EOS 6D MII Raw not supported by Photos on El Capitan

[mplawrence]

I just purchased 6D Mark II planning to use Raw & JPG.  My iMac computer is a little old and still running on El Capitan.  Everything works for the 6D MII except Raw photos.  Says it is not supported.  Called Canon and Apple.  They say it is an operating system problem.  I did report it to Apple.  It works on latest macOS High Sierra on my MacBook Pro.  Anyone else have the same problem?

[TCampbell]

El Capitan might be too old.  Did you check to see if you have all the latest OS updates?

As new OS versions come out, support for old OS versions starts to fade and at some point they don’t provide updates anymore.  Since the 6D II is relatively new and didn’t exist when El Capitan was the current OS, it would never have had RAW support for the (non-existent) camera.  But Apple provides Camera RAW updates from time to time and you’d need to install that.

These updates are only made for a given OS for a while... before they stop.  You’d have to install a newer OS to keep getting them (and Apple’s OS upgrades are free).

[mplawrence]

Yes, I have the latest update for El Capitan, 10.11.6 as confirmed by the Apple tech.  You are right, of course, about Apple cutting back on support for older operating systems, but I do still get updates.  It does support the EOS 6D.  My iMac doesn't support the newer iOS .  Thanks.

[TCampbell]

The Mac uses macOS, not iOS.  It needs to be a 64 bit processor to run High Sierra. But Apple hasn’t made a 32 bit machine in ages.  What OS did it come with?  I’ve upgraded some fairly old machines.

[mplawrence]

My iMac is OS X El Capitan.  2009.  

[kvbarkley]

You need High Sierra for the 6D Mk II (Though Sierra+Raw Update might work, I did not research it that far.)

Other options:

DPP

Adobe DNG

Adobe Light Room.

[shadowsports]

The one thing that wasn't mentioned here...  Canon changed the RAW file format when it introduced the 6D2. 

OP, install DPP or LR which will solve the problem immediately.  Native .cr2 support may come to your OS at some point...  faster if you upgrade to Sierra or HighSierra 

[mplawrence]

That explains why El Capitn works with the first 6D and not the Mark II.  Canon told me my call was not rare.  He gets them every day from folks with older computers.

My iMac is too old and won’t upgrade to Sierra or High Sierra.  Sadly.  I had hoped to get a couple more years out of it.  

I did install DPP but I think LR is better, you agree?  For example, a friend said he could select a certain area, like the water in a pic, and lighten it in LR.  Can you select certain areas in DPP?

[kvbarkley]

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@shadowsportswrote:

  Native .cr2 support may come to your OS at some point...

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This is *extremely* unlikely. I cannot recall when it has ever happened. It *might* have happened back when Aperture was a thing. RAW support for newer cameras relies on improvements in the underlaying OS RAW support. They never go back and add it to older OS'.

[TCampbell]

Every camera model has a different RAW file.  The reason I asked which os came with your computer is because you mentioned it has El Capitan.  Generally any Mac capable of running El Capitan can also run High Sierra.  Have you opened the App Store to check for it?

Apple makes the Camera RAW updates part of the os because lots of apps use it....   Photos, Aperture, Preview, Finder, Keynote, Pages, etc. all use the same camera RAW and this means Apple doesn’t have to update every program separately.

Adobe doesn’t use Apple’s updates, they provide their own.  Word of caution... Adobe may encourage you to convert your RAW files to their .dng format.   I suggest you avoid that and stick with your native RAW files because if you convert them... then only Adobe software will ever be able to read them.  This would be a problem if you ever needed to use any other software.

As for Lightroom... yes, it does allow you to apply brushed on adjustments.  E.g. if you wanted to add more light just to a subjects face and not the whole photo, that’s easily done.  Last I checked, Canon DPP doesn’t support brushed-on adjustments.

But Lightroom is only available as a subscription that costs $10/month with 1 year plans ( so really its $120/year).  It also includes Photoshop.