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Aperture lack of DNG support unfortunate

It's difficult to understand why Aperture does not offer support for Adobe DNG files.


DNG/RAW files are being used by some camera manufacturers that I work with, and they contain a wealth of metadata as well as the broadest range of image data, including "altitude", which is now very useful in my professional work.


This lack of support has forced me to go back to Lightroom, and to reconsider that application as my primary media catalogue and editing application.

Posted on Apr 10, 2014 7:56 AM

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Posted on Apr 10, 2014 8:21 AM

Aperture Menu -> Provide Aperture Feedback

37 replies

Apr 10, 2014 9:09 AM in response to geomon

hey geomon....


I have been working with DNG files from a camera that will not import into Aperture although the same files import into Lightroom.


I believe that Aperture has some limitations to it's DNG support.


As I test, I took a jpeg file (created by the same camera and which would import into Aperture), opened it in Camera Raw, and then Saved it as a DNG.


Aperture would not import that file reporting an "Unsupported File Format."

Apr 10, 2014 10:25 AM in response to Rich Hayhurst

A JPEG saved as a DNG isn't really a DNG file.


It is true that Aperture doesn't have "comprehensive" DNG support. It doesn't support linear DNGs, and it doesn't support some of the newest DNG extensions that Adobe has added (lossy compressed DNGs, etc.). I don't know the exact version of the spec that Aperture supports.


But do note that DNG is a lot of things. It's a fairly comprehensive spec that has many versions, with lots of different things. Aperture does support many DNG properties, but not all of them. If you want the latest, greatest, most comprehensive DNG support, then Adobe will have it, as it's their specification.


I personally just use the RAW files that come out of camera - whether they be NEF, CRW, CR2, or DNG. I _never_ convert my camera RAW files into DNG, because that actually strips some data (in my case, focus point informatin from CR2 files that Aperture can display, is removed from the converstion to DNG). There are many long-winded discussions on the "value" that DNG provides, and I don't subscribe to them. It provides no legay-proofness today that's unavailable other places.

Apr 10, 2014 10:37 AM in response to Rich Hayhurst

Rich - surprise, surprise!. Always something not quite the way it is documented with this paraticular app (rant).


I very intentionally keep my reliance on AP3 to straightforward DAM work with .cr2 as raw. I was working with another fellow just recently who keeps dng as his archive format and AP3 took the images and metadata.


If a camera uses DNG, and that camera manufacturer supplies software, the software will support DNG. However, the DNG implementation off the camera may be supported only via that sofware and not generically. Since the camera manufacturer is not named, I cannot be more specific. Other software from other developers may not be aware of how that camera manufacturer implemented DNG. Since Adobe is the developer of the the DNG format, I would expect them to make sure they support virtually every combination of implementaiton of the standard. It would seem Apple provides only a partial solution. So, not much more to say except to revert back to Terrence Develin's suggestion.

Apr 10, 2014 4:34 PM in response to Keith Barkley

Keith Barkley wrote:


The RAW format is irrelevant. Each camera needs to be supported, even if they all have the same RAW format. For example, Canon probably has a dozen cameras that use the 18MP APS-C sensor and raw format, but they all had to be supported individually.

It's not irrelevant as the DNG file format is something of an industry standard developed by Adobe. For example, Aperture could read the DNG files from my Pentax long before Aperture supported the camera itself. Now for something like a Canon, which uses a proprietary RAW format (CRW I think), Aperture must support the camera before those RAW (CRW) files can be read.

Apr 10, 2014 4:40 PM in response to William Lloyd

I would prefer camera RAW as well, but the camera provider does not offer it, only offering DNG support. My guess (a bit cynical I might add) is that Adobe is paying them for the "privlidge" of only offering DNG, that is not supported by Aperture. And conversely, I would guess that Apple is not going to chase every iteration of DNG that Adobe creates.

Aperture lack of DNG support unfortunate

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