In addition to the plethora of new features Apple added for OS X El Capitan, it also quietly integrated 10 bit color support for the 4K & 5K iMac.
While this may not mean much for your average user, it’s absolutely massive news for photographers, video editors, or anyone else who relies on high-end color correction.
Photo: Mac & I
Compared to 8 bit color, 10 bit means more detail, particularly on soft gradients which are otherwise difficult to edit with clarity and accuracy.
Unfortunately, the feature will only be visible if you’ve got a 5K or 4K iMac from this year or 2014. As of yet, it’s not confirmed whether it also works with a third-party external display.
Right now, 10 bit color can be seen solely within the OS X Preview and Photos apps. Users wanting to play “spot the difference” can try taking a 12-bit RAW photo with soft color graduations and comparing it to its 8 bit counterpart. As of yet, no other apps — including photo-editing tools like those created by Adobe — take advantage of 10 bit color.
Although we’re positive that things will change once news gets out!
Source: Mac & I
Via: Cinema5d
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
2 responses to “El Capitan quietly added 10-bit color support for new 5K iMac”
Just trying to clarify. You’re saying that El Capitan adds support for 10 bit color to my 2014 5k iMac? That’s pretty awesome news.
Read online the condition to get 10 bit (if I recall amd had made that blog post)you ll see that al lot of stuff have to align for it to go on. Most maker always forget something either at hardware level firmware level or driver level or all of the above.