After several years with Lightroom, I finally made the decision to convert to Aperture (don't know what took me so long since I've been a Mac-only-user for more than 20 years…). I have several cameras from both Canon, Panasonic and Olympus to suit my different needs. I shoot RAW+JPEG and convert the RAW files to DNG when importing to LR. Pretty hassle free, so far, at least when it comes to storing my files.
I have a fairly big and well organized library in LR reaching back to 2003. As I convinced myself to make the switch to Aperture I did some testing to find out which way would be the best way for me. I found that Canon RAW (DNG) files smoothly made the move to their new environment, BUT (and this is a major BUT) RAW (DNG) files that originates from Lumix GF1 and Olympus XZ-1 won't work at all. Aperture tells me “Unsupported File Format”, despite the fact that Apples RAW Support Page says that both those two cameras are supported. Way back I decided to choose DNG because I got the impression it was a future-safe format that would work forever… I'm not that confident anymore…
I haven't tried importing directly from the cameras yet - probably that'll work just fine. For now, my concern is more about all those old DNG files in LR that seem to be incompatible with Aperture.
Please anyone, is there something I'm missing, maybe a workaround or do I just have to face the fact that I'll be stuck in the world of Lightroom for the rest of my life…?
/Patrik :)
Patrick,
Aperture should be reading DNG files no problem; in fact that’s been the work-around for years for new camera owners who’s RAW files weren’t yet supported by Aperture (using the Adobe DNG converter prior to importing).
How did you import the photos that were in LR? Can you import a single DNG file into a new Aperture library just to see if that single image works? If you can post a DNG and link to it here, I’d be happy to download it and see if I can view it on my Aperture.
Of course I’m assuming you’re fully up-to-date on your software, not that it should matter for a DNG read though.
@PhotoJoseph
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Hi Joseph. Quick reply - thanks :)
Some answers to your questions. First of all, YES I’m all up-to-date. I always am :)
Tried several ways of importing: the import button and selecting file from there, the Import Folders and Projects command from the menu and finally drag and drop to the viewer window. All with the same (poor) result. JPEG’s show, DNG’s from Canon show, DNG’s from Panasonic and Olympus don’t show.
Started a new library and tried all of the above. Didn’t work either.
You say post a DNG. Don’t really have anywhere I can post files. Any tip or can I e-mail? Typical file is 12 mb large.
Let me know. Getting kinda desperate around here…
/Patrik :)
Patrick,
Sorry for the delayed reply this time around. I stopped getting notifications of new postings for some reason.
You can post a file here, under the MORE > DROP BOX menu (you have to be logged in to see it). Follow the instructions there on posting and naming the file so I can find it, then let me know here.
thanks
@PhotoJoseph
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Hi Joseph, Please, don’t apologize. I don’t mind waiting a few days extra. I’m really just happy there is someone that finds my problem interesting enough to look a little deeper into it. Thanks again :)
Anyhow, I posted a zipped folder containing both a DNG and a JPG of the same picture and named it all according to your instructions. Both were imported to Lightroom (directly to camera) at the same time. The JPG works fine in Aperture, the DNG does not.
Looking forward to hear what you find out.
/Patrik :)
Patrick,
Interesting thing you pointed out in the note in the ZIP file that I may have missed earlier—you said that the DNG file was created by Lightroom on import? I wonder if that’s the problem. I am unable to open the DNG in either Aperture or even in Photoshop CS4 (v.11.0.2). Do you have anything other than Lightroom that will read this DNG?
Adobe has a stand-alone DNG converter on their site. I don’t know, but will it convert the other way? That’d be an interesting test, too.
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph,
OK, I did an experiment. Imported a new RAW-photo from my Lumix into Lightroom twice. First time I let LR convert into DNG. Second time I kept the original RAW-file (.RW2). Then I exported both to a folder on my Desktop and imported them into Aperture. Same as before: DNG don’t show, RW2 works fine.
Hadn’t thought about it, but I also have Photoshop CS4 so I tried to open the DNG with that, which of course didn’t work for me either. No program but LR seem to open those DNG’s…
Downloaded the stand-alone DNG converter from Adobe and tried converting different files from different cameras. Same result (Canon: OK, The rest: Not OK).
