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

I've been having issues too. Bummer. I have an A99 and an X-E1. The problems I'm having are different but similar... When I load ARW (Sony's RAW files) into Aperture 3.4.3 I get really weird posterization happening in the shadow areas of low light capture. I originally thought it was something going on in the A99 and got in touch with Sony about what could be going on.

I uploaded a few of the contaminated (original) files and they couldn't see what I was talking about. On a DP Review thread I started, one of the guys suggested that I open the files in ACR instead. Whaddaya know... All the contamination issues that I was having in 3.4.3 were not present in ACR/CS6.

And this isn't just with RAW files, this is also the case with some low light images I shot wiith my X-E1 last night in jpg. Same deal: Go into levels, pick up the brightness and all the shadow areas posterize and look like *&%$. And yes, thank goodness 3.4.3 hasn't re-rendered my old images; they still look great.

This is a major drag though... I think Apple has really fallen down on Aperture. Yeah, $79.99. If it isn't doing it's job showing Adobe who's boss, then it isn't worth it, especially if it's killing our work and workflow. Lightroom? I have it as part of my Creative Cloud subscription with Adobe. Anyone here made the migration? I have about 650 gigs of images.

I had this problem for some time but something on this discussion got me thinking about the firmware on my 5D III. I was running 1.0.7. So I upgraded to 1.1.3 and problem has dissappeared.

Are other Canon shooters still seeing this issue? I am in the southwest shooting right now and this issue is killing me. Out here with all of the reds in the lanscape it is difficult to get things right.

I worked on a few images wth Digital Photo Proffessional and they came out great. No amount of white balance would get me the right colors with Aperture. Iam feeling very frustrated with Aperture right now.

As much as I like Aperture, if DPP had selective sharpening I would use it instead.

I haven't done any major photo jobs in the past few months (I shoot video, mostly) but these issues definitely still persist for me, despite Apple's attempts to help me solve the problem. (They connected to me to some pretty high level engineers and techs to troubleshoot my Canon 5D RAW conversion issues.). I'll have to double check the firmware on my MKIII though, Unorder, and see if that helps. But I doubt it will. I tried everything under the sun already.

In short, basically I agree: I love the Aperture interface, but if the next major stills job I get means I have to do twice as much work to remove a color cast or get the images right, I'm moving to Lightroom. I'd hate to do it, but when you're fighting a deadline and your reputation is on the line, you've got to be sure your tools work right. And Aperture doesn't work right any more. 😟

frmrt,

As you probably already know Canon just released a new firmware version for your camera. I shoot with the 5D MKII and my firmware is uptodate, but I have simular issues. Digital Photo Proffessional does a great job of getting the color right with little effort, but lacks many of the tools that Aperture has.

I am still traveling right now, but once I get home and look at things on my home monitor I'll have to decide what I am going to do.

Thanks, Michigan, I will have to double check my firmware. Usually I get an e-mail reminder from Canon, but haven't seen one in a while.

Regarding DPP--yeah, it's great for color accuracy, but I really find the interface is virtually unusable for any sort of professional project.