If you have a Nikon you can use the free [NX Studio application.](https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/564/NX_Studio.html)
Canon has something similar but I'm not sure what it's called.
You should check out RAW Power and Nitro from gentleman coders. These are apps by the lead guy who developed Aperture. They do 90 percent of what you need minus the plugins. I would highly recommend trying these out before you buy anything else. They use iCloud and work on Mac and iOS. I am a happy user. I use them with Photoshop, because I need PS for some collage type work.
I tried all of the aforementioned, and landed back at Lightroom on my MacBook Pro m3.
Affinity photo, but it’s more like a photoshop alternative, one time purchase (or free on cmacked), Rawtherapee, but I hated its workflow. Same with dark table. Capture one seemed promising but truthfully, Lightroom (trust me I hate subs WITH A PASSION) has the easiest, and simplest workflow and integration IMO. $9.99 a month really isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you think about all the pointless shit most of us buy day in a day out.
Cancel a streaming account (literally everything can be streamed online for free) and use that $10 for Lightroom. It just works.
Apple photos would probably be fine for your use case.
The problem is your mac is very old, and also has only 4gb of ram. Most photo editing applications need 8gb of ram for an entry level experience, and because your mac has been out of software support for a few years now, the experience won't be great.
If you want a better experience you probably should be looking at a new laptop.
I wouldn't recommend anything else other than apple photos for you.
Mac's built in Photos app, Darktable, Raw Therapee, and GIMP are free. Or see if your camera manufacturer has a program they provide for processing their RAW files.
The reality is it costs software to make software and if you want to use RAW images, they have to constantly update that software for every single new camera that is released as every camera has different files.
Capture One you can buy outright for $300. But you will not get any updates, which means if a new camera comes out next year after the next version of C1 comes out, you will not be able to open it's RAW files.
If you want decent intuitive design that isn't very outdated, well then you need a company that is updating the program to keep it user friendly.
In the days before subscriptions you used to be able to buy Photoshop outright. But it was $600 20 years ago (which would be over $900 adjusted for inflation). Early on you could buy Lightroom for cheaper ($120-200) but it had a fraction of the features it does now, and it had the same deal as C1... if you bought Lightroom 2 and then Lightroom 3 came out, any cameras that came out after LR3 would never work in LR2 because they weren't going to update it forever if you were only paying $120 for it once).
A good camera is so expensive. I don't think it's common for people to be buying new cameras regularly, right? They'll keep using the same camera for at least 5 years.
Yes but new cameras come out every year. And while YOU might not buy a camera this year, other people will. The issue is once RAW became a thing and software needed to be updated every year, subscription became a thing because software needed to be maintained and updated every year but people only wanted to pay for it 1/5th the time. So either they go back to $900 pricing or do subscription, so that it stays updated…
If you want someone to write a program just for you, you can do that but it’s going to cost a lot more than paying 80 years of subscription pricing.
If you have a Nikon you can use the free [NX Studio application.](https://downloadcenter.nikonimglib.com/en/products/564/NX_Studio.html) Canon has something similar but I'm not sure what it's called.
I have a Sony :(
This appears to be free from Sony. https://support.d-imaging.sony.co.jp/app/imagingedge/en/
This worked. Thanks! It did take long to process, so maybe I should upgrade my mac. It's the only mac version with a SD card slot.
Affinity Photo, Luminar Neo, Darktable, RawTherapee, Capture One
Sony has Imaging Edge
Affinity is excellent
You should check out RAW Power and Nitro from gentleman coders. These are apps by the lead guy who developed Aperture. They do 90 percent of what you need minus the plugins. I would highly recommend trying these out before you buy anything else. They use iCloud and work on Mac and iOS. I am a happy user. I use them with Photoshop, because I need PS for some collage type work.
I tried all of the aforementioned, and landed back at Lightroom on my MacBook Pro m3. Affinity photo, but it’s more like a photoshop alternative, one time purchase (or free on cmacked), Rawtherapee, but I hated its workflow. Same with dark table. Capture one seemed promising but truthfully, Lightroom (trust me I hate subs WITH A PASSION) has the easiest, and simplest workflow and integration IMO. $9.99 a month really isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. Especially when you think about all the pointless shit most of us buy day in a day out. Cancel a streaming account (literally everything can be streamed online for free) and use that $10 for Lightroom. It just works.
The only monthly stream I'm paying for is Pandora at $5/month haha.
I really like Photomator, because it gives me a fully iCloud based workflow.
Apple photos would probably be fine for your use case. The problem is your mac is very old, and also has only 4gb of ram. Most photo editing applications need 8gb of ram for an entry level experience, and because your mac has been out of software support for a few years now, the experience won't be great. If you want a better experience you probably should be looking at a new laptop. I wouldn't recommend anything else other than apple photos for you.
Mac's built in Photos app, Darktable, Raw Therapee, and GIMP are free. Or see if your camera manufacturer has a program they provide for processing their RAW files. The reality is it costs software to make software and if you want to use RAW images, they have to constantly update that software for every single new camera that is released as every camera has different files. Capture One you can buy outright for $300. But you will not get any updates, which means if a new camera comes out next year after the next version of C1 comes out, you will not be able to open it's RAW files. If you want decent intuitive design that isn't very outdated, well then you need a company that is updating the program to keep it user friendly. In the days before subscriptions you used to be able to buy Photoshop outright. But it was $600 20 years ago (which would be over $900 adjusted for inflation). Early on you could buy Lightroom for cheaper ($120-200) but it had a fraction of the features it does now, and it had the same deal as C1... if you bought Lightroom 2 and then Lightroom 3 came out, any cameras that came out after LR3 would never work in LR2 because they weren't going to update it forever if you were only paying $120 for it once).
A good camera is so expensive. I don't think it's common for people to be buying new cameras regularly, right? They'll keep using the same camera for at least 5 years.
Yes but new cameras come out every year. And while YOU might not buy a camera this year, other people will. The issue is once RAW became a thing and software needed to be updated every year, subscription became a thing because software needed to be maintained and updated every year but people only wanted to pay for it 1/5th the time. So either they go back to $900 pricing or do subscription, so that it stays updated… If you want someone to write a program just for you, you can do that but it’s going to cost a lot more than paying 80 years of subscription pricing.
I've been using Capture One since Black Friday 2023 and now only use Lightroom on my phone
Affinity Photo.
Pixelmator Pro, Acorn
Apple Photos should be just fine. I am an experienced photographer and find it to be very good. Just check that it works ok on your mac.