running out of time...(Lightroom beta)

[srf4real]

My g4 mini won't run Aperture, and Lightroom is the easiest to use of all the other editing software, runs good alongside PSE 4... but soon Adobe is going to want some moolah for me to keep using LR.

What are the chances of Leopard, or iLife '07, I should say, having an iPhoto with decent editing power for at least jpeg and tiff files, if not raw image data? As slick as Apple is, