The more I know, the less I understand.  I realize that I do not know the roles played by the camera, operating system, and Aperture in converting the sensor data into an image.  What does what to what … so to speak!  If I can see my raw images with Preview on my mac, can I just move those images to some other editing program that does not include a RAW conversion?  I thought I knew the answer.  

Yes, but the file is “baked” on import. It’s not like with Aperture where you can do lossless edits utilizing the RAW pipeline, you’ve essentially turned it into a JPEG - with the same disadvantages.

(At least, that’s how it works in my experience)

Hello everybody! I’m about to purchase Aperture 3.5.1. After installing the software, do I have to install Digital Camera Raw manually? Or is it contained in Aperture install? Or is it already contained in my Mavericks? And… Speaking here about “Digital Camera Raw”, is “Adobe Camera Raw” the same thing?

Please somebody help me find my way out of this. Thanx

Peter:

OSX handles “Digital Camera Raw” and Aperture calls on it for its raw processing.

To check that you have the latest Digital Camera Raw update, go to the Apple icon (top left of menu bar) and select “Software Update…” which will either show the recent update or decide that you need to download and install the update. So if that’s the case, Click “Update”.

It is equivalent to, but not the same thing as, “Adobe Camera Raw” which, amongst many other differences, is app-level rather than system-level.