Select files in Finder, option + double click on them, and you have many photo files accessible in a single Preview window.

If you're shooting RAW it's because you want to edit the photos in the kind of tool that will never be natively included in the OS. Otherwise shoot JPEG (or whatever format the iPhone shoots because universal standards are never good enough for Apple)

Finder supporting thumbnails for newer cameras is a pain but it's not all that normal to browser your archives in Finder either.

https://home.camerabits.com is a commonly used tool for browsing photographer/files and editing metadata. I've used it for ingesting and selects since 2005. Almost everywhere I've ever worked has used it to some degree.

After ingestion, you would import to Lightroom or Capture ONE for processing and finally you export to jpg or a generic usable format and size.

I’m a long-term Nitro user, picked up a new camera (Pana S5iix) a few weeks ago and found myself really disappointed with the quality on one specific shoot. Daylight, low ISO - technically super “clean” raw files, but Nitro was struggling with detail and weird artefacts in the shadows.

I never expect DeepPRIME or Topaz level processing from it - but something about the image seemed off. Fired up an alternate software and sure enough, even with 0 corrections applied, side-by-side Nitro looked noticeably worse.

I much prefer the local-first workflow, and I split my time editing roughly evenly between my M1 iPad and M4 Mac. Nitro was an absolute game-changer for my workflow as I could dump photos to my iPad right after a show, cull and get preliminary edits delivered in the cab home, then seamlessly switch to my “big” setup. Guess I need to buy a laptop now :(

Both the apps + people (Nik & Shan) are new to me. I like supporting indie devs and their apps, and seeing their success, so I might support them. Esp. with Adobe and their yearly subscription for PS / Adobe CC (groan).