Raw file rendering problems with Canon EOS 5D in Aperture 3

I have the same experience. The image looks great for a second or two and then gets dull & lifeless.

I guess anyone that can't upgrade to 10.8.2 is out of luck then... I'm on a Mac Pro that can not run Mountain Lion.

I haven't seen any replies to this in several weeks, is there any new news?

My (sob) story:

I just did two long days of commercial photography and imported 2,500 images, and have been watching as each one looks great and then is converted into a dark green mess as the image loads up in the Aperture window. My heart is sinking and I don't even know where to start.

CAMERA: 5DMKIII shooting RAW

OS: 10.8.2

APERTURE: 3.4.1

COMPUTER: MBP Retina

I'm trying not to panic, but really, I could lose one of my biggest clients over this. It will take me extra DAYS to color correct these images. What a MESS.

If anyone can give me a clear path to at least getting the images to look like the previews I would be really grateful.

Thanks,
David

I wish I could help, but I have been working on other things the last month and not doing much photography, so I can't say if it's been fixed on my side or not... 😐

If I was in your shoes and had work that needed to get out asap I would use LightRoom to finish your job.

Well, to be honest I don't really have the time to do the migration and learn the workflow right now.

I've spent a good part of the day researching solutions, all to no avail. My hour on the phone with Apple Pro Apps support was frustrating, in that the only real solutions seemed to be deleting and reinstalling Aperture (that didn't work) and then reinstalling the OS. And that's exactly what I need right now...reinstalling the entire OS while I'm on a deadline.

If anyone else is monitoring these threads and has a suggestion (besides the above ideas) I would greatly appreciate it. I really can't understand why the program worked fine for years and now has a very obvious bug that Apple can't seem to fix, or, more accurately, doesn't really acknowledge.

For the record, my current fix is to spend a LOT more time color correcting out the green and getting the exposure right. Maybe I should just shoot JPEG from now on...

😉

Thanks for listening, and thanks in advance to anyone who has ANY idea on how to solve this truly frustrating issue.

--D.

Is there a way you can switch the camera back to default image settings? The JPEG generated in-camera, which Aperture uses as a preview before it reads the RAW data, will look different from the RAW file depending on what settings you've set in the camera.

Go back to the default settings, and try to see if the problem continues.

Did they have you do the library rebuild option?

You Quit Aperture.

Hold down Command and Option

Start Aperture and a menu comes up with 3 options.

Try each one in order.

Thanks, Brian. Did all three but nothing changed.

"Aye", I do understand that the RAW file carries the JPEG as the preview, but I'm trying to figure out why the JPEG would look brighter and far less green than the RAW file. Just doesn't make sense. The images were shot under a great variety of conditions: day, night, interior, exterior, with all different types of sources. And I've used this camera many times before with Aperture and used all sorts of different settings. I never got dark and green images after the JPEG was replaced with the RAW.

I will, however, go through the camera settings with great care on the next shoot...maybe, just maybe somehow turned on the Highlight Tone Priority and I didn't notice it. But I can't imagine that introduces a green cast...does it?

Many thanks for trying.

--D.

No, you're quite correct, Highlight Tone Priority would not introduce a dark green cast... I believe that the dark green cast comes up when there is an error reading the RAW data.

Have you tried importing photos into the fresh clean empty library?

Right, which puts me back to square one.

I have the latest version of Aperture, the latest Mac OS, the newest top of the line Mac laptop, the newest Canon HDSLR 5DMKIII shooting RAW, and I've got dark, green images. Life is good!

🙂

--D.

That is normal, when shooting with RAW files. The saved JPEG preview applies your camera settings, but Aperture is starting with its default settings.

You can create your own "punchier" preset and apply it when you import files. There are about 415 threads on this here in the forum so I'll let searching for them be an exercise for the reader.

William, hi.

Thanks for the response. I understand you are trying to help, and for that I am thankful.

However:

I am professional photographer who has been shooting RAW files and managing and color correcting them with Aperture for close to five years now with the Canon 20D, 30D, 7D, 5DMKII, 5DMKIII as well as Nikon and Sigma HDSLRs. I can tell you this with great certainty: no RAW decoder that is functioning properly is going to add a green tint to an image file. It's never happened before, and it ONLY started happening when I upgraded to Mountain Lion and Aperture 3.4.1

I've probably graded close to 50,000 images by now with this workflow and this is not the usual "embedded JPEG preview" being replaced by the RAW image scenario.

Please pardon my frustration, as I am trying to solve an issue that is affecting my livelihood, and I cannot get any satisfaction from Apple Pro Apps support. It's particularly galling given that I just dropped $3,500 on a Retina MBP and Apple won't recognize that there's a problem.

I suppose I will just have to try and reinstall the OS or see if that works. If not, my only alternative is to switch to Lightroom. Not happily--kicking and screaming, really--but I might just have to do it.

Regards,
David

Please report whether the same issue arises if you take a RAW file from this camera and open it with Preview. Preview uses the same Digital Camera RAW as Aperture, and this will separate that from any other action in Aperture.

I have the top model rMBP, and one of the latest cameras, although not Canon. (I have the Nikon D800.) This behavior is not seen with that setup.

Ernie

Yes, Brian. Same issue. Preview looks good for a moment, then gets greenish.