Apple releases Aperture 3

I pick up an upgrade copy of Aperture 3 at the Apple Store last night.

Installation was a greater chore than I anticipated. Aperture crashed consistently on startup. A little googling revealed that this problem is widespread amongst upgraders. The solution was to delete the Aperture ProID file from Library/Application Support. After restart I needed to enter the serial of my previous Aperture install (Aperture v2).

After start-up, Aperture 3 took 2+ hours to update 70,000 thumbnails in my referenced photo library.

Once I had Aperture 3 up and running I had one additional crash that took down the whole computer, requiring a reboot. Fortunately I did not loose any work. In fact Aperture opened up to the same window with the same images selected prior to the crash

So far I’m happy with the features. I geotagged an entire Bali/Wakatobi trip very quickly. I just hope we see a stability update soon.

I'm learning not to be such an early adopter. I waited until this week to update the OS from 10.5.8 to 10.6.2. I was too anxious to wait for Aperture 3.1.

 

-Brad

Thanks for that; sorry about the hassles though. I will update my laptop first and see how it goes first.

Actually, one of my hopes for Aperture 3 was that they would open up the RAW processing pipeline to third parties, so that Canon, Panasonic, et. al. could incorporate their own algorithms into the app. A pipe dream to be sure, especially for a company like Apple, but I think it would offer a much better plugin architecture than either Apple or Adobe are offering now. Forcing plug-in developers to take over image processing after the RAW is rendered to pixels strikes me as utterly pointless. It's far better to use the Photoshop versions of those plugins with smart filters.

Thats not how it works. ALL the camera mfg's keep the raw processing engine a closely guarded secret. You would probably have better luck breaking into the coca-cola factory and stealing the recipe for coke.

Contrary to belief, the camera mfg's do not work in ANY way with app developers on the raw engines. I recently read in this months photoshop user magazine that the single thing the photoshop team was most proud of in the latest version of Photoshop (cs4) was the raw engine they created. That tells you how much work and effort they put into making your raw file look as good as it can be.

I was actually suprised recently when I compared DPP's output to the new lightroom 3 beta. (which uses ACR I believe). For the first time ever, it actually looked like lightroom looked BETTER than canon's DPP. In the past, Nikon's Capture NX2 and Canon's DPP ALWAYS looked better than any 3rd party raw processor. Im not sure I can say that LR3 beats Canon's DPP all the time, but for the brief comparison I did, it sure seemed like it. That to me is amazing. The one thing that I hated about Aperture 2 was the raw processing on the Canon 5d2 and the 7d. It looked like my cat took a dump on my pictures when I was viewing them inside Aperture. Hence, my old workflow was using DPP, to tiff, import to aperture. Which defeats the whole purpose of raw and non destructive editing inside aperture...so Aperture 3 Is a huge welcome to me.

Please explain by what you mean that "plugin takes over after the raw is rendered to pixels". I don't understand your statement.

I can't even install the darn trial on my computer. Keeps hanging after I click install. Sheesh!

Try booting off the snow leaopard dvd, go to disk utilities, scan your hard drive for errors & permissions.

Try it again..if it still doesen't work, uninstall your old version of aperture. To do this, do the following: (note, your plugins for aperture will be deleted, as well as the aperture app, the only thing left will be your aperture library under your home folder, which by default is under the pictures folder (or wherever you have your aperture library located)

To delete previous versions, start Finder, go to applications, drag the aperture icon to the trash. then back in finder, go to your hard drive (under devices), click Library, then click Application support, go to Aperture, delete that folder.

MAN! I havnt been this excited since I was 12 and the nintendo 64 came out!

LOL, you must have been born around '68 too then huh?

I remember having a Atari 800, with the basic cartridge and the cassette tape recorder to save it!!

what was worse was when they had atari magazine, and would put the binary code for a game in each issue. You would type for HOURS 0101010101010110101010100 and then it wouldnt run. So you would run the check, and then it would say everything was ok.

Then you would wait until the next months issue and sure enough, they would say there was a misprint on the previous issue and give you the code and the line number to fix it. lol, wow, goes to show you how desperate we were back in those days.

Haha, that would take me a week or more to download that

Wow, where are you located that you have speeds that slow? even the cheap $15 a month DSL gives you about 300kb/sec, which still isnt very long to download 500Mb. I feel for you. Slow internet sucks.

Im guessing your on a dialup in a remote area??

on another note.........

Another thing that people dont realize is that to really take advantage of Snow leopards 64bit kernel, you need to boot Snow leopard into 64bit. That way your OS is running in 64bit as well as your apps.

