Photos app break my Sony RAW (ARW) photos

Question

Photos app break my Sony RAW (ARW) photos

I have a Sony A6000 camera and shoot RAW+JPEG photos and import to Photos app in OSX 10.10.3. So far no problem.

If I want to edit a photo, I press "Edit" and then select "Use RAW as original" from the "Picture" menu. Photo still looks fine up to this point. Let's say I adjust the exposure or contrast or something, at this point the photo becomes corrupted and looks all distorted (see example below). There is no way to recover. "Return to original" does not help. All I can do to make it normal is to select "Use JPEG as original". If I quit and relaunch the app and then go to edit the raw image again, it is still corrupted. QuickLook is also affected by the same problem.

I know that the raw file (.ARW) is good, because if I go into folder Photos Library/Masters/... the file is good and it has not been changed after camera created it. I can also open the .ARW in RawTherapee to view and edit no problem.

Help!

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), -

Posted on Jun 28, 2015 2:28 PM

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Answer 1

Jun 30, 2015 6:37 PM in response to grayling945523

You're not crazy... I reported this bug to Apple during the 10.10.4 beta... they finally confirmed it was a known issue and a duplicate bug report. However, even with today's 10.10.4 public release, Photos Version 1.0.1 (215.65.0) is still mangling my a6000 images as well... i'm not happy about this.

There will be clues in your Console along the lines of image extent problems.

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Answer 2

Jul 1, 2015 10:12 AM in response to J Loren Smith

Update:

This problem occurs on my MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2011)

This problem DOES NOT occur on my MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

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Answer 3

Jul 1, 2015 2:03 PM in response to J Loren Smith

That is interesting. Are you running same versions of all software (OS and app)?

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Answer 4

Jul 1, 2015 2:42 PM in response to grayling945523

Yes, all else is equal. I spent 90 minutes with tech support this morning. They were especially interested since I had reported this as a 10.10.4 beta bug, which had been closed. And, of course, R&D is separate from software maintenance at Apple.

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Answer 5

poetree

Level 1

0 points

Jul 1, 2015 3:54 PM in response to grayling945523

I am having the same problem -- MacBook Pro late 2012, camera Sony a6000, RAW jpeg

at first it only did it to photos I tried to edit. My most recent import it's done it to almost all of them. Ahh!

It's also getting confused about what's from "last import" and what's old. Some of the photos showing up on "last import" in know aren't.

(Also googling help for mac "photos" is nearly impossible. The name change to such a common word is not a service.)

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Answer 6

Jul 1, 2015 3:58 PM in response to poetree

Yup, we're right there with you. Now we've gotta let the Apple internal process do what it does. They are aware of this thread as well.

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Answer 7

Tenex

Level 2

316 points

Jul 17, 2015 7:45 AM in response to grayling945523

Ironically I just posted on this (I saw other posts but not this one).

Although I also posted about Sony .ARW files I think it may not be exclusive as some Olympus RAW files I imported last week are also showing the same problem.

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Answer 8

Tenex

Level 2

316 points

Jul 21, 2015 8:00 AM in response to Tenex

As a short term expedient I've found ARW can be handled by the Capture One program from PhaseOne.

The Express version is free for Sony users, find it here

HTH in the short term ... Come on Apple!

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