Some raw talk…
Like many photographers, I jumped into the mirrorless world a few years ago. And things have gone well with my mirrorless camera becoming my primary choice for making pictures. A couple months ago, I was ready to add a second mirrorless body, and of course I chose to buy something that would complement my existing gear.
I bought the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III, which had been released last fall. Having been on the market for a few months, surely any kinks would’ve been worked out and things like RAW file support would be handled.
I was wrong, as it turns out that despite being announced in October 2019 and being released the following month, we’re now approaching May 2020 and there’s no support for this camera’s RAW files from Apple’s photo software on iOS or macOS1.
Many folks (including me!) have argued that Apple is the largest and most influential photography company in the world. When you consider the market share of the iPhone and the various software and hardware innovations that have led to smartphone cameras decimating the consumer camera market, they definitely have a major hand in the photography game along with companies such as Canon, Sony, and Adobe. I wrote previously about AI and the iPhone, and I spend quite a bit of time in my book about artificial intelligence and photography discussing various photography innovations with the iPhone and iOS.
Olympus announced this camera in mid-October of last year and it shipped about a month later. Adobe had support for E-M5 Mark III raw files on November 14, 2019… in other words, Adobe’s software supported this camera from the time that it was released to the public.
That’s what it means to be a serious photography company for serious photographers.
Maybe Apple thinks it’s fine if they only offer first-rate support for iPhone images. That’s certainly a stance they could take. On the other hand if they really want me to believe they’re all about photography, and not only iPhone photography, it needs to ensure that RAW file support for new cameras from major manufacturers can’t be missing five months after the camera’s release.
Update August 2021: Apple finally added support for the OM-D E-M5 Mark III on July 28, 2021, 20 months after its release.
- Here’s Apple’s list of what is supported, last updated in November 2020. ↩
Still no support? Really?
I will give them a break because of the whole stut down but it can’t be hard to add.
Nope, still not supported. Appears they haven’t added any new RAW support since I published this article.
This is ridiculous! I too purchase, the E-M5III & was VERY disappointed to see that there is no support for raw files! Photos is a downgrade from Aperture. I wish I had never installed Catalina~!
apple don’t bother and Bilder is anyhow not very impressive in terms of image quality. Time to change. For the moment I try the On1 – non destructive and seems to be very open , reading raw-files directly from folders anywhere and leave them there with the edit placed in a separate file for each image.
And … still no support for the EM-1 Mark III. For some reason, really surprised me as I just bought the camera and found I need to change how I do things.
They really should have this as a separate updater/installer that Oly can create. Or is Oly the problem?…
It’s hard to know what’s going on, but when folks like Adobe and CaptureOne added support quite a while ago, this seems like an Apple problem.
Still no support for OM-D EM5 Mark III raw files on iOS as of Januari 31 2021! Really slow of Apple.
Agreed… I’m going to see if I can do some additional followup on this.
Hi Aaron – did you hear anything from Apple about if they ever plan to support the E-M5 Mark III?
I still haven’t heard anything. It appears they last added new cameras in February, and the E-M5 Mark III still isn’t on the list.
The e-m5 iii has been added to the list of supported formats on 28th September! https://support.apple.com/en-ie/HT211241
But I still can’t view raw files for my camera in Photos on macOS. It’s still just a gray square. Anyone else had any luck? Or perhaps the support will land when macOS updates to Monterey (I haven’t tried the Beta).
I was pretty stoked to see when they (finally) added support. I’m away from my Mac for a few days but will check when I get home…