Mac Os does not support Raw files from camera

[MarilynNS]

Hi ,
I have discovered that the last two Mac Os operating systems, Mojave and Catalina do not support the Raw files from my Olympus OMD-M5iii despite the camera having been released for a year. Neither does Windows 10! This means I cannot view the Raw files in preview on the computer or my external time Machine back up. I can only see them once they are imported into Lr or Ps. I have the subscription version of both so have adobe Bridge and Camera Raw as part of the bundle. Which of these would enable me to import the Raw images into my Pictures folder on the hard drive and enable me to create folders so that I know which file is which picture and from what shoot? So far all my pictures have been imported directly into Lr by Year and date order. I have only just realised I should have created sub folders for each set of images so that the back up from the Pictures Folder on the hard drive has some information about all the Raw images. Nightmare! I am hoping I can retrospectively create sub folders in Lr which will help identify the images from each year. For some reason the Pictures Folder on the hard drive is not in strict date order....
A possible alternative is to download the Olympus Workspace App and use that to create a library before importing into Lr. A recent webinar I watched the author stated that she never imports her Raw files using the Lr Dng conversion but uses Add, she said the Dng conversion loses some of the Raw data! Probably not an issue for my standard of photos but I would be interested to know if anyone else has heard of this.

[SimonP]

Hi Marilyn,

I'm sure there are people with more expertise on this in the Club but trying to unpick your query this my understanding currently:

- Preview works with .CR2 files so surprised it doesn't with ORFs, however...
- LR, PS and Photos all now support ORF files
- I wouldn't recommend creating folders etc as a separate task before importing into LR, it's much easier to do so at time of importing each shoot's images
- the right hand side of the Import screen offers options to create subfolders by date, or specific named ones eg shoot location as a specific new folder for that import
- it also offers the ability create a second back-up copy to a different location eg master originals archive
- the Apple Pictures folder is a strange beast but the ordering of sub-folders defaults to the date of the folder creation, not its contents' dates
- the easiest way to restructure your entire LR Working Folder and catalogue is probably to create a new catalogue and import all the previous photos into it, with the sub-folder by date etc as you would like (AFTER you've done a full back up of course - manually as well as TimeMachine

I'd be happy to have a look at one of your ORF files to see if I could help further,

Simon

[rogerb]

Have you tried installing the latest version of Olympus workspace on your computer(s)? It is possible that it will also install Codecs that will enable your computer to read these. I don’t know that will work but it might be worth trying. If you already had this installed, you might not have installed the latest version when you got the new camera. I have no problem opening any Oly raw files in W10 and that could be the reason it works. I don’t know. I haven’t tried on a Mac.

Roger

[rogerb]

Sorry, that doesn’t work. I just tried it on a Mac and could not open the file in Finder. It did not work even after I rebooted and updated the OS. Of course, Olympus Workspace will do most things with the file that Finder would do, and you don’t have to import them as with LR. It also does some other useful things so it is worth having unless you are desperate for hard disk space.