Photography News

 

Datacolor continues to invest in the ongoing development and enhancement of its SpyderPro software. Following the major feature upgrade introduced last year, its flagship display calibration solution now receives another significant enhancement: Deep Calibration mode. This new technology delivers an even higher level of color accuracy and elevates display calibration to a standard previously associated primarily with professional reference and proofing solutions.

In November of last year, Datacolor introduced the largest software update in SpyderPro's history. Key additions included 3D LUT export for calibrating external video monitors, support for modern display technologies such as OLED, QD-OLED, Mini-LED, and Apple XDR displays, the introduction of Device Preview Plus for simulating content appearance on smartphones, tablets, printers, and other output devices, as well as the integration of Content Credentials to increase transparency in digital content.

With the introduction of Deep Calibration, Datacolor takes the next important step forward in display calibration technology.

 

A New Standard for Color Accuracy

 

SpyderPro's existing Standard Calibration already delivers outstanding color accuracy, achieving an average Delta E00 of 1.26. A Delta E value between 1 and 2 is widely recognized throughout professional image editing, photography, and graphic design as the benchmark for color-critical applications.

The new Deep Calibration mode improves this result to an average Delta E00 of 0.83. This enables SpyderPro to surpass the Delta E00 1.0 threshold, below which color differences become virtually imperceptible to the human eye. Such performance is typically associated with high-end reference displays and professional proofing workflows.

 

How Does Deep Calibration Work?

 

The new calibration mode utilizes a significantly higher number of measurement points across the entire grayscale range. This allows color deviations to be detected and corrected with much greater precision.

 

Key benefits include:

• Improved red-green neutrality
• Reduced blue-yellow color casts
• Higher white point accuracy
• Enhanced grayscale precision
• Cleaner shadow detail
• A more comprehensive calibration report

 

In extensive comparison tests across a wide variety of displays, including OLED, Mini-LED, XDR, and traditional LED-LCD monitors on both Windows and macOS systems, Deep Calibration delivered measurable improvements on every display tested. On average, grayscale accuracy improved by 30%, while some displays achieved improvements of more than 50%.

 

Speed or Maximum Precision? The Choice Is Yours.

 

With the introduction of Deep Calibration, SpyderPro now offers two calibration modes designed to meet different workflow requirements.

 

Standard Calibration

• Professional color accuracy
• Average Delta E00 of 1.26
• Fast calibration process

 

Deep Calibration

• Advanced measurement methodology with significantly more measurement points
• Average Delta E00 of 0.83
• Approximately 30% higher accuracy

 

Users can now choose whether they prefer to achieve excellent calibration results quickly or require the highest possible level of color precision for the most demanding workflows.

 

Free Upgrade for Existing SpyderPro Customers

 

The new Deep Calibration mode is provided free of charge to existing SpyderPro owners as part of the latest software upgrade. Users of Spyder, SpyderX, or SpyderExpress can upgrade to SpyderPro via the Datacolor website and take advantage of these advanced calibration capabilities.

With the introduction of Deep Calibration, Datacolor once again demonstrates its commitment to continuously enhancing its products and delivering meaningful value to customers long after purchase through powerful software updates. For photographers, videographers, content creators, designers, and prepress professionals, this new feature unlocks a level of color precision that until now has only been achievable with significantly more expensive reference-grade solutions.

 

About Datacolor

Datacolor, a global leader in color management solutions, provides software, instruments, and services that ensure the accurate reproduction of colors in materials, products, and images. Leading brands, manufacturers, and creative professionals around the world have trusted Datacolor's innovative solutions for more than 50 years to consistently achieve the right color. The company provides sales, service, and support in more than 100 countries throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia. For more information, visit www.datacolor.com.

- Partner Content -

 

macOS 27 Golden Gate has just arrived in September, but recovery software has not moved at the same pace. If camera footage, project clips or exported videos disappear from a Mac or memory card, these five tools cover very different recovery jobs — from simple deleted-file scans to fragmented camera video and unfamiliar file formats.

