Leica DNG...

Sadly Aperture doesn't really support DNG properly, and Apple doesn't seem too interested in doing so in future.

agree. in the commercial way i can (maybe) understand apple, since leica have a not so great market share (not enough to work it?).
on the other hand, leica brand is something similar to apple brand in the computer market and i believe a close collaboration may work.
of course, as a leicaman, i hope apple will add leica compatibility soon.

Well...wait and see.
Aperture does currently support the RAW format of the Digilux 2!
So why not Leica M8. This is more a Pro camera then the Digilux 2.
I mean... this camera is currently not sold. The camera will be shipped perhaps only about end of november!

yes, waiting for m8 and possibly something more. m and leitz/leica lenses are great photo tools since 1954. aperture seems to be a great optimization "darkroom" for the digital times. they could work together with no doubt.
maybe leopard will bring us the connection.

powerbook 15" - 1.67 10.4.8

I bought the LeicaM8. the camera is fantastic for a " M " amateur . But effectively you stay with yours DNG files in apertures or in Iphoto without have the abality tu use, to manipulate the image. A friend talk about the software of Adobe "Lightroom". He tel me that Lightroom take in hands the DNG. I didnt test it. I thing it's an obligation for apple to produce a DNG plug in for aperture and for iphoto. The DNG is the future for the raw files.

If you want to use Apple Aperture to process M8 DNG's you'll need to do the following.....

1. I downloaded the free Adobe DNG Converter app (ADC) from Adobe's website. Using The settings to use for the converter (available in the ADC's preferences) were:
JPEG Preview->None
Compression(Lossless) checked
Image Conversion Method->Preserve Raw Image
Original Raw File->Embed Original Raw File->unchecked
You'll also need to point to the source M8 DNG folder and where you want to output the Adobe DNG's to
2. If you try to import an Adobe converted M8 dng file into Aperture. It imports, but says that it is an unsupported image format. You'll need to do the following...
3. I started up my plist-editing application. I used PlistEdit Pro. You can download it as a free trial
4. In the finder, I navigated to
System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/ Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageIO.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Raw.plist and copied (not moved) that file to the Desktop in case I made a mistake. I then opened the original file in its original location in PlistEdit Pro. You may have to unlock this file to allow you to save it depending on your security setup. To unlock right click and select get info, go to ownership and permissions and change from read only to read and write.
5. After opening in PlistEdit Pro I found the entry for the Nikon-D200 in the upper panel, highlighted it and clicked on duplicate. A new entry is created called Nikon-D200 2. If you click on the name and edit it to read Leica Camera AG-M8 Digital Camera, the name must be entered exactly as I have typed it here. It's probably easiest to cut and paste it
7. I saved the edited Raw.plist file in its original location, closed all my apps, started up Aperture, and imported the Adobe converted DNGs without a hitch.

What you will find is aperture is able to display and edit the Adobe converted DNG file like any other raw file. The only thing you may notice is the colour saturation will need to be increased slightly if you happen to like the what I consider over saturated C1 profile.
I find the conversions to be excellent and what's more I'm enjoying being back within the Aperture workflow.

I'd recommend keeping all your original M8 DNG's safe for use when ever apple provide proper M8 DNG support within OSX.

Sorry I thought you guys knew about this already, hope it helps.

The DMR file I can't get to work, looking at the file I can't seem to identify the strings that hold the image dimensions either before or after the Adobe DNG conversion. I suspect this is the issue with Aperture that it can't decode the image due to the missing info.

Eoin,

why did you select the Nikon D-200?

tony

It was really trial and error, the canon profiles seemed to give off red hues in red highlights and for some reason the D200 seems to be about the best I tried. Perhaps there is a better one within the plist but to my mind the Nikon-D200 is very usable and does not give red flushes in the skin tones. It is however a little low on saturation when compared to lightroom or C1 but again I think it's more accurate and you can always adjust the saturation by .20 if you prefer that level of colour and boost contrast by .05 - .10.

Eoin,

hmmmm, that may mean that there could be a profile sitting in the .plist file that would fit my k10d. I've tried all the Pentax ones that are there w/ no success, although the camera is recognized but grey'd out in the adjustments HUD.

Do you know of a way to determine what profiles might be likely candidates for my k10d?

thanks very much for replying,

tony

If you give me some info regarding your camera, crop factor and a raw file form it I'll have a go for you.

Just because you get unsupported format does not mean you can't make it work, I presume your passing it through Adobe DNG converter with the presets?.

Eoin,

camera is a pentax k10d. photos were not cropped; just raw passed through the Adobe DNG converter w/ presets as outlined. I've got a great .dng of my golden retriever, Emma. I'd be glad to send it to you if you let me know where.

Just for the heck of it, I followed the "haxie" protocol and replaced the Nikon 200 w/ Pentax K!0D. When I imported, I got all the .dng's to show up in Aperture. When I clicked to close out the dialogue box announcing the import, that's when I got the dreaded "unrecognized file" info.

thanks so much for your help

tony

send the file to eoin(at)iol(dot)ie

Thanks

Tim,

Waylay my last, I don't need the file. The answer to your problem is as follows......

Download the latest Adobe DNG converter v 3.7 not 3.6

The presets are as before jpeg preview = none, compressed lossless checked and preserve raw image checked.

In the raw.plist there are 2 profiles that worked straight off, only you can tell which gives better reproduction.

The two are ....
PENTAX-*ist D and SONY-DSLR-A100

using PlistEditPro duplicate either one of these entries and in the property list edit the duplicate name to read (all caps) PENTAX-K10D save the raw.plist close Aperture if it's open and convert your PEF files through Adobe DNC v 3.7 and import the converted DNG's into aperture. It works for me but I can't tell what the colours are like as I don't shoot Pentax.


Regards

Sorry the above post is for Anthony not Tim. 🙂