Q: I'm thinking of buying a new camera. Does anyone know if can I process RAW images from a Nikon D5100 or Nikon D3200 using IPhoto on a OSX 10.5.8?

If you look at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5371?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US you will discover that both are listed as supported.

Amazing what a simple Google search will reveal.

Allan

I think you'll note that Google found the list for 10.8, amazing, isn't it

No, neither are supported for Raw on 10.5.8

You'll need 10.6.8 minimum for the D5100

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3825

and for the D3200 you'll need 10.7.4 plus compatibility update 3.1.3

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4757

Bear in  mind that you may also need to update your version of iPhoto too.

Wish I would have noticed the 10.5.8 sooner then I would not have needed to even do the Google search because I know that 10.5.8 would not do it. Oh well have to learn to slow down and messages more carefully.

Allan

Of course, you realise we never, ever make that kind of error round here

Or at least, no more than 3 times a day...

You need to upgrade your OS to at least OS X 10.7.4 too

LN

Now that we have all of that out of the way, I would like to throw out another worm. If you truly want to get the best results from your new baby from Nikon, I would recomment that you migrate from IPhoto to Aperture.

Aperture Is the much better tool for working with photos in RAW.

Allan

Go to the App store and check it out

Aperature is about $80 I think - OS upgrades are around $20 I think but it really is ok for you to check it yourself - in fact doing so is probably less effort that posting here to ask someone else to look at the App store for you

LN

Hold on.

Aperture and iPhoto use exactly the same engine for processing Raws, but iPhoto does not have the same fine control as Aperture - hence the price difference. Think iMovie and FInal Cut, or TextEdit and Word. But you can get good results using iPhoto, so I wouldn't leap to Aperture (and a whole new learning curve) until you find out if there's something you want to do that iPhoto can't.

Your first question is: What can my Mac support? So, we need to know the specs of your Machine - the processor and the Ram

Regards

TD