Losing video is rarely a small problem. A single deleted MOV may contain an entire interview, while one formatted SD card can wipe out a day's shoot. The best video recovery software for Mac should therefore do more than find files: it needs to work with current Macs, recognise common camera storage, preview results where possible and give you a safe way to recover to another drive.

 

macOS 27 Has Changed the Mac Recovery Picture

 

Apple released macOS 27 Golden Gate on 14 September 2026. Golden Gate is available only for Macs with Apple silicon, while Intel Macs remain on earlier macOS versions. That means older utilities need a closer compatibility check before you depend on them.

There is another change worth knowing about. Apple's macOS 27 release notes say that if Rosetta was already installed, it is not automatically restored after the upgrade. Rosetta itself is still available, but an older Intel-only utility may not launch until the translation layer is installed again. That is relevant to free tools such as PhotoRec, whose official macOS download is still offered as an Intel 64-bit build.

For MacBook data recovery, the storage device matters just as much as the operating system. Deleted footage on an SD card or external hard drive may still be recoverable if its blocks have not been overwritten. Deleted data on an internal Mac SSD is a harder case because TRIM can make those blocks unavailable to recovery software. 

 

Before You Install Any Recovery Software

 

Recovery software cannot undo new data written over the old footage. Before choosing an app, stop using the storage device that held the missing video. If it is a memory card, remove it from the camera. If it is an external drive, disconnect it until you are ready to scan.

On a Mac, check Trash and any backup before starting a full recovery scan. Videos managed through Photos may also have another copy in iCloud or another synced library. If Time Machine was enabled, check the relevant backup or local snapshot. If the file is no longer available through any of those routes, this guide to recover permanently deleted videos covers the broader options across Mac and other devices.

Avoid installing the recovery app onto the same drive that contained the missing files, and never save recovered footage back to that source during the first pass. Both actions create new writes. For a failing or unstable drive, a byte-for-byte image or clone is preferable because it lets you work from a copy rather than repeatedly reading the original hardware.

If the footage came from a camera card, there is no need to repeat every SD-card recovery step here. ePHOTOzine already has a dedicated guide on how to recover deleted videos from SD card.

 

How We Chose These Mac Video Recovery Tools

 

We compared current Mac recovery tools on the things that decide whether footage comes back, rather than on feature-list length: product documentation, Mac compatibility, free-tier limits, video-specific features, disk-imaging options, file-system support and pricing.

Video recovery also needs a slightly different test from ordinary document recovery. Large camera files are often fragmented, so finding a MOV or MP4 signature is not always enough to rebuild a playable clip. Preview matters, as does the ability to work from an image when the source drive is questionable. And for photographers using newer cameras, support for an unusual file type can matter more than the total number of formats printed on a product page.

For a wider comparison beyond video, this current round-up of mac recovery software covers more general Mac data-loss scenarios.

 

Best Video Recovery Software for Mac: Five Picks

 

Tool Best For Latest macOs publicly listed Free recovery Starting paid price Disk Drill 6 Camera, drone and fragmented video macOS 27 Golden Gate Scan, preview and protected-file recovery; standard deleted-file recovery requires PRO $89/year PhotoRec Completely free signature-based recovery macOS 27 via Homebrew; official Mac download is Intel 64-bit Unlimited Free R-Studio for Mac Advanced scans, disk images and complex storage macOS 26 Tahoe on current download/help pages Demo has recovery limits $79.99 DMDE Low-cost recovery and disk imaging Not stated by version Up to 4,000 files from one selected directory per request $20/year Data Rescue 6 Unusual or unsupported file types Mac version available; check current OS compatibility before use Up to 1 GB for new users $79 for 30 days

 

1. Disk Drill 6 — Best for Camera and Drone Footage

 

Disk Drill 6 is the most video-focused general recovery app in this group. CleverFiles lists full support for macOS 27 Golden Gate, and the Mac version works on current Apple silicon hardware. Its normal scan can recover deleted files from APFS, HFS+, exFAT, FAT and other file systems, but the more relevant feature for ePHOTOzine readers is Advanced Camera Recovery.

