How can anyone afford this hobby?

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Drake
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OK…maybe I'm a bit over excited, but c'mon, how can anyone afford to keep up with technology…and don't tell me that you can "stop out" whenever you wish. I bought my computer and software package (Photoshop) about 5 years ago, and not too long after, a very nice camera and multiple lenses accumulated over time. Now, I just wanted a simple Sony a6000 and find out that my current software won't recognize the Sony RAW file version; that I can't update to the SONY ARW raw file recognition because I don't have the right operating system, and I can't get the right operating system on my iMac. I don't want, and cannot afford, to spend thousands on a new computer. Bah humbug.
 
Surely you can update a 5 year old mac with the latest OS.
 
I wonder if the camera manufacturers need to take some responsibility here. Ideally, they could standardise on a raw format, but failing that, they could at least develop their own propriety format that is backwards compatible by making the base format extensible in nature (think XML, tags etc). You have to wonder whether there's a bit of mutual back scratching between the software industry and the Camera industry.

However, none of that helps you.

If you're on a Mac, you should be able to update to the latest OS (for free); I've a late 2009 model sitting next to me updating from Yosemite to El Capitan as I type this. If that helps the Sony software run (sorry, I don't have a Sony myself), then that's half of the battle. Speedwise, there's a benefit to updating from older versions of OS X from my own experience.
 
That's why I like film. A roll of film made today interfaces perfectly with a 1940s camera!


Steve.


wellll, assuming its not one of two dozen formats that Kodak have given rise to and discontinued in the last 150 years. ;)
 
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OK…maybe I'm a bit over excited, but c'mon, how can anyone afford to keep up with technology…and don't tell me that you can "stop out" whenever you wish. I bought my computer and software package (Photoshop) about 5 years ago, and not too long after, a very nice camera and multiple lenses accumulated over time. Now, I just wanted a simple Sony a6000 and find out that my current software won't recognize the Sony RAW file version; that I can't update to the SONY ARW raw file recognition because I don't have the right operating system, and I can't get the right operating system on my iMac. I don't want, and cannot afford, to spend thousands on a new computer. Bah humbug.
You're being hit with the costs of keeping up with the latest. If you wait a year or two there will be a simple cheap solution to your problem. There's probably a cheap messy solution involving adding an extra stage or two into your workflow available now. If you could be content with buying your new cameras a year or two behind the sharp edge of the latest technology you wouldn't have these problems.

There's a related problem at the other end, old cameras, and old camera RAW files. I'd have a much more convenient workflow if I upgrade my old computer and OS. But I have RAW image files going back a decade. Sometimes one of those old images becomes important, and I want to reprocess it with my modern skills and software. I'm hearing disturbing rumours that if I upgraded my computer and OS to the latest, which will cost me a lot less than thousands because I've never felt charitable towards Apple's profits and profit protection practices, I'll lose the ability to handle my oldest RAW files. Of course there are ways round that problem, but I'll have to acquire and learn new software.
 
OK…maybe I'm a bit over excited, but c'mon, how can anyone afford to keep up with technology…and don't tell me that you can "stop out" whenever you wish. I bought my computer and software package (Photoshop) about 5 years ago, and not too long after, a very nice camera and multiple lenses accumulated over time. Now, I just wanted a simple Sony a6000 and find out that my current software won't recognize the Sony RAW file version; that I can't update to the SONY ARW raw file recognition because I don't have the right operating system, and I can't get the right operating system on my iMac. I don't want, and cannot afford, to spend thousands on a new computer. Bah humbug.
You should be able to update a 5 year old Mac? Also, you will be able to install a plug in for whatever version of Photoshop you have, failing that, as mentioned, you can use Adobe's DNG convertor. The plug ins and DNG convertor will work fine no matter what OS you're using!
 
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I wonder if the camera manufacturers need to take some responsibility here. Ideally, they could standardise on a raw format.

Could they? Raw is the output of the sensor in binary format. They could standardise a method of carriage of Raw, but not the actual Raw content itself. You still need a Raw decoder for each sensor on the market.

To answer the OPs question though, UFRaw supports the alpha6000 http://ufraw.sourceforge.net/index.html

So just about any open source workflow should handle it - Gimp, Lightzone, Darktable...
 
the SSD I put in my MBP - £150 for 500mb and 30 mins work - has transformed the speed
 
To the OP's question. More money than sense. End ofo_O
 
Sony will likely also supply a basic image editor for raw conversion (probably available as a download - go check) FOC with the camera. Do you conversions with that before importing into your older PS.
 
