnView MP onto a Win 10 pro PC for the first time. I have selected a folder with 800 Nikon raw (.nef) files to browse through. When I click on the first and subsequent images I get a pop up window that ONLY allows conversion to 8 bit? There is no alternative?

XnView software (except possibly command line NConvert?) currently only uses 24-bit colour, as far as I know.

Is the conversion to 8 bit only for viewing or are the underlying image files converted from 16 bit to 8 bit? If so how can I avoid this?

Unlikely that the original files are changed, but easy to check using a copy of a file...

[TheSeeingEye]

Thanks CDAY, I should have thought of browsing a few files then comparing then to originals. I will do that!

cheers
Ian