Great to finally see a 10.5.2 update, but Aperture cannot read Canon G9 files...alas...

Paul, are you sure? The Apple article lists the Powershot G9 as a new format for 10.5.2, and AFAIK, Aperture leverages the same tools that the OS does to open different RAW formats. Have you tried opening a G9 file after installing 10.5.2? I'm installing it now and will post if for some reason 1Ds MkIII files don't work.

There's one more update, the graphics update after the 10.5.2 update that you should install as well to get it to work in aperture.

Well, just FYI, it works fine for me on my MacBook Pro by just installing the 10.5.2 update, but perhaps on some machines, you need both. Thanks for the info, Enoch.

Bad news. Still don't work - both previously imported image AND newly imported (post 10.5.2 upgrade) image.

It works in finder/preview/quickview though. But I'm not sure if that's what we're really after here.

http://flickr.com/photos/ptam/2258376123/

Excellent news, lets roll the dice and hope an aperture update is next.
So, question. I have not updated my 10.4.11 production machine yet to 10.5. Does the RAW support availability become available for 10.4.11 users through a different update or are we now FORCED to upgrade to 10.5 just to get RAW support? I have updated my Macbook Pro, but my core production machine (MacPro)I am still waiting as I have application stability concerns.

Thoughts???

Aperture DOES NOT support Nikon D300 raw files with 10.5.2 and Graphics update for Leopard! My D300 file will work with Preview and iPhoto but NOT APERTURE! What is up with this? This is disappointing. Look at the comments on the Aperture Discussions at Apple.com.

Kevin

Thoughts? Yes, this is absurd. Promises, promises, waiting, more waiting and eventually delivery... that doesn't actually work. Isn't it time that Apple break their vow of silence on this and actually let us know what is happening?

So %^%$%^& frustrating.

On my iMac 24" (Intel) Aperature (1.5.6) does not recognize the new formats. Apple is still leaving us in the dark. Note: I tried both updates, if you like iPhoto, it does work.

D'oh, apparently I spoke too soon! I had some Photoshop files that Aperture imported and handled properly first. Even with the graphics update the images from my 1Ds MkIII are coming in as unsupported. Unfortunately I don't have other cameras to test with, so I don't know if this is true for the D3, G9, etc., too (sounds like it might be true for the G9). Again, sorry about jumping the gun--I was always under the impression that if the OS could read a RAW file, Aperture could, too!

Any idea of what the graphics update does?

I can confirm that even after the 10.5.2 and graphics updates, that D300 files appear as "Unsupported File Format" in Aperture 1.5.6. I suspect we're still a minor Aperture update away...

Maybe this is just a hint that a new version of Aperture is around the corner?

This is not great news if there is no updates.
There are too many fence walkers, and Adobe might be happy!

I'm thinking the same thing Sebastian. More often than not, Tuesday is release day from Apple. Maybe this sets the stage for an Aperture release tomorrow?
Do you think they'd have a soft launch for a new release or might it be the event that's rumored at the end of the month?
Anyone else care to weigh in on this one.

There's about a 0.1% chance that the end of month event is for Aperture, given how Apple has been treating the pro photographer community over the last couple of months (and the user base is too small anyways).

I think it's laughable that anyone would be waiting for camera support after this stomach-punch, as the Aperture team has shown zero commitment to the professional photographer lately. Joe Schorr's lies on the discussion boards only reinforce this notion.

Good luck to those who stay...

I can't believe this app is over two years old and pictures still turn black and gray while I'm in the middle of an adjustment. I'm not a pro, but if I were there's no way I'd still be putting up with this. I'd have bailed long ago.

Canon PowerShot G9 images are not supported by Aperture 1.5.6 (yes, on Mac OS X 10.5.2), BUT ok in iPhoto.
We need more fix.

Well, I guess I'm relieved to see that others are having the same problem as me (Aperture + D300 = Nada). And of course pained that we're all still in this same old boat. Where is our breaking point? Is this it? Frankly, I'm giving Apple until the end of the week to clean up this mess, after which point I'm switching to Lightroom and done with it. Why must the single piece of Apple software that I care most about be the ugly stepsister. Argh!

This really burns me. I wish I would have read this first because I just went though all the trouble of upgrading to 10.5 then the update JUST TO GET D3 SUPPORT.

