The team at Camera Bits is happy to announce the long-awaited “universal binary” build of Photo Mechanic and Photo Mechanic Plus for macOS is now available for testing as a limited public beta. This is the rewritten build of Photo Mechanic that is so-called “Apple Silicon native” and does not require emulation to run on the speedy M1, M2, M3, etc. family of processors in newer Apple computers.
RequirementsThis limited public beta is available to everyone. If you have a current subscription license for Photo Mechanic or Photo Mechanic Plus or a perpetual license purchased after 11 March 2024, it will work on any computer where you have activated your license. The same is true for anyone who starts the 14-day free trial.
If you would prefer to not sign up for the trial, but would like to beta test, you can activate either of the following license keys:
For Photo Mechanic features: LKSV-KDGC-EHLN-LWPM
For Photo Mechanic Plus features: GBQN-TNBC-QG8G-KSPM
The beta build requires macOS 13 Ventura or newer. While it is now Apple-silicon native, it will also run on Intel-based Macs.
Use at your own riskAs this is a beta, we strongly recommend only using it on copies of files and not originals. And, we also do not recommend using any beta software for mission-critical projects or if on a deadline. The Beta can be placed in a sub-folder of the macOS Applications folder so that you can keep your production instance of PM installed at the same time, though they can not both be running at the same time.
To repeat: Use at your own riskThe beta has undergone some internal testing but there is no guarantee of functionality or safety. Do not use the beta on files that you haven’t backed up. Do not use the beta if you’re on a deadline.
The beta build will expire, i.e. stop running, at the end of September 2024.
This project has taken significant work for Camera Bits developers, as it was not simply a matter of recompiling source code for the newer processors. Large sections of code had to be rewritten from the ground up and meticulously tested to make sure they matched the high standards of the current Photo Mechanic program. We were able to make some meaningful performance optimizations along the way and will continue to look for opportunities for further optimization. Part of this work included integrating the built-in Raw rendering of Apple's ImageIO.
You can add feedback or comments to this post or via normal customer support channels listed here:
https://docs.camerabits.com/support/tickets/newChanges in Beta 5:
• Added: New RAW rendering preference that allows RAW rendering to be turned on, but only renders when the embedded preview is considered small. You can dynamically force the image to render in the Preview window by pressing the ‘q’ key (quality). The image will be rendered and you should see the RAW label appear in the title bar of the Preview window.
• Added: Read-only Affinity Photo file support (.afphoto).
• Added: Read-only support for Pixelmator Pro PXD previews.
• Updated: Zenfolio template for upcoming changes to their API.
• Fixed: Issue with color management when rendering RAW images with the Apple engine which considers the ICC profile to always be DisplayP3.
• Fixed: Licensing issue when renewal of subscription succeeded but the local license had expired. It will check with the licensing server for an updated license when this occurs.
• Fixed: You can now create and update a selected set (via +/- buttons in the toolbar) in the Preview window, even when you have the Contact Sheet set to synchronize a single selection with the Preview.
• Fixed: FTP template connection settings port field should only accept numbers.
• Fixed: Flickr uploader, HTML characters should evaluate in lists where possible.
• Fixed: Smugmug uploader gives an error when trying to make a gallery from a template at the root level.
• Fixed: Ingest not evaluating isolated Code Replacements.
• Fixed: Incremental Ingest skips partner file if either the RAW or JPEG has already been ingested and filter is set to copy both.
• Fixed: Inline rename field floats when some toolbar items are used.
• Fixed: Drag and Drop to Navigator no longer allows for moving files to a destination drive that differs from that of the source.
• Fixed: “pmarrangement.dat” only gets updated when in arrangement mode after renaming files.
• Fixed: Slide Show dialog only accepts 0-600 seconds for time between images.
Download the Universal Binary Beta 5 here:
https://www.camerabits.com/download/PhotoMechanicR7966_71001bcc.dmg