Why do you feel the need to 'keep up with technology'?!?
30-odd years ago, I took photo's with a 35mm film camera; my fully clock-work, meter-less Zenit has barely enough 'technology' to make a photography; my sixty odd year old 120 roll film 'folder' camera has even less! That doesn't even have a view-finder worth mentioning, to not have a swing needle meter init it, let alone one coupled to the aperture or shutter controls, while focusing is a case of guessing the distance to the subject, setting that on the focus control and setting an aperture to give you enough DoF for any error in your guess work!
My OM4, with its sophisticated spot & multi-spot coupled metering system, might of offered more 'technology', while my D3200, with auto-focus and gazzillions of mega-pixies probably has more 'technolology' than was needed to put a man on the moon, let alone take a photo of the thing! But at the end of the day, all it does it make a picture, and that's what counts!
'Hi-Tech' doesn't always mean 'better' and even if it DID, a 'better' camera don't take 'better' photos, better photographers take better photo's!
And bottom line, the 'best' tool for a job is the tool that DOES the job.. doesn't matter whether that's bucket and string technology or silicon and copper technology what matters is whether it achieves the desired 'end'.. the picture!
If it made a picture you were happy with last week, last year, last decade or last century, WHY does it suddenly become 'obsolete' or 'redundant' or 'no good', because there's something 'new' on the market to do the same job?
Question is a bit backwards.. in the last twenty years, THE BEST THING that 'technology' has done for ME is make the hobby CHEAPER!
Don't have to buy film, for starters, every time I want to make a picture! Or pay for processing! While the 'kit'?! Plastic and silicon, the miracle of the mass market electronic, is WAY more 'affordable' than when it was made of metal and delicate little springs and things!
But, this is what hobby's do... consume time and money.. as much of either as you let them; So for all that technology has made it 'cheaper' I don't actually have any more cash in the bank, just more pictures in the album... but I'm happy with that!
 
You could find an old PC put linux on it and use darktable. My PC is 7 years old and can open raw images from my Canon 7D mark II
 

I could not… if I was not working with it!
 
I have friends who follow football all over Europe and spend in excess of 8k a year I haven,t even spent that much in the last 10 years and I have the latest camera
 
Prostitution. I do favours for sailors down on the docks...
 
Ref mickledore' s comments and ref to conversion software. Surely the object is to work on the RAW files before you convert them.
 
If you want to buy the latest "In" thing in any hobby it's usually gonna cost money - look at the cost of an Apple I-phone, or many smart phones.

But if all you want is to take pictures you don't have to spend a fortune - if you don't succumb to GAS:D

My first camera was a Canon 350D which I bought new and used for over 5 years.

I now have a Canon 1Ds II which I bought from here S/H and have had for about 5 years and am still perfectly happy with.

Ditto with all my accessories.

But I shoot in JPEGs so don't get affected with the RAW problems.
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If you want to buy the latest "In" thing in any hobby it's usually gonna cost money - look at the cost of an Apple I-phone, or many smart phones.

But if all you want is to take pictures you don't have to spend a fortune - if you don't succumb to GAS:D

My first camera was a Canon 350D which I bought new and used for over 5 years.

I now have a Canon 1Ds II which I bought from here S/H and have had for about 5 years and am still perfectly happy with.

Ditto with all my accessories.

But I shoot in JPEGs so don't get affected with the RAW problems.
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There are no raw problems! The OPs issue is a very easy fix. Though they haven't come back to see said advice...
 
I had a similar problem when I bought a used Panasonic Lumix TZ100 camera.Photoshop didn't recognize the camera's Raw process.
I eventually found a codec that solved the problem.
Faststone Image Viewer is an excellent download especially being free and does show several Camera Raw formats that Photoshop doesn't.
I agree with Teflon-Mike, if you were satisfied with a photo taken a while ago why try to change the process ?.
Many products are "improved* by the introduction of newer models and software just to improve sales figures.
Does that make older models obsolete ?.
 
You could find an old PC put linux on it and use darktable. My PC is 7 years old and can open raw images from my Canon 7D mark II

don't even need an old pc and linux - darktable and lightzone will both run on Mac (lightzone will run on a windows PC as well)
 
I have 2 main hobbies Cars (Minis/MINIS) and Photography both can be costly. But through both I have meet some incredible people many who I now class as friends
 
Certainly is a costly hobby. I started doing some paid work to fund it. Problem is I now have some great gear, 27" imac etc but no longer take the shots That first got me started I the hobby. When you spend so much time on paid work you lose the desire to do something for yourself. It's a no win situation
 
You can do photography fairly cheaply, if you want to. The results can be just as artistically valid (and can easily be more so) than the product of equipment costing thousands. Many people buy a Nikon D800, say, and just take snapshots with it. They do it because they can - they've got the money. But it doesn't make their photographs any better if they don't have the skills or vision.

If you had a particular requirement in your photographic career, than you'd seek the best equipment to do that. But whether a casual amateur or seriously intent on satisfying a creative bent, you could easily set a budget and work back from that to see what you could do within it. In that circumstance, the idea that you have to shop till you drop is a neurosis that you've unnecessarily subscribed to.
 
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