NEX RAW for Mac seems to be out

[ustein]

NEX RAW for Mac seems to be out.There is a new Cemera Support update and the Finder now shows NEX RAW content.

This update extends RAW image format compatibility to Aperture 3 and iPhoto ’09 for the following cameras:

Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
Olympus E-PL1
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G2
Panasonic Lumix DMC-G10
Samsung NX10
Sony Alpha DSLR-A390
Sony Alpha NEX-3
Sony Alpha NEX-5

 

[Terry]

woohoo - the good news here is that this is the first indication that Apple might be serious about camera support updates. This was a major problem.

 

[douglasf13]

Uh oh, Jono's in trouble now!

 

[wayne_s]

Uh oh, Jono's in trouble now!

Indeed!

Maybe when he buys the NEX5, he can do a nice comparison between it and the M9 using the 35 'Lux and running both through Aperture. :thumbup:

 

[Terry]

I'll never say never but Jono bought a Pentax K7 and is in lust with it for now.

 

[Mimaki]

you beauty!! downloading now

 

[fordfanjpn]

If Apple can get an update out this quickly, what's wrong with Adobe?

Bill

 

[peterv]

Thanks for letting us know. This is quite fast for Apple

Poor Jono...

 

[ken_vs_ryu]

adobe needs raw support and that aperture photo book feature.

 

[LizaWitz]

I believe Apple has always been serious about supporting RAW format for all the cameras they can where Aperture is likely to be used. The P&S RAW cameras may be lagging simply because every 3 months there's another dozen new models.

They were slow in supporting the Micro-4/3 system, as I understand it, because that system relies on software correction to fix the heavy lens distortion. This correction was proprietary or not compatible with the raw engine in Aperture at the time, and that delayed support for that platform.

At any rate, I'm glad to see all the mirrorless formats are now supported.

I expect that any new cameras in any of these formats will likely be added to Aperture within 3-6 months after release, depending on where the camera release date hits in the aperture RAW support release cycle.

So, if we get a new Panasonic at Photokina, it may not be supported until January with the next RAW Support update, since we just had a RAW support update.

Sorry if this isn't particularly useful. I know more about Apple than I do photography. Just want people to know that Apple wants to support the cameras, but operates with a lean engineering team. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that one guy is responsible for all the software development for RAW support, and that this isn't his primary job. This lean engineering team is not about being cheap- software is like photography in one respect: Can you imagine the photographs if you had 6 people looking thru the lens and moving the camera around and you couldn't pull the shutter release until all 6 agreed, or gave up and just wanted a photo, any photo to be taken?

That's how microsoft does it!

 

[Terry]

M4/3 took too long but there were other serious omissions and delays before that. Took too long for proper M8 support, high end compact like the LX2/D-lux3 were late, the A900 from Sony took way too long. There was never a point in time where I could get full camera support and zero communication about whether they would ever support the cameras. At least you knew that there would be ACR support on a timely basis.

When Aperture 3 was released with no concurrent RAW update I wrote my first email to Steve Jobs basically saying that the launch of A3 was their chance to get it right and prove that they could/would support cameras on a timely basis. At that point they were blowing their chance and just handing the business to Adobe for Lightroom. I did get a call from Steve's "people" about it.

Seems like it is getting better. Time will tell.

 

[emr]

Too bad that Apple doesn't give support to newer cameras for older software versions. I'm still running Leopard and Aperture 2.* and Apple has not and obviously will not support any new cameras. Not even P&S cameras like Panasonic LX3 (from 2008?) and Canon S90 (from 2009?).

 

[Eoin]

Too bad that Apple doesn't give support to newer cameras for older software versions. I'm still running Leopard and Aperture 2.* and Apple has not and obviously will not support any new cameras. Not even P&S cameras like Panasonic LX3 (from 2008?) and Canon S90 (from 2009?).

The LX3 & S90 support was built into the OSX 10.6.4 update AFAIK. But I doubt aperture 2 can leverage these. If I recall after Digital Camera raw 2.7 Apple stopped updating compatibility with Aperture 2.

I'm not sure how important these 2 specific cameras are to you but it may be possible to hack Aperture 2's raw decode presets in raw.plist to include decode strings taken from Aperture 3's Raw.plist.

To be honest, I haven't done this in such a long time and I'm not running OSX 10.5 or Aperture 2 any more. I think the kids have an iMac with that config and I could always try for you if it was of serious importance. It would require a couple of sample raws from the various cameras with matching Jpegs a little free time .... and we could always find out?.

 

[emr]

Thanks, Eoin. The raw support for those cameras isn't that important, but rather just an example. I do have the S90 and would probably shoot raw if the easy software support (meaning with my Leopard and Aperture 2) was there, but I'm rather happy shooting JPEG too.

 

[MPK2010]

Had a few moments last night between trips -- downloaded the Apple update and did some quick editing of a few NEX-5 RAW files in Aperture 3 -- results are very encouraging. Aperture is not the editor I'm most proficient with, but the files appear to be quite flexible in terms of DR and WB, and the default sharpness appears to be much better than with OOC JPG. Even a few with the kit lens, which I had not liked so much based on OOC JPGs, looked pretty nice with a little work. Looking forward to Adobe's update.

 

[jonoslack]

I'll never say never but Jono bought a Pentax K7 and is in lust with it for now.

He was in lust, but finding out that the 16-50 is decentred has rather spoiled the party.
Whatever. Like Terry I emailed Mr jobs about raw support and aperture. It's wonderful to see that they are now obviously taking it seriously.

Liza - Apple were DREADFUL about raw support with Aperture 2 - even for leading cameras like the Nikon D3 and D700. Less mainstream cameras like the Leica M8 and the A900 were left for months and months. Eoin was a champion at making these cameras work, and it seemed as if Apple didn't care. I take what you say about the lean team, but it's cost them a lot of users who have moved in droves to Lightroom. I'm one of those who stayed, but only because I had so much time invested in my Aperture library. Now I'm really pleased that I DiD stay, but there are no possible excuses for how slow they were (when the likes of Eric Hyman could keep Bibble up to date).

That they are supporting the NEx before Adobe is a reL first, and so good to see!

All the best