Andrew,
If you don't want to extract previews, then don't.
Some people do - for them, it is possible.
I'm not pushing a feature request or a plugin - if you think I am, then you're wrong.
PS - jpeg encoding is better than one might think despite being "8-bits". The reasons for it are beyond the scope of this thread, and I don't understand it well enough to explain anyway, but we all have vast experience with jpegs: great as a final image output format, but not as an original editing format. But neither I nor anybody else in this thread has been suggesting to edit the jpeg preview in Lr instead of the raw file. Quite the contrary in fact. The purposes for the jpeg are:
* so you have a rendered copy, which you may have worked hard for, before you re-edit the raw in Lr (or in case you never do). That copy can be emailed, posted to the web, used in a slideshow, printed, etc...
* to compare your Lr editing to. (imagine you spent the last 5+ years honing your NX2 skills, and now you're a newb in Lightroom. Can you not also imagine you'd want to compare the results you're getting in Lr to those you got in NX2?)
Me? I wouldn't bother to export tiffs from NX2. Huge files, and if I were going to do anything serious with them in Lightroom, I'd do it with the raw files anyway - a disk drive full of 16-bit pro-photo tiffs is not something I would want. If that is what you would do, then, well, that's your prerogative..
Why wouldn't I just re-render all the jpegs in NX2 instead of extracting previews? Uh, because they're already available in the raws, rendered - faster to just pull 'em out, and good enough for my purposes. Again, if not good enough for your purposes (or you don't like using plugins), that's OK with me, and that's why NX2 has the "save as jpeg" feature - knock yourself out...
I'm not saying I would never go back to NX2 to save a tiff, but only in exceptional circumstances - not for comparing Lr edits or general use purposes..
Definition of the term "accurate" (in regards to jpeg encoding): looks the same as what you'd see when viewing a 16-bit tiff, or the raw file..
Rob
