Camera Support - Olympus e620

I'm with you in this frustration on raw support for the E-620. I bought mine in June and Apple, are you listening, we're still waiting for your help with YOUR software! Let's go!

Apple, are you listening,

Not here they're not. As I’m sure you recall from your careful reading of the Terms of Service you agreed to when you joined the Apple Discussions, this is a User to User forum. Apple aren’t here. They don’t promise to read anything here.

Aperture menu -> Provide Aperture Feedback is the route to Apple.

Regards

TD

Don't hold your breath. I used to shoot Olympus, and the wait for raw support was truly shameful. Waiting 6–9 months wasn't unusual.

—Andreas

Why do you suppose that is? Lack of staff devoted to Aperture? Low priority given to professionals who use the latest equipment? Aperture loses customers over the relatively minor problem of not supporting camera RAW files. That's just dumb.

This lack of support is shameful.

I spent an hour in the Birmingham Apple store last week. Saw an excellent demo of Aperture and like a fool I assumed that it would import .orf files from my Olympus e620. Paid £120.00 for it and it's completely USELESS!

The fact that it doesn't import my RAW files is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!

Why should I have to mess about with an intermediate step of converting to DNG by using a FREE piece of software from Adobe to enable this CrApple (not free) software to work?

Adobe? Aren't they a major competitor of Apple for photo imaging software?

Can someone from Apple please comment on this as a matter of urgency. Come on Apple. You used to be a good company - now we're all rapidly becoming rows in your spreadsheet who don't matter.

Pete.

PeteSinclair wrote:
This lack of support is shameful.

I spent an hour in the Birmingham Apple store last week. Saw an excellent demo of Aperture and like a fool I assumed that it would import .orf files from my Olympus e620. Paid £120.00 for it and it's completely USELESS!

The fact that it doesn't import my RAW files is an ABSOLUTE DISGRACE!

Why should I have to mess about with an intermediate step of converting to DNG by using a FREE piece of software from Adobe to enable this CrApple (not free) software to work?

Adobe? Aren't they a major competitor of Apple for photo imaging software?

Can someone from Apple please comment on this as a matter of urgency. Come on Apple. You used to be a good company - now we're all rapidly becoming rows in your spreadsheet who don't matter.

Pete.

Here's what you do:

1) Go back to the Apple store with your copy and (if you have one) your laptop. And your E-620.

2) Book a Genius, and get them to try and do it. Take lots of time. Lots and lots.

3) When it does not work, get a refund.

If you think you are a line on their spreadsheet, then don't make Apple a line in yours.

Then buy Lightroom.

Other than overpriced Lightroom, other alternatives which may be suitable are Olympus Studio and Bibble. If needs are somewhat modest, the free Picasa does a reasonable job. There are enough good RAW apps out there that Apple needs to get on the ball.

Note to PeteSinclair: Please submit feedback to http://www.apple.com/feedback/aperture.html so that Apple will see it.

Thanks all.

Sound advice.

I've submitted feedback via the product feedback route and will be heading back to the Birmingham store soon.

Meanwhile, I'm downloading an evaluation copy of Lightroom to see if this does the job. If it does, then it's another sale that Apple has lost.

Pete.

In addition to those options, I hear a lot of good things about LightZone. Their support for Olympus RAW files is supposed to be especially good.

Yet another choice that has timely Olympus RAW support is Capture One by a company called Phase One that is based in Copenhagen. I have not tried their software but it gets excellent reviews by photographers who especially like its RAW converter over Aperture's.

I have an E500, E1 and an E30 and import RAW from them into Aperture OK. Am I misunderstanding what you want to do?

The topic was started by an E-620 owner who cannot import RAW files into Aperture. Of the 8 current Olympus E-series digital cameras, half do not have Aperture RAW support: E-450, E-600, E-620 and E-P1. Except for the E-600 which was just introduced these cameras have all been available for around a half year and are supported by Lightroom and others. It took Apple many months to support the top-of-the-line E-3 when it came out and they never supported the now discontinued E-10/20 or even the C-5050. Nor are Olympus owners the only ones neglected by Apple. I have to wonder why Apple pushes away potential customers with such slow or nonexistent support?

Why can the files not be imported? Are you suggesting that the RAW file is in a different format in each camera?

Surely an Olympus .ORF file is the same format regardless of the model of camera being used?

Roger

Surely an Olympus .ORF file is the same format regardless of the model of camera being used?

Actually no.

A Raw is not a file like other files on your computer. It's a dump from the sensor of your camera with virtually no processing. As the sensor on every model is different, or has different firmware, each model's Raw must be catered for individually.

So, every ORF is different depending on the model of camera being used. Same with Nikon's Nef and Canon's CR2 etc etc etc

Regards

TD

A RAW file is the data that the camera's sensor chip recorded and its electronics converted to a digital photo format. The file also contains many settings specific to the camera model. Every camera model even from the same manufacturer is somewhat different in this regard. It's something of a hassle for software manufacturers like Apple to keep up with all the camera models and RAW formats but it has to be done.