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Bug in Photos Destroys Library


pico

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Tried out Photos some time ago, and was not impressed, even with my M9 files. 

I doubt many M246 users will even want to use it, so in practice it will probably be a non-issue.

It needs to be solved of course, but will not affect many M users.

 

Any of you using Photos?

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It is possible that others discovered this too, but it would seem that Jono played an important role in identifying this problem.  We all are a bit jealous of the role Jono and other testers play, and there has been some unfair snark on this forum about the value of those who get an early look.  But if as I read it, Jono was the person who identified this issue and thus saved folks from having their Photo libraries crash, hurray for him.  I use LR to download images, but I have a lot of old photos from the early 2000s saved in my Photo library, and while backed up three ways to Sunday, it would still be a big drag to have it crash -- all because of a Monochrom shot!

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Another article about this issue:  http://petapixel.com/2015/05/13/yikes-leica-monochrom-dng-bug-can-wipe-out-your-apples-photos-library/

 

From Jono's review -

 

DNG File Compatibility – Important note

Of course, the excellent JPG files from the Monochrom are supported by all relevant photographic programs, and the DNG files are supported well by both Lightroom 5, 6 and CC (I haven’t tried LR 4) and by Capture One v8.2. This support also extends to Yosemite 10.10.3. without crashes or issues.

 

Apple support is more complicated. Yosemite 10.10.2 does not have support for the files, Yosemite 10.10.3 has just been released. The new CoreFoundation raw file support has a bug and crashes when trying to load the Raw files – this is potentially quite nasty.

 

Photos is the new Apple photography program, just released with 10.10.3: Once you have tried to load a Monochrom DNG file then the library will crash continually on loading. The only way I have found to fix this is to delete the library and restore from a backup (or to start a new library).

 

Aperture will also crash continually, in this case the only way to re-load the library is to delete the DNG file(s) you have imported (which can be a problem if you use ‘managed’ files rather than ‘referenced’ files); moving the files is not enough.

 

iPhoto simply will not load the files (but does not crash). However, you should not convert your library to Photos until this has been fixed.

The Apple finder  doesn’t show a preview of the file (no crashes).

 

This has been confirmed as a bug in the Apple CoreFoundation – they have said to Leica that this will be fixed in the next release – in the meantime:

If you are running Yosemite 10.10.3 or 10.10.4 public beta then do NOT load the DNG files into either Photos, Aperture or iPhoto or you may not be able to reopen your photo library.

...So the problem lies in Apple's CoreFoundation, not in the Monochrom. 

 

Apple claims this problem will be fixed "in the next release"  - which will take who knows how long; what are M246 shooters supposed to do till then?   :huh:

 

Disclaimer
@Mods:  I hope I have not crossed the line in some manner by posting this block of text from Jono's review.  If I have, please moderate as needed.

 

Last but certainly not least, many thanks to Jono for his early detection and report of this problem.

Edited by Carlos Danger
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Does anyone know the details of the problem- is it the 12-bit data packed 6 pixels per 4 bytes, or one of the fields in an Ascii string? One of the reviewers stated some were not null terminated.

 

I wonder of the DNG files could be patched to work around the bug. If Apple were to identify the exact nature of the problem, it might be possible.

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Does anyone know the details of the problem- is it the 12-bit data packed 6 pixels per 4 bytes, or one of the fields in an Ascii string? One of the reviewers stated some were not null terminated.

No idea I’m afraid but as Adobe Lightroom took the files in its stride long before the camera was officially introduced (just as with the original M Monochrom) there cannot be anything fundamentally wrong with the DNG files.

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The compressed DNG files that Jono made available can be opened and processed in CS2 which is 10 years old. A lot of new software still cannot handle the linear DNG files from the M Monochrom. Hard to understand why, the file structure is trivial. Everything is stored in one strip, just has to be read in to an array with column and row dimensions given in the Image Header.

Edited by Lenshacker
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Iridient Developer rejects the files as unsupported which is fair enough; this raw developer is known to take no chances. But crashing and taking the whole library with it? That would be Apple’s fault. (While I have been relying on Apple’s hardware for many years, I have learned to avoid Apple’s application software.)

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The compressed DNG files that Jono made available can be opened and processed in CS2 which is 10 years old. A lot of new software still cannot handle the linear DNG files from the M Monochrom. Hard to understand why, the file structure is trivial. Everything is stored in one strip, just has to be read in to an array with column and row dimensions given in the Image Header.

