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Level 1

5 points

Experiences with Nikon D750 and Aperture

Hi,

a few weeks ago I bought a Nikon D750 – my camera before was a Nikon D700.

All in all I am disappointed about the quality of my photos with the D750 in Aperture – they’re all 14bit RAWs without compression. The problems e. g. are:

- Photos shot with the D750 at low light conditions at home are too much colour saturated - especially there’s too much red in it.

- Contrast is much too high.

- Dark areas are often black without details.

I looked at many of these photos in Adobe’s Lightroom. The RAW intepretation seems a bit better (especially regarding contrast and dark areas) but has other problems (e. g. with skin tones).

I made a few comparision photos with my D750 and the D700. All in all the D700 makes a much better job in home light conditions. You can see more details in the photos, colour saturation and contrast are better.

Can anyone confirm these problems? At the moment I am not sure if it is a problem of the D750 (which is reviewed everywhere so excellent!) or of the CameraRAW interpretation of Apple. Will future Camera RAW updates mabye have better interpretations?

Regards, Ulf

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), Aperture 3.6

Posted on Jan 3, 2015 9:11 AM

38 replies

Feb 28, 2015 4:00 PM in response to Uelef

FYI, the adobe 1998 color space profile is larger and more comprehensive than the sRGB profile settings in your Nikon body. In any case, your concerns are with the RAW file convertor that the Apple OSX applies to your RAW d750 imports into Aperture. Do you have the latest OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite upgrade applied to your platform? Also you can easily change the Aperture 3.6 Raw fine tuning adjustment brick to suit your import tastes for your d750. Also note that you will get different RAW rendered images on import if you use the latest version of Lightroom or Aperture. My suggestion is to shoot your d750 with RAW/NEF files on one card and JPEG files on the other card. Import both your RAW and JPEG files as originals into Aperture and you will see what the Nikon algorithms have baked into your JPEG imports, which you can then try and duplicate in Aperture or Lightroom with your RAW/NEF files.

Mexberry

Level 1

4 points

Feb 28, 2015 5:28 PM in response to Uelef

Hi,

As a fellow Nikon user( D610), I suggest that you try www. nickonians web site. It offers all kinds of advice especially for Nikon users and is free.

Malcolm.

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 9, 2015 3:34 AM in response to Mexberry

I was hoping that the a few days ago published Camera RAW Update 6.03 changes the way, Aperture and iPhoto handle the RAW files of my Nikon D750. But unfortunately there are no changes in interpreting the RAW files …

Mar 9, 2015 9:20 AM in response to Uelef

Since Apple has now killed Aperture, you might want check the support being offered by other vendors such Adobe with LightRoom, Phase One with Capture One and DxO.

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 9, 2015 9:28 AM in response to Allan Eckert

I gave them all a chance, but as long as Aperture is working, I will use it, because it’s the program with the best workflow.

BTW: It’s not a problem of Aperture but of Apples Camera RAW update, which shows the same problems with iPhoto and the new Photos.app (that is still beta). I reported the problem to Apple via feedback, maybe some-one will look into it …

Mar 9, 2015 9:44 AM in response to Uelef

Both Adobe and Phase One do their own RAW conversion algorithms. I don't know what DxO uses. So they might not have the same problem as Aperture.

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 9, 2015 9:53 AM in response to Allan Eckert

I know that - I tried all demos and I own Lightroom. But nevertheless: I stored until now all my photos in Aperture and I like its workflow. My decision after Apple killed Aperture is:

I will use it as long as possible. If it won’t run anymore I will use Photos.app for photos where normal retouching will be enough. For photos with more needs I will work with Lightroom – supposing that Apple will overhaul the RAW interpretation for Nikon’s D750.

Maybe Lightroom 6 will have a better workflow and convince me of switching to it. But until now I do not like Lightroom (andn Capture One) very much.

Mar 9, 2015 10:11 AM in response to Uelef

Do you have a site from which one of these RAWs could be downloaded for testing? I have had excellent result with the RAWs from my D810, btw.