A brief summary:
Importing from camera to Aperture works fine for all of my cameras (three different brands).
Importing from camera to Lightroom while keeping the original RAW-format (.CR2, .RW2 etc) also works fine after importing the same file into Aperture.
Importing from camera to Lightroom converting to DNG (or using the stand-alone DNG converter) screws it up for all but the RAW-files that come from my Canons.
In my opinion LR (or in fact Adobe DNG conversion) must be the bad guy here. The only way to open/read those DNG-files seem to be in LR, since PS CS4 does’t work either. Can’t really figure out why Canon files work and Lumix/Olympus don’t. All of them are supposed to be supported according to both adobe and Apple. Anyone???
Fortunately most of my files come from my Canons. And since I always shoot JPEG+ RAW I have JPEGs from my other cameras that works just fine in Aperture. And if I, for some reason, would need a DNG file I’ll just use LR instead of Aperture. So I’m not going to dig much deeper into this. I’ll just go ahead and import all those Canon RAW files into Aperture and use the JPEGs from my other cameras. It’s not what I wanted but it’s a work-around that’ll be a good enough compromise.
Thanks again, Joseph, for taking up your time with this. Let me know if you (or someone else) run into an explanation (or solution, even better) some time in the future…
/ Patrik :)
Patrik,
Thanks for doing the extended research. That’s very helpful and good to know. I’ll see if I can get someone at Apple to have a look at this and make some sense of it.
The problem definitely points to Adobe’s DNG converter, especially since Photoshop can’t even read the DNG! That’s pretty pathetic, IMHO.
The problem could end up being somewhere in the OS, I suppose. I wonder if the DNG is readable on Photoshop on Windows.
Does the DNG converter go the other way; will it remove the DNG wrapper and give you back the original RAW file? If so, I wonder if you could write an Applescript that you could run from Aperture to open the DNG in DNG Converter, and reimport the RAW file back in its place. If it’s possible, I have a guy that could write that up for a small fee if scripting isn’t your thing.
@PhotoJoseph
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Joseph,
Adobe DNG converter just seem to go one way. Once DNG, always DNG - what a bummer… There is an option to include the original RAW-file when converting to DNG, but I didn’t check that box when I started using LR a few years ago. Mostly because all the manuals said it would work perfectly anyway and including the original file would take up more space on my hard disk. And in my opinion I don’t think that’s the problem here. Again, files from Canon seem to work no matter if they are converted to DNG or kept in their original format.
By the way, I’m on OSX Lion, if that’ll help with your further research.
/Patrik :)
I’m so glad to see somebody else with this problem. I have a large Lightroom catalog of files from Nikons, Minolta and Fujifilm S5 Pro, all converted to DNG format on import or as a batch process. I really believed that I would be future proofing my collection.
Of these files, all except the S5 Pro files, can be read fine in Apple RAW conversion applications (iPhoto,Aperture, Snapseed etc.). The S5 Pro files load but display as a jumble of pink triangles. (Example here)
I’ve tried everything to fix these, even using Adobe DNG convertor with Linear demosaic set.
Nothing works and, until I read this thread, I thought I was the only sufferer. Given that it affects different cameras, I guess the conclusion that it’s Lightroom to blame is correct. Then again, I haven’t got a windows machine available to test there.
I looked at the image and recognized some past foes. I had this same image when I had selections saved as alpha channels. Once i deleted the alpha channels the images had correct thumbnails and previews. My experience may have nothing to do with your issue, so please forgive.
davidbmoore@mac.com
Twitter= @davidbmoore
Scottsdale AZ
Fraser,
DNG topics have come up before here and I don’t think they’ve been universally solved. On thing I don’t know is if anyone has contacted Adobe to ask them about the apparent issue.
I did a quick scan of our forum here and came up with a few links that you may want to read just to get deeper into the DNG and Aperture discussion, including an article by Scott Bourne on moving to Aperture from Lightroom. Here you go:
• Renaming files on import problem
• How to Convert From Lightroom to Aperture (by Scott Bourne)
• RAW vs DNG
I don’t expect an answer in any of these, but every bit of info helps. And I would definitely reach out to Adobe.
@PhotoJoseph
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