Why Apple Won't Support Leica M8 or Epson R-D1

[JohnnyRangefinder]

I think it is a given...

I think it is a given...

...that Apple will update it's Core RAW support to include Leica DNG files. That functionality is System-wide, and not tied to Aperture itself -- I remember a 'RAW update' a few months back that added a few more cameras to the list...

That said, it is a real drag that Aperture fans have to go through hoops to get the most out of our M8 files.

Like many others, i have attempted to 'game the system' -- importing the DNGs, trying to use Aperture's "open in external editor" feature(Photoshop) to manipulate them -- sadly Aperture will not allow this with an 'unsupported file type' -- I thought that would be an easy stop gap solution to get a tiff back into Aperture and take advantage of the non-destructive edit/versioning.

What bothers me about the various workflows I have been using lately is the redundancy -- multiple copies of the same 10+ MB files - seperate from back-ups and such -- an organizational nightmare...

Then I happened to select one of my 'unsupported DNGs' in Aperture and selected 'New version from Master JPEG' and it spit out the B/W JPEG I had shot alongside my DNG and I had an epiphinany...

What I think I have decided to do is continue my old workflow -- importing my 'doublets' into Aperture, taking advantage of its exquisite sorting, chimping and archiving features, 'suffer' using the more than respectable JPEGs for the time being until Apple DNG support drops and all my 'unsupported', rated, backed-up, organized DNGs magically reappear, awaiting tweaking.

Just my 2¢,

Sasha

 

[cdk]

I think that Apple can suck sometimes (used to work for them), but also that Apple and Leica have a similar customer profile, people who want something above average and will tolerate the issues that come with being non-majority and captive to whimsical/sadistic corporate mentalities. There's a fair amount of frustration about the M8 around here, and about Macs, but not very much talk about switching to something else.

Also, Graphic Converter does a very decent, if slow, job of converting RAW files, and can use some Photoshop plugins as well. I like its file browser, but I don't have 10k photos either. If you want to try GIMP, but want it to work more like Photoshop, you can try Seashore, which is free.

 

[borrel]

I'd be happy if I could just see something other than a generic icon with my DNG files. The awful thing about it is that with OS 10.4.8 they existed but when I upgraded to 10.4.9 they went away. It seems like Apple deliberately removed them...

Solution: Use "Adobe DNG Converter" to import your files from the camera or SD card. That way you have a generic DNG format which gives you images previewable in the Finder under 10.4.9. Leica DNG is simply not quite Adobe dng.

However, I haven't tried the dng files with Aperture.

- Børre

 

[Ted Witcher]

Is there a way to have multiple libraries in Aperture? Or is that just a LR capability?

 

[triplefinger]

multiple libraries in multiple locations on multiple disks... no problem in aperture.

 

[Ted Witcher]

How is that done, may I ask? How do you instruct the program to start a new library and do not spin up the old one (unless asked)?

 

[mark_wilkins]

Digging up this thread from a few months ago...

not sure what the status of Apple's support is in Aperture, but the Core Image library definitely supports DNG. No problems bringing my DNG images from the M8 into iPhoto.

 

[Joe Mondello]

Digging up this thread from a few months ago...

not sure what the status of Apple's support is in Aperture, but the Core Image library definitely supports DNG. No problems bringing my DNG images from the M8 into iPhoto.

I'm the OP and indeed Aperture now supports the M8!😀

 

[igo]

Aparture 1-5.4 support Leica M8, but not RD1

 

[Fin]

Apple and the M8

Apple and the M8

I'm a big fan of Apple computers and their software in general, however...

They dragged their heels with minority camera support in Aperture, Adobe got in first with Lightroom, I like the results so I'm sticking with that - for now