This is assuming your computer can boot into 64 bit mode...to check to see if it can...

====================================================================================================

========================

To determine if your Mac has 32-bit or 64-bit firmware, copy/paste the following command shown in red into Terminal (Terminal is found in the /Applications/Utilities folder):

ioreg -l -p IODeviceTree | grep firmware-abi

====================================================================================================

========================

If it comes back and says "<"EFI64">, you can boot into 64 bit mode.

If it says <"EFI32"> then either you need to update your boot EFI firmware or your computer isnt capable.

To boot into 64 bit mode, hold the 6 and the 4 key down while your computer is starting up.

Then click "about this mac", then click "more info", then click the software tab. It will say under "64-bit Kernel and Extensions:" either YES (if you were successful in booting 64 bit mode) or NO, if you are still in 32 bit mode.

If you want to ALWAYS boot into 64 bit mode, use a app like text wrangler (free) and do this:

Edit the file:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

Insert arch=x86_64 into the Kernel Flags field. <---- this is the only thing you need to do. everything else stays the same!!!! Look below, see where it says <string>arch=x86_64</string>? By default, it will not show arch=x86_64!

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">

<plist version="1.0">

<dict>

<key>Kernel</key>

<string>mach_kernel</string>

<key>Kernel Flags</key>

<string>arch=x86_64</string>

</dict>

</plist>

Lastly, I spoke with both Onone software and NIK software and both are releasing the 64bit plugins for Aperture 3 in the near future (sometime in 2010)

-Geoff

I'm glad Macs are so easy to use these days!

I'm glad Macs are so easy to use these days!

LOL, actually, Apple wanted to avoid the fiasco microsoft had when it introduced its 64 bit software with all the problems users had with incompatible software. By leaving the kernal 32 bit in Snow Leopard, 99.9% of the people will have no problems right out of the box with a 32 bit kernel.

For those that want squeak every last bit of performance out of Snow Leopard, there is the 2 options to enable 64 bit as I showed above.

For those interested, I like this site for interesting Aperture related feature summaries.

http://aperture.maccreate.com/

The last few days they continue to add vignettes of new features. One nice new feature is the way Aperture handles imports, much faster, apparently as fast or faster than the present king, Photomechanic.

In my work flow with Aperature 2, after making initial adjustments in Aperature I open in PS3. When I do this in Apertature 3 I have had CS4 crash twice. Most of the time it works fine.

Has anyone compared noise reduciton with Aperature 3 vs. Nik softwares Dfine?

So far so good for me; installed trial version (while I wait for my boxed version) by download on my laptop. Transferred a small library, used CS4 and tried some basic in Aperture edits. Also downloaded a card. All working flawlessly so far. Have to reconfigure my toolbar etc yet to resemble my Aperture 2 setup, but looks pretty sweet so far. Next, the desktop. Important new feature is being able to use any color space including Prophoto!!!!

If I find I finally have the color management control I wanted, I can finally forget about changing to Lightroom, so happy.

So far so good for me; installed trial version (while I wait for my boxed version) by download on my laptop. Transferred a small library, used CS4 and tried some basic in Aperture edits. Also downloaded a card. All working flawlessly so far. Have to reconfigure my toolbar etc yet to resemble my Aperture 2 setup, but looks pretty sweet so far. Next, the desktop. Important new feature is being able to use any color space including Prophoto!!!!

If I find I finally have the color management control I wanted, I can finally forget about changing to Lightroom, so happy.

Works pretty well for me. Imported about 10 CF cards worth and it was fine, like the fact that in now supports the movies I take with the G9 and 5D Mark II. Then I went and imported about 250 Gigs/16,000 photos. It is processing them now. It is going through face detection now. Looks like it may take awhile

I like the new features, but mine keeps crashing...

The more I explore, the more I like it. Breaking up imports into multiple projects, many new metadata and sorting refinements, integration with address book for IPTC contact info, noting whether the image has been sold, used for other purposes etc.

Video integration, merging libraries so I ca easily merge stuff from my laptop to my desktop when I get home from a trip - pretty cool. Now just need integration with an iPad, or some type of iPad /Aperture ap.

Stability issues aside, which I think will be quickly fixed, I think this is a major improvement and upgrade.

For those having problems, here's a suggestion

http://aperture.maccreate.com/2010/02/15/p...-use-appzapper/

After a week of use, my opinion is that this release seems like it was rushed out the door. Although the new features are certainly cool, I would not trust Aperture as a system to manage my assets until it is updated to address the many user concerns that have been documented in Apple's support forums, and elsewhere. Seems like many others have come to the same conclusion.

