Equipment

I am considering purchasing a Nikon Z9 Mirrorless but have heard that converting the NEF files in Photoshop or other editing software is difficult. Even in Nikon Capture ND the export from this software is not as a Raw File. The question is what Raw Converter works for a NEF file---thanks

I've never had any problem importing Nikon NEF (ie, RAW) files into Lightroom with my Mac.

I have a Nikon Z8 camera and have had no issues with raw NEF files. My workflow consists of importing them into Lightroom for basic editing, then using Photoshop or other apps if needed for additional editing. If you don't send the image outside of Lightroom, you can export the raw file to the destination of your choice using the Lightroom Export page. If you send the image to Photoshop, you can designate the file to be exported as a TIFF which, I believe is considered the equivalent of a raw file. I hope this helps.