My love for Apple is quickly turning sour. I understand waiting but not being kept in the dark.

With the way this has been handled I now am expecting the salt in the wound to be a 2.0 release and and then slam us with a $149 upgrade.

PERHAPS, Perhaps, perhaps there is a new version of Aperture which while have its own RAW decoder, separate from the OS.

This would be the way Adobe's Lightroom works, and would free up the Aperture team to support new cameras regardless of where the OS is at.

I hope this is the case because:

1) I don't want to upgrade to Leopard yet.

2) New camera RAW support from Apple has been inexcusably slow compared to that from Adobe.

Patrick, I think that's a very good theory. I have to say that I'm kind of surprised that there's no fall-back to the OS so that if you have an older version of Aperture (one without a certain type of supported image) on a newer OS (like 10.5.2), Aperture could leverage the OS' RAW support if it's newer before throwing up "Unrecognized format." Although I will admit I 100% thought the 2 were coupled together (and am pretty sure they used to be)--I was very surprised to realize that the only images it did load were my PSD files and not my CR2s!

The guys at Apple are smart and work hard, but they are a company that depends on keeping secrets (which I agree 100% with for a variety of reasons, as frustrating as it can be sometimes). Hopefully there's something really great in the works, which is why it's been so quiet.

Josh, I hope you're right in your hopes, but... we're losing time and MONEY. 'Cos it's a Pro app, hah? Not just Apple-addiction. Hate to say, hate to do, but I gave up waiting and start looking for other software.

A pro app just means that it's extra important to take the time to do things right rather than doing them fast--if people don't like it when they first use it, they're less likely to use it or even give it a chance in the future. I don't know why adding extra RAW support has taken so long, but as Joe even pointed out, they understand the frustration.

making the raw decoder a seperate thing from the os (and the app) would be a smart idea. this way, aperture can give the user the choice of using aperture's decoder or others like ACR. smart. i'm hoping for aperture 2.0 soon.

Hasselblad but no Sigma SD support?

I have come to the conclusion that a 2.0 product is no longer enough to keep Aperture alive. Even a 2.0 product will be a niche product now because Apple has lost their lead in market.

A company the size of Apple has to generate enough revenue from a product to warrant the marketing, engineering, etc. resources necessary and it should be obvious Aperture is not making it and is on life support.

Think about it how many copies of Aperture does Apple sell ? 5000? 10,000 20,000 ??? I have no idea but I would guess that Apple makes more in one day on the iPhone than Aperture has made in its entire life.

Its sad but it may be too late for Aperture even if the next release has all the bells and whistles.

I am in the same boat as Josh. I thought (still do) that if the OS supports it, Aperture should work too. But now I'm thinking... the means that an app like preview would have to support more than 8 bits per channel. The newer cameras support 14 bits. I seriously doubt most apps actually take advantage of these extra bits. I open up a few RAW pics from my G9 in PixelMator which as of today can suddenly open such files. When I try to manipulate a single pixel there is no way for me to specify a color with any more granularity than just 8 bits per pixel... that is, colors still only go from 0 to 255 (integer values) if it were 12 bits.. it should go from 0 to 4096 or perhaps 0 256 with a few decimal places. But that is not the case.

What am I trying to say? I think that most apps simply use the standard APIs to load up the image. The frameworks automatically figure out how to read the image in and return an working version of the image that has been truncated into some usable form (most likely 8 bits per channel, 32 bits total if you throw in an alpha channel). Aperture HAS to work differently in the sense that it needs to use all available bits.. otherwise RAW files would hardly be better than high quality JPEGs.

So that is my theory, and I propose a little experiment to understand this better. Unfortunately I can not perform the experiment that I am about to propose because I lack the necessary equipment (i.e. older camera). But if someone is willing could you try this. We need a camera that has full RAW support in aperture, any camera that works should do.

Look for a picture you know you had to do some tricky adjustments to get right in aperture. Export the master and try adjusting it's colors using preview. To be fair, I guess you should only use adjustments in Aperture that are also available in preview. I suspect that you might get better control in aperture than in preview. I believe that the difference should be that aperture is working with more information than the average app out there.