 

 

That mode is designed for video recorded by cameras, drones and action cameras, where a large clip may be split across non-contiguous areas of a memory card. Instead of treating the file as one simple block, the software attempts to reconstruct the fragmented recording. That is particularly useful when a conventional raw scan finds an MP4 or MOV but produces a file that will not play correctly.

Disk Drill also lets you create a disk image of a memory card or drive before scanning it, so you can work from a copy rather than repeatedly accessing the original storage device. On Mac, the free edition can scan and preview recoverable files, and it can restore data protected in advance by its recovery-protection features. The important catch is that recovery of ordinary unprotected deleted files requires PRO on macOS. 

Ideal for: photographers and videographers recovering footage from SD cards, action cameras and drones, especially when fragmented video is a concern.

Platforms and pricing: Mac and Windows. On Mac, scanning and preview are free; full recovery of standard lost files requires a paid licence.

 

2. PhotoRec — Best Free Option

 

PhotoRec is the answer if the budget is zero. It is open-source, has no recovery-volume limit and uses file signatures rather than depending on a healthy file system. That makes it useful when a card has been reformatted or its directory information is badly damaged.

The trade-off is usability. PhotoRec runs in a text-based interface, and signature recovery does not normally preserve the original filenames or folder structure. A card with hundreds of clips can therefore come back as a large collection of generically named files that you need to inspect afterwards. There is also no polished preview workflow comparable with the commercial apps above.

macOS 27 adds a compatibility wrinkle: CGSecurity's current 7.3-WIP Mac download is labelled Intel 64-bit, although the page notes that M1 Macs can run it. On Apple silicon, the cleaner route is Homebrew: brew install testdisk installs PhotoRec and TestDisk, and Homebrew currently provides a Golden Gate bottle for Apple silicon. This makes PhotoRec a viable free Mac video recovery option on the newest OS without relying on the vendor's Intel archive.

 

 

Ideal for: technically comfortable users who need free video recovery software for Mac with no recovery-size cap.

Platforms and pricing: macOS, Windows and Linux. Free and open-source.

 

3. R-Studio for Mac — Best for Advanced Recovery

 

R-Studio is less friendly than Disk Drill, but it gives experienced users far more control over how a scan is performed. The Mac edition supports APFS, HFS+, HFSX, exFAT, NTFS and several Linux and Unix file systems, and it can work with disk images, damaged partitions and RAID layouts. For a mixed studio environment, that breadth can be useful.

Its raw-file search can also be extended with user-defined known file types, which helps when a standard signature database does not cover a format you need. That said, this is still general-purpose Mac data recovery software rather than a dedicated camera-video reconstruction tool. If the main problem is a fragmented action-camera clip, a specialised camera mode may be the better first attempt.

 

 

Compatibility deserves a note this year. R-Studio's current download page and system-requirements documentation list macOS 26 Tahoe, while its main product information has not yet been fully updated to macOS 27 Golden Gate. The application is a native Apple Silicon build, so this looks like a documentation lag rather than a technical barrier — but if you have already upgraded, run the demo before you buy.

Ideal for: advanced users dealing with disk images, complex partitions, RAID or several file systems rather than one straightforward deleted clip.

Platforms and pricing: separate Mac, Windows and Linux editions. R-Studio for Mac starts at $79.99 for a permanent licence.

 

4. DMDE — Best Low-Cost Recovery Option

 

DMDE sits in an unusual place between free recovery utilities and expensive professional software. Its interface is dense, but the free edition is much less restrictive than many commercial trials: it can recover up to 4,000 files from one selected directory per request, and DMDE says there is no limit on how many times you repeat that operation.

For video work, that can be enough when a card contains one shoot folder and you only need a manageable set of clips. DMDE supports APFS, HFS+, exFAT and FAT among other file systems, offers raw signature recovery, and includes free disk-imaging and cloning tools. That last feature is useful when you want to preserve a card or questionable external drive before experimenting with scans.

