new camera raw support in 10.5.7

sent feedback to Panasonic today. I'll post their reply when I receive it.

This comes back today as really no surprise. I'll remember their lack of Mac focus next time I'm buying a camera. Feel free to contact Panasonic below about their exemplary service. 😉

Thank you for your inquiry.
Panasonic has provided software that will allow you to view the RAW
photos taken on the camera. Unfortunately this software is not Mac
compatible. We cannot determine what it will take for Apple to make
compatible software for RAW photo format. There are a number of different
formats of RAW photos. You may be able to find a 3rd party software that
is compatible with Mac and can accept and edit RAW photos. We hope this
information is helpful to you.
Thank You,
Panasonic Consumer Support
In our effort for continuous improvement, we would appreciate your
evaluation of the service we have provided. Please take a minute to
complete a brief four question survey by contacting us at:
http://www.pstc.panasonic.com/epartCC/survey.asp?k=11274655330896490012009051514 5506077

... what do you (and Panasonic 😉 ) mean by "view Raw photos" on Mac?

SilkyPix ships with every LX3 and CaptureOne with every D-Lux 4. both are working just fine on Mac OS X!!!

you don't need a viewer, on Mac OS X because... it's the OS taking charge of it and... that's exactly the issue we are discussing here! 😉

... igrok-mac... it's not as easy (and, btw, quick) as dragging a file or a folder!!!
and, once more, there's never, in Aperture, a visual correspondance between how stuff is organized inside the app and how it's spread on your storage system!

ok, ok... I'm still thinking "the old way" so... let me say it again: I already have 10+ years of digital photos organized "the old way" (since that was *the only way" prior Aperture and LR were introdiced 😉 )
moving my archive to Aperture means re-doing all the work I have already done in years unless, maybe, I import *one by one* my folders and subfolders to make a "Project" out of every sub-sub-folder or... is there a way to just create, on import, a single project and have all my archive's structure automagically translated into albums/collections?

instead, when I first imported in LR my archive, all I had to do, as I said, was "File/Import to Catalog" plus... planning a night out with my love and my friends 😉

if you could point me, please, to a simple way to re-create my archive *as it is*, first, I might (the day my D-Lux 4 will be supported!!! 😉 ) re-consider Aperture, otherwise... sorry: I can't afford re-doing years of work *from scratch* to go... "the new way" :-p

oh, btw... the lack of D-Lux support in Aperture means also that... if I had (thanks Apple!) been forced to stay with jpgs... almost certainly I would have been mistaken into selling this little jewel right-away: it's jpgs are just fine but it's raws are stunning!!! 🙂

This Aperture v Lightroom debate is elderly headwear. It's a simple preference: Do you want to work with your Photo files: Use Lightroom you'll have plenty of file management to do. Want to just work with your Photos: Use Aperture and a Managed library.

As to the argument that the organisation in the Aperture Window is not related to the organisation of the files - well that's rather the entire point. Not to be limited, to have more organisational opportunities than just the Finder. There are - literally - a dozen ways to access your files with or without Aperture running.

Regards

TD

... Terence... you are missing (or deliberately ignoring 😉 ) a non-trivial point: already having an "old style" archive!

if one starts from scratch, you're right: it's just a matter of habits and preferences
(letting apart, as per the original topic... Apple's "responsiveness" ;-p )

... ok... ok... a second, very patient 😉 , try at Aperture and yes: importing a top-level folder re-creates sub-folders as Albums

so... I may, now, give Aperture a second chance. the day my beloved D-Lux 4 will be supported and if someone has a collection of great plug-ins as Jeffrey's ones for LR!!! 😉 :-p


Apple: do you mind, please... 😉

Dude, is there something wrong with your left 😉 or right 😉 ? Seems one of your eyes is blinking quite a bit throughout this thread. Might want to see a virtual eye doctor. 😉

... and you haven't seen my pictures, yet, dude!!! :-p

igrok-mac: it's exactly as in LR but with Aperture lacking the master files management section.
in LR too, if you want, you can just contract the folders structure to the top-level one (or just have one), forget about it and only use collections, albums, smart albums and all the rest exactly in the same way. but whenever you want/need... it's there! 😉

now Apple has 30 (... 29 ... 28) days left to add support for my camera, otherwise... :-p


btw... as far as I have "played" with aperture so far... sharpen and noise reduction, two essential tools for those who work with raw files, are inexplicably "hidden": one has to re-add them to the standard tools on a per file or per album base (still not played enough, nor RTFM still) =:-/

The 8.2 and the DLUX4 RAW conversions are completely different. Leica makes the 8.2, the DLUX4 is built by Panasonic in Japan with Leica firmware. I have heard from the Leica rep that the DLUX4 RAWs contain some distortion correction for the fixed lens that make it significantly more complex than most RAWs to decode.

Always being on the hunt for a compact that I would enjoy, I have gone through a bunch. Got the G10 when it came out, not bad but too big to be called compact, and lousy low light performance.

I bought the Panasonic LX3 in January, liked it much more than the G10 both size, lens and low light performance... then just 2 months later after borrowing one from a friend, I switched to the Leica DLUX4. The switch was simple, the jpegs coming from the DLUX4 are demonstrably better than those from the LX3, hands down.

The other thing that I still find wild is that I cannot make the RAW files from the DLUX4 look as good as Leica's in-camera processed jpegs. I have used Leica's supplied Capture One, as well as the Adobe products, and the conversions are lacking in vibrancy, sharpness and contrast compared to the DLUX4 jpegs.

The processed RAWs in the Adobe products are huge, due to Adobe's interim solution for decoding these files.

Bottom line, after owning the G10, the LX3 and the DLUX4, IMHO the DLUX4 is the best compact camera out there today. The f2 lens is amazing, the camera is comfortable and has all the features a serious photographer needs when I don't want to tote my D3 and kit.

I have shot RAW + JPEG in anticipation of Aperture support, I just hope once Apple has figured it out, they will be able to at least duplicate the output of the current Leica in-camera processing.

Kevin: LightRoom can read (and display and process etc) D-Lux 4 raws with no need to convert them to dng. *If you want* to convert them then their size is increased by 3x, but there's no need to!

Adobe's "ad interim" solution only applies to dng conversion: raws are perfectly readable, and usable, as they come out from camera 😉

Wake-up, Apple!!!! :-p