Trick Aperture into supporting .dng files from unsupported cameras

Oct 30, '06 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: Anonymous

Aperture only imports .DNG files made from raw files that were created by certain cameras. Newer cameras (like my Leica D-Lux 3) may not yet be supported by OS X. Other raw-capable cameras may not yet be supported either. This hint may work for many unsupported cameras.

Aperture .DNG importing and interpretation depends on a file called Raw.plist, which lives very deep in your System folder. This file contains information about how to treat the .DNG files based on which model of camera produced the raw file.

Here's how I tricked Aperture into handling my raw photos made by my unsupported Leica:

  1. I downloaded the free Adobe DNG Converter app (ADC) from Adobe's website. Using Image Capture, I downloaded the .raw files from my camera into a folder (called RAWs) on my desktop. I created a new folder (DNGs) on the desktop, and then told ADC to convert all files in "RAWs" and put them in "DNGs". The settings 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
  2. I imported one of the .dng files into Aperture. It imports, but says that it is an unsupported image format. I looked around the metadata for the Camera Model entry. Aperture lists mine as "D-LUX 3". I wrote that down.
  3. I started up my plist-editing application. You can use Property List Editor if you have it on your machine, I expect. I used PlistEdit Pro.
  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.
  5. I found the entry most similar to the camera I have. In this case, there was a Property List called LEICA-DIGILUX 2, and the Value of that entry was Panasonic-DMC-LC1. This tells Aperture that when the camera that created the raw file is this LEICA model, treat it just like you do with that Panasonic model. The Panasonic has its own Property List with lots of data about how to interpret the raw data.
  6. I duplicated that entry. I then edited the duplicate so the property list is called LEICA-D-LUX 3. You may need to experiment with that name, but the syntax seems to be MANUFACTURER-CAMERAMODEL. Look at the other entries for guidance; note that first hyphen seems to be mandatory. I left the reference to the Panasonic camera as it was.
  7. I saved the edited Raw.plist file in its original location, closed all my apps, started up Aperture, and imported the DNGs without a hitch.
If your camera is totally different from all of the entries in the original Raw.plist file you may have difficulty. Your DNG files might look wretched in Aperture if you guess wrong about how the system should treat that raw data. In my case, I was lucky in that my Leica D-Lux 3 has very similar raw data to the Leica Digilux 2, which is similar to that Panasonic camera.

[kirkmc adds: I haven't tested this; I don't use Aperture.]

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