The catch is the interface. DMDE exposes low-level disk and partition tools alongside recovery functions, so if you are not sure what an option does, do not randomly click it. Express is $20 for one year and Standard is $48 for a perpetual licence. For users comparing low-cost data recovery software for Mac, it offers more actual free recovery than most scan-only trials.

 

 

Ideal for: users who want a capable free tier, disk imaging and low-cost paid recovery, and do not mind a technical interface.

Platforms and pricing: macOS, Windows, Linux and DOS. Free edition available; paid options start at $20.

 

5. Data Rescue 6 — Best for Unusual Camera File Types

 

Data Rescue 6 earns its place for a FileIQ feature. If Deep Scan does not recognise a particular file type, FileIQ can analyse several healthy samples of that same type and look for a repeatable pattern that Data Rescue can use as a custom file module. The documentation recommends at least three sample files.

That can be useful with less common camera outputs, proprietary containers or a new workflow that is not yet in a recovery tool's built-in signature database. It is not magic — FileIQ does not work with every file type, and a learned signature cannot restore data that has already been overwritten — but it gives you another route when the problem is recognition rather than the storage device itself.

Data Rescue also includes a clone workflow, which fits the safer approach of working from a copy when the source drive is unstable. Its current Mac pricing gives new users up to 1 GB of recovery for free. The Standard licence is $79 and provides unlimited recovery for 30 days, while the Professional tier is sold annually.

 

 

Ideal for: photographers dealing with an unsupported or unusual file type for which they can provide healthy sample files from the same camera workflow.

Platforms and pricing: Mac and Windows versions are available. New Mac users can recover up to 1 GB free; Standard costs $79 for 30 days of unlimited recovery.

 

What "Free Video Recovery for Mac" Really Means

 

The word “free” is unusually slippery in this category. Some apps are free to download but charge before they write a recovered file to disk. Others let you restore a small amount of data, which may be fine for documents but almost useless for a 4K video clip.

PhotoRec is the clearest example of genuinely free Mac video recovery: there is no paid edition and no recovery-size cap. The cost is time and convenience. You work in a text interface and may lose original names and folder structure.

DMDE takes a different approach. Its free edition limits each recovery request to 4,000 files from the active directory rather than imposing a small gigabyte allowance. For a memory card with a few hundred clips, that can be surprisingly practical.

Data Rescue 6 gives new users up to 1 GB, which is enough to test the recovery path or retrieve shorter clips but can disappear quickly with high-bitrate footage. Disk Drill's free Mac edition is strongest as a diagnostic tool for unprotected deleted files: scan, filter and preview first, then decide whether the files are worth paying to restore. R-Studio also offers a demo, but its restrictions make it more useful for evaluating what the software can see than for recovering a full video archive.

So if you are searching for Mac video recovery software free of charge, look past the download button. The useful question is how much data the app will actually write back, whether preview is available before payment, and whether the free tool can handle the file system and camera format involved.

 

Why a Recovered Video Sometimes Won't Play

 

Finding the filename is only half the job. Video files are large, and cameras often write them across multiple areas of a card as recording continues. A basic raw recovery scan may recognise the beginning of an MP4 or MOV but fail to rebuild every fragment in the correct order. The result can have a plausible filename and file size yet still refuse to open, freeze after a few seconds or show damaged frames.

This is why trying another recovery engine can make sense. Different tools reconstruct files differently, and a camera-specific recovery mode may succeed where simple signature carving does not. If the source card is valuable, create an image first and run those experiments against the image rather than repeatedly scanning the physical card.

There is also a point where recovery ends and repair begins. If recovery itself worked but the MOV or MP4 still will not open, an open-source tool untrunc can use a healthy reference clip — ideally from the same camera — to rebuild parts of the damaged container. On macOS it is more technical than the five apps above and may need to be built with Homebrew dependencies, so it is not a general recovery pick. But it is a useful free option when the file exists and the remaining problem is playback rather than deletion.

 

When Mac Video Recovery Software Won't Help

 

There are two cases where continuing to scan is usually the wrong move.

