I will be the first one to admit. Pentax is not a popular brand. It used to be a while back. But not any more. These days, the most popular brands are Canon and Nikon. Combined, they make a claim to about 70~80% of digital single reflex lens (DSLR) market, depending on who you ask.
Apple aperture is a software that can take in RAW format files and then turn them into TIFF of JPEG, or so it is claimed by the company. It also helps with organization of thousands of photos if you have that many, and you can also do minor adjustments on the photos, but not in the spirit of something like the Photoshop.
I use this software, or I should say I used to use this piece of crap. Not any more.
About 3 weeks ago, something annoying began to happen. Many of the pictures that I have taken in the past, ones that I had no problems viewing and messing with, all sudden became "unsupported image files." I can see it on the quick previews, but not on the main screen.
This goes back, partially, to the popularity of the brand. There are some specific RAW format only used by Pentax camera called PEF are apparently not recognized by Apple Aperture. Apple had chosen to neglect Pentax because, you know, they are not selling all that well. They made sure that Canon and Nikon specific RAW formats are readable. After all, it makes all the sense in the world. I am not pissed about that.
What I never understood was why files that the software had no problems with one day became all unrecognizable on another day. It isn't that I updated the software, or anything like that. Somehow my aperture files became corrupt, and no longer something that the software cannot deal with.
None of this should matter. The reason is that all Pentax DSLR cameras have the ability to shoot in another RAW format, more universal RAW format I should say, that any software even Apple Aperture can recognize. It is called DNG. SO that you know, this is a format that is widely recognized as the industry standard, originally developed by who else, Adobe, a company that Steven Jobs despises. I have never used this stupid PEF file format. But Pentax insisted, when i called them, that it was not the camera. According to them it was the software issue.
They were right. As soon as I installed a similar software called Lightroom 3 by Adobe, and those corrupted files had no problems being recognized.
I should have known better not to buy a software from a hardware company.
No matter what brand of camera you shoot with, I suggest you stay away from Apple Aperture, not just for compatibility reasons but also for the ergonomics of it. Lightroom is a better software. More intuitive.
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