Unreadable RAW files?? Help :)

rdrum76 · 08-03-2008, 08:58 AM

Somehow I am unable to load RAW files with iphoto

JPEGS load up

RAW DNGs load up

But no RAW PEFs

help

Stevopedia · 08-03-2008, 09:19 AM

PEF is Pentax' (Pentax's? What' s the posessive of something ending with "X", anyway?) proprietary RAW format. That means that it may or may not be as available as DNG, which is an Adobe standard, much like PDF is.

What I'm driving at is that since PEF is proprietary, it's possible that iPhoto simply can't read PEF. I'm (unfortunately!

) not a Mac user, so I can't be of any more help. Sorry.

stevebrot · 08-03-2008, 10:04 AM

As per the previous post, much depends on whether iPhoto supports your camera's RAW format. I went to Apple's Web site and true to form, the specifications for iPhoto were not highlighted. I did manage to find this in their support section.

Apple - Support - Downloads - Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.1

If you are using iPhoto '08, that update might help.

Steve

Kemal · 08-03-2008, 10:19 AM

I found it helps to just shoot dng rather than pef. I would always get unreadable or unusable pefs that would be filled with pixels and saturated with the wrong colour. I used the same sd card to shoot dng's on and have almost never had compatibility or picture problems.

jeffkrol · 08-03-2008, 10:43 AM

Originally Posted by stevebrot

As per the previous post, much depends on whether iPhoto supports your camera's RAW format. I went to Apple's Web site and true to form, the specifications for iPhoto were not highlighted. I did manage to find this in their support section.

Apple - Support - Downloads - Digital Camera RAW Compatibility Update 2.1

If you are using iPhoto '08, that update might help.

Steve

Be aware that it may not IF that was released prior to the K20 firmware update....

bdmarsha · 08-03-2008, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by jeffkrol

Be aware that it may not IF that was released prior to the K20 firmware update....

This is currently the case. Apple released an update to the Leopard (10.5) operating system to add support for the newest Pentax camera RAW files, but this apparently will not work with the latest firmware for the K20D. Hopefully, a future update from Apple will fix it. I have my K20D set to record both JPEG and DNG; I have no problem with the DNG files in Aperture (2.1.1) or iPhoto '08.

bd

Rodney9 · 08-04-2008, 12:49 AM

I am using 10.5.4 and iPhoto 08 7.1.4. (371) plus my upgraded firmware K20D and iPhoto uploads and opens my raw pef files all ok.

But I'm looking for something more reliable and better than iPhoto, it keeps losing the library and is so slow.

davemdsn · 08-04-2008, 08:41 AM

iPhoto will read RAW files because the RAW support is built into the OS and even Preview will open them, but iPhoto is not optimized for editing them. I highly recommend checking out Aperture. It does a much better job of handling RAW files. Download the free trial.

Rodney9 · 08-04-2008, 10:12 PM

Originally Posted by davemdsn

iPhoto will read RAW files because the RAW support is built into the OS and even Preview will open them, but iPhoto is not optimized for editing them. I highly recommend checking out Aperture. It does a much better job of handling RAW files. Download the free trial.

I would love to use Aperture but it will not run on my 2 1/2 year old G4 Mac Mini.
Any other photo organizers ?

*RollsUp* · 08-06-2008, 12:55 AM

Originally Posted by Rodney9

I would love to use Aperture but it will not run on my 2 1/2 year old G4 Mac Mini.
Any other photo organizers ?

Lightroom 1.4.1 works pretty good on my October 2005 rev PB G4. I don't know where you can download it though since LR 2 is out, I've read that it is slower than LR 1.4.1 on some machines.