After an experience like Eric had, it's very difficult to even consider Aperture as a solution for managing a photo library.

After a week of use, my opinion is that this release seems like it was rushed out the door. Although the new features are certainly cool, I would not trust Aperture as a system to manage my assets until it is updated to address the many user concerns that have been documented in Apple's support forums, and elsewhere. Seems like many others have come to the same conclusion.

Like the new features alot, but that article pretty much nailed it from the things I have been putting it through. The large test failed for me for the most part. Shutting off Faces did not help much (and that thing is a pig, albeit kind of cool in concept) and I had a kernal panic. Pretty sure that was from Aperture.

i spoke with tech support yesterday, and the guy walked me through some stuff on disk utility to correct some permissions. it took a while, but it seemed to help. there was a lot less of the spinning beach ball after that.

by the way, the guy on the phone acknowledged the issues that they have been having, and said they are working on a fix. that's great and all, but i agree that they released this too soon.

Just to add my few pence worth....

I'm a Lightroom and (until recently) a PC user.

I've downloaded, installed and used Aperture 3 over the past week or so, and can honestly say that I have yet (!) to experience any problems. It was clean install.

Eric's experience with the previous version makes me very wary of using this as a primary tool anyway.

I can't say that I have used it enough to provide any serious comparison to Lightroom, but it does seem as if it may have been rushed. It is frustrating that the third party Flickr etc. export plug ins still only work in 32 bit mode.

I do have great hopes for Lightroom 3 though! Can't wait till it releases.

Adam

i think the problems tend to arise when upgrading from an earlier version. if aperture 3 is the first version you have used, i think you're ok...

The Aperture 3.01 update is out today.

The following list does not address me biggest gripe:

Import>Folders INTO Projects has been replaced with

Import>Folders AS Projects

I believe it was Eric who taught me this this method of file import management during a lecture several years ago. Using Aperture 3 it is no longer possible to import a folder full of images directly into a project as an album. Folders are now imported as projects at the root level. This has thrown a major kink into my import workflow.

Aperture 3.01 Reported fixes:

Upgrading libraries from earlier versions of Aperture

Importing libraries from iPhoto

Importing photos directly from a camera

Memory usage when processing heavily-retouched photos

Face recognition processing

Adding undetected faces using the Add Missing Face button

Printing pages containing multiple images

Printing photos and contact sheets with borders and metadata

Editing photos using an external editor

Display of images with Definition and Straighten adjustments applied

Zooming photos in the Viewer and in the Loupe using keyboard shortcuts

Accessing Aperture libraries on a network volume

Selecting and moving pins on the Places map

Adding and editing custom locations using the Manage My Places window

Switching between masters when working with RAW+JPEG pairs.

-Brad

I use aperture2, and absolutely love it for my UW editing. Is 3 worth the upgrading? Are there any particular NEW feature that you guys are using and liking with the upgrade to 3?

Just got back from a few days in the Silverbanks. I used a 'clean' install of Aperture 3 and a new Aperture Library. The program is fast, sweet, and appears to work pretty much as advertised, even though my laptop could probably use more RAM.

Features I like; downloads are much faster with simultaneous download to backup drive working very well. I love the new full screen mode for reviewing and working on images.

Before I left, I was not so lucky converting my old library on my desktop, so I'm hopeful the new update fixes the problem as advertised. If it does, I can strongly recommend the program, though I would recommend disabling faces unless you have a need to use it.

One has to wonder why Apple could not get it right on the first release; but I have to give them credit for fixing things quite quickly with version 3.01

I completed my upgrade of my previous Aperture 2 to Aperture 3 library on my desktop today, and it went flawlessly despite taking all day to upgrade my 35,000 image library.

I then merged my Silverbanks project from last week from my laptop to my desktop which went flawlessly. I love this new functionality that will allow transfer and merging of projects or libraries from my laptop to desktop and back without duplication. This is exactly what I was hoping for to allow a centralized database with real synching of projects and libraries to allow multimachine or user functionality.

Now with my upgrade complete I think the upgrade is absolutely worth it; non-destructive brush editing works well. I continue to be impressed by all the new features. Exporting with xmp sidecar appears to work well, though I now no longer need it as I have changed my mind about moving to Lightroom.

Also used my camera GPS to geotag images which now show up as pins on the Google Maps / Places feature, quite cool, and useful too. I have been asked to provide geotagged images for research purposes.