I find it interesting that 10 years old software can open the files and worrying that new software cannot do so. Are all files from older digital cameras still readable by the latest software? 

 

Mike.

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Adobe wrote their software to the DNG specification rather than to just file formats used by specific cameras.

 

I have seen support for older cameras drop off from the newest software, the ".TIF" file format used by the Kodak DCS400 series and ".KC2" files used by the DCS200 series. So- it is not possible to correctly open those raw files anymore using Lightroom and others. I wrote my own raw processor for the old DCS200 file and have written my own for the M8, M9, and M Monochrom. 

 

I suspect sites like this one:

 

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml

 

will be more important over the decades.

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Adobe wrote their software to the DNG specification rather than to just file formats used by specific cameras.

 

I have seen support for older cameras drop off from the newest software, the ".TIF" file format used by the Kodak DCS400 series and ".KC2" files used by the DCS200 series. So- it is not possible to correctly open those raw files anymore using Lightroom and others. I wrote my own raw processor for the old DCS200 file and have written my own for the M8, M9, and M Monochrom. 

 

I suspect sites like this one:

 

http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/intro/intro.shtml

 

will be more important over the decades.

Given the talk of a 'digital dark age' due to future software not being able to read current files, isn't this a worry? I realise that you may be able to write your own software but one of the joys of photography is that 'we' can look back at times past. Will future generations be able to see our time? 

 

Mike.

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Hi There

an update . . . but first of all, thank you for the kind words  - it's not often that it's visible that we testers actually find things, but we do.

 

Mike - this is an Apple bug - other software either supports the files or rejects them gracefully. I don't think one should draw cataclysmic conclusions from it. 

 

As far as this is concerned - it's great that Leica have issued a directive (really great - responsible and well done) - truth is that with care it's not fatal (you just need to get the images out of the library) - to my mind it's more of an issue for those (like me) who have big Aperture libraries.

 

However, it really is being addressed - the new beta of Yosemite does not fix it, but I have it on excellent authority that Apple are working on it, there are proper bug references, and it will be fixed soon (thank you if you're reading this G - excellent that you got involved). 

Edited by jonoslack
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Given the talk of a 'digital dark age' due to future software not being able to read current files, isn't this a worry? I realise that you may be able to write your own software but one of the joys of photography is that 'we' can look back at times past. Will future generations be able to see our time? 

 

Mike.

That's why I post my Source code!

 

And of course there is DC Raw. Future generations will have no problem unpacking a file if it can be read in from media. The latter is the real issue- media going bad, not being backed up, lost. Same problem exists for film and prints- they can burn up. Media degrades. My first digital images were made on DecTape, second set on 7-track tape, 28-track tape..., unreadable. I have 30+ year old 5.25" floppy disks that can be read. I found a lot of my old image processing software on them.

 

As I read about the Apple error- I would be more worried that every hacker will be descending on this like Hawks to craft other files intent on destroying data and causing havoc. This problem must far exceed just M246 files.

 

Jono- you saved a lot of people a lot of misery bringing this error to attention, well beyond M246 users.

Edited by Lenshacker
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Disclaimer

@Mods:  I hope I have not crossed the line in some manner by posting this block of text from Jono's review.  If I have, please moderate as needed.

 

Last but certainly not least, many thanks to Jono for his early detection and report of this problem.

Hi Carlos

Thank you for posting this  -  nobody pays me for my articles, so you can quote me where you will :). I think it's important to realise that this relates to Aperture as well as to Photos.

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My first digital images were made on DecTape, second set on 7-track tape, 28-track tape.

 

That certainly brings back some memories. I was a system manager of two PDP/1170s in the Seventies and later a manager of several of VAXen. Before I quit I converted all the tapes to ordinary readable formats. Nobody cared at the moment, but  many of them were grateful a few years later.

 

Then came the day when the Microsoft mavens rolled the Vaxen and MIPS machines onto the loading dock, and into the dumpster. I retired happy. :(

.

Edited by pico
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Mike - this is an Apple bug - other software either supports the files or rejects them gracefully. I don't think one should draw cataclysmic conclusions from it. 

 

 

I wasn't, Jono, it was just a general observation of the worry some people have. It's good to know that people like Lenshacker know their bits from their bytes.

 

Mike.

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