Ernie

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

Mar 12, 2015 9:34 AM in response to Ernie Stamper

Sorry, at the moment I got no way to share a RAW file …

To illustrate one more time the problem with RAW files of the Nikon D750 in Aperture (and iPhoto and Photos.app either):

The left image detail is from Aperture - there’s no way to get rid of the red-brown areas. The right image was developed with Lightroom 5.6. Everything is fine. The dark areas are grey and black.

I do not understand why no-one at Apple sees these problems and why there was nothing corrected in Camera RAW Update 6.03.

Mar 12, 2015 11:46 AM in response to Uelef

Your Aperture jpeg 'optimal fine' import and your Lghtroom v5 jpeg import are both in the ballpark. And you can easily match and duplicate these versions with different software image processing adjustments - Always a good learning exercise.

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

May 20, 2015 1:20 AM in response to torreypines

Meanwhile Camera RAW Update 6.04 was published. Although someone from Apple contacted me to have a look at the problem one month ago, nothing was changed. RAW interpretation of my Nikon's D750 files are still not acceptable – in Aperture, iPhoto and the new Photos.app, because all three apps use the same Apples Camera RAW interpretation. Photos are oversaturated in colour, show ugly red-brown areas in dark parts of photos and photos have generally too much contrast, especially in dark areas.

Lightroom CC makes a much better job but I want to use iCloud sharing – so it's no good alternative for me to use Lightroom in the future.

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

Jul 13, 2015 8:16 AM in response to Uelef

During the last months I was in contact with Apple's support team and I sent a few photo samples to them. Now Camera RAW Compatibility Update 6.05 is out, I noticed that problems in interpreting Nikon D750 files became less. They really worked on it. But regardless these first improvements there are still problems, especially regarding dark areas which tend to have no details. Transitions between dark areas and black look ugly. Lightroom CC makes a much better job.

I sent two more samples to the support team - I hope there will be more improvements in the future.

Nov 26, 2015 5:40 AM in response to Uelef

Uelef,

I got a D750 earlier this year and have been disappointed about how the pictures look like on a Mac. I set it up from first use to take 14-bit RAW lossless compressed with Adobe RGB selected as the color space. I changed two settings before a short trip earlier this weekend and the results are dramatically different. After switching to 12-bit RAW lossless compressed with sRGB color space surprisingly the output from the camera improved drastically at least when viewed from a Mac.

I came across this discussion thread after searching for how the Mac handles RAW file. I don't believe this is a camera issue but more likely how OS X is handling NEF files (or maybe an inability to handle all the data in more complex files?). Did you learn anything else on this topic since your last post?

Thanks

Jan 2, 2016 10:40 AM in response to Uelef

Hey there,

I also noticed quality issues with my D750 in the raw-files (later exports), but in the blue-colors. First I thought I exported a too compressed version of my images & went back to the original RAW file (lossless compressed, 14-bit, sRGB; particular image shot with iso 100 at good conditions) in Aperture and noticed the problems there as well. So next I just looked at the RAW-file in Previewer -- same problems. I continued to look for the latest 'Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update (6.17), but the issues remain.

I am a bit frustrated by this at the moment.

Cheers,

-H

Uelef Author

Level 1

5 points

Jan 2, 2016 11:03 AM in response to im_nobody

Did you try other RAW converters like Lightroom? Maybe something with your D750 is wrong if the problem persists in other programs …

After contacting several times the Apple support team they improved RAW converting for the D750 via RAW Compatibility Update – nevertheless the results oft my RAW files with my Nikon D750 in Aperture are not as accurate as in Lightroom CC. With my old D700 both programs did a good job.

Well, it makes no sense to use Aperture anymore since Apple buried the program. I'm still disappointed that Apple stopped developing Aperture and gives us instead of Aperture a consumer product like Photos. Aperture's workflow was always better than the one in Lightroom (it still is), but meanwhile Aperture's capabilities of developing photos (e. g. noise reduction) are much weaker than those in Lightroom.

Experiences with Nikon D750 and Aperture