The first is permanent deletion from an internal Mac SSD. Modern SSDs use TRIM to tell the drive which blocks are no longer needed. Once those blocks have been cleared or made unavailable, a recovery app cannot recreate the original video from nothing. Backups and local snapshots become much more important in that scenario. The same issue appears repeatedly in a recent Mac recovery discussion, where users point back to Time Machine, local snapshots and the limits imposed by TRIM. The thread is anecdotal rather than formal documentation, but the practical lesson is sound: internal SSD recovery is not the same as undeleting a file from an SD card.

The second is physical failure. If a hard drive clicks, repeatedly disconnects, disappears from Disk Utility, becomes unusually hot or produces severe read errors, repeated DIY scans can put more stress on it. If the footage is important enough to justify professional recovery, stop using the device and get the hardware assessed before it deteriorates further.

 

Which Mac Video Recovery Tool Should You Try First?

 

It depends on where the footage was and what you are willing to spend.

Deleted clips on an SD card or from a camera or drone: start with Disk Drill, which handles fragmented footage best of the five. No budget at all: PhotoRec, accepting the Terminal and the lost filenames. Somewhere in between, with a real free allowance: DMDE. Reformatted volumes, RAID or a drive you need to image first: R-Studio. A file type nothing seems to recognise: Data Rescue 6 and FileIQ.

And if the loss was on your Mac's internal SSD, check your backups and snapshots before you run a single scan.

You write a prompt. Adobe edits your photo accordingly. The AI Assisted Editor, released August 31, 2026, as part of Photoshop 27.10, lets you edit images simply by describing what you want in plain English. Just type what you want, and the AI figures it out. You'll find out what happened when I let it loose on my Milky Way photos.

 

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Golden hour and blue hour can make almost any street corner look like a finished photograph, and that polish can hide whether anything is actually happening in the frame. If most of your keepers come from warm evening light or city glow after sunset, the gray months ahead are a good test of what you can find without that help.

 

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If you shoot APS-C and want a bright telephoto zoom, your options have been thin, and on most mounts they haven't existed at all. Sigma's new 50-120mm f/2.8 arrives for Fujifilm X, Sony E, and Canon RF at a size and price that make it a realistic addition to a small kit.

 

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Reflections in shop windows and glass doors are among the most common things you'll try to clean up in post, and Adobe's latest Lightroom update promises to make its one-click fix more reliable. When that tool still misses, a newer generative feature in Lightroom can take over, as long as you control what it changes.

 

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Laowa's two new Aksen Ultra Macro APO lenses cover everything from life size to 10 times life size. At that scale, depth of field shrinks to a sliver, light drops off as you zoom, and the gear around the lens decides as much about the result as the glass does.

 

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The latest winner of our popular daily photography theme which takes place in our forums have been chosen and congratulations go to BydoR9 (Day 6 - 'Orange' Colour).

 

Daily Theme Runners-Up

If you didn't win this time, keep uploading your images to the daily competition forum for another chance to win! If you're new to the Daily Theme, you can find out more about it in the Daily Theme Q&A. 

Well done to our latest runners-up, too, whose images you can take a look at below.

  Day 1

Autumn Landscapes

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|146271|146271_1790842211.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 2

Autumn Abstracts

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|345095|345095_1790954374.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 3

Spider's Web

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|89636|3803793[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 4

Gardens In Autumn

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|348899|348899_1791206233.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

  Day 5

Rainy Days

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|115557|3773354[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 7

Autumn Reflections

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|41843|3539373[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 8

Creative Indoor Shot

[COMMENT_IMG]direct|219004|219004_1791464504.jpg[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

Day 9

Landmarks

[COMMENT_IMG]portfolio|161002|3909129[/COMMENT_IMG]

 

You’ll find the Daily Themes, along with other great photo competitions, over in our Forum. Take a look to see the latest daily photo contests. Open to all levels of photographer, you’re sure to find a photography competition to enter. Why not share details of competitions with our community? Join the camaraderie and upload an image to our Gallery.