Finally... I think there is something work with the system apple has set up. In most circumstances, the operating systems (windows, linux, OSX, whatever) provides the APIs to write drivers. But the drivers themselves should be written by the vendors themselves not the OS provider. This is not always the case (just ask the Linux community) On the other end of the spectrum applications are just responsible for interfacing with the layers of abstraction the OS provides, and not directly with the driver. So usually the developer of the app needs to say current with the OS's capabilities, the Hardware provider needs to provide up to date drivers for it's new hardware, and the OS is responsible for keeping the glue in the middle current with the state of the art.

Apple, it seems to me, has done a great job by providing such a layer of abstraction. Application developers just need to point an NSImage (assuming a cocoa) object to the correct URL fro the file and poof! somehow the OS gives it a nice image to work with. Why the is it Apple's responsibility to keep the drivers updated for all cameras out there? Like the Linux community, apple has to spend considerable effort of its own to figure this out. Why Doesn't Canon provide their drivers, and Nikon their own and olympus, Hasselblad, pentax, sigma... whatever do the same?? For that matter, why should Adobe have to do the same??? it seems that the platforms (Apple, Adobe, AFAIK Windows doesn't even try to deal with RAW images, I don't know about Vista so I might be wrong), should have their APIs defined, and the camera builders should provide at least generic code to decipher their files.

I think apple should concentrate on the OS and APIs, the aperture group should concentrate on Aperture, and each camera manufacturer keep their own damm drivers up to date, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel with a whole suite of tools (ImageBrowser???) that are not worth using.

Sorry about the humongous post...

Now, I get why the raw update been delayed.

My interpretation:
The developers has realized they needed to do some changes in the graphic code. That serious changes that the calls from the applications had to be changed.

In that situation they had to choose between making one raw update, after the change, or two, before and after the change. They most likely expected they would finish the programming faster and there selected option one.

Apple has already updated the iLife and some other applications, so Aperture is due to be updated as well. The question is if the update is going to be a minor update, as iLife, to support for the changes, or a larger update.

The question is if Apple has learnt from this failure of satisfying their customers needs and expectations? The answer we will see when they release support for the lastest announced cameras as sony 200, 300, 350, Pentax 200, 20, Sigma SD, Canon 450... If that will take more than a month after the official release people on the edge of the technology photographers will choose another application.

Apple has to understand that the average dslr camera the latest year has made a great leap and becoming as good as the film cameras. People has been waiting for years on Nikon and Olympus to release cameras as is as good or better than Canons. We will see a similar jump within the next 18 months, now when Sony has decided to make a fullformat sensor as is target to compete with Canon 5D (if I got it right).

One question is if the 10.5.2 is supporting Canon small raw, crop sensor D3 raw, compressed Sony raw? That could be the major change, since the previous version only seem to support one raw format per camera.

I believe the will be many raw formats in the cameras in the future. The standard advanced amateur cameras, and up, will be fullformat sensors. And they will have several raw formats. One for fullframe/full number of pixels, one fullframe/reduce number of pixels to reduce the noise at high ISO, and one cropped frame to support APS-C lenses or when shooting with tele and increase the photos per second.

I have not worked with DNG format, but it could be the solution for solving the problem with unsupported cameras. Maybe we should argue as much with Canon, Nikon Panasonic and Olympus, as we do with Apple just now? Pentax is using DNG on their cameras, but I don't know if Aperture is supporting it via raw or DNG or both.

What a wonderful piece of marketing for Adobe, provided free of charge by Apple. Along the lines of "I'm an Aperture, you're a Lightroom. Apple doesn't give a damn about its Aperture customers, Adobe has been looking after its Lightroom customers properly."

Time to switch.

This totally blows the whole thing about RAW processing within Aperture being totally within the Core OS.

Time for Joe Schorr to provide another update before the masses head for the Lightroom hills in droves. I've already switched and committed myself to Lightroom going forward now.

Unfortunately I must confirm that my D300 files are read by iPhoto but not by Aperture 1.5.6. I have installed the both update: 10.5.2 and Graphic Update 1.0 and the D3330 was not supported neither before nor after the Graphic Update. Shit! :(

The list of newly supported cameras in 10.5.2 doesn't include the Olympus E-3, which puts me 99% out the door.

Aperture 2 is out, it is a $99 upgrade. Looks like the RAW processing has been taken out of the Core OS for Aperture. Unfortunately you can't download the upgrade, it has to be shipped.

I was wrong. You can download the trial and buy just the serial number online.