Yea you have to wonder about Apple and how/when they release RAW Profiles. Not sure when the  Sony A6000 hit shelves, but looking at the D4s going on sale on March 6th, and Apple didn’t get a RAW Update until 16th May some 5 weeks after. For the Pro Photographer, this is really unacceptable, and especially if Apple is wanting to try and keep the Pro Apps and customers alike. 

You really have to wonder sometimes don’t you… . . 

I think if you look at this historically … none of the major developers have a true corner on the market. They leapfrog each other in this respect. It boils down to a circumstance of timing. A detail most folks never notice until they buy a new camera and realize it isn’t supported yet in their favorite app.

For example, with Adobe, if a new camera is released on the same date of an update to ACR, or shortly thereafter, there will not be a Adobe Camera RAW update until the next quarterly release. Their updates are calendar driven. If they happen to encounterany issues reverse engineering the native RAW file or glitches with the camera maker’s SDK … early adopters could be waiting considerable time for native RAW support. Just check out the Adobe U2U forum … it is a constant flow of “Why doesn’t Lightroom/Ps support my new camera?” … 

Conversely, Apple, PhaseOne and most other developers will release support when it is ready regardless of the number on the calendar. This is why the timing may look off if you don’t follow it closely throughout.

One other bonus is Apple, and most often PhaseOne as well, will also offer tether support on the same day they offer RAW image file support. It usually takes Adobe 4-6 months additional to offer tether support for new cameras.

In the end, none of the top providers can claim top title in offering RAW support.

I respectfully disagree … this is one of the “problems” most users only really notice is when  they are one of the effected. 

For each instance where you can point that Apple was late in offering RAW support … it is very likely you could also find a an instance where they were early to offer support.

As for Adobe being “on the ball” … it is purely by the grace of the calendar … they update ACR quarterly and will not release updates until it is scheduled … there are times when they put out RC versions that may seem like the pace of their releases are more often … but that is a double-edged sword because they are after all “Release Candidates” and they don’t always play nice in real world workflows.

I will say one thing, Sony and Fuji have not been as helpful or thoughtful in supporting third party developers. Not that Canon or Nikon are extra benevolent in this matter … they do have a better established SDK flow that makes it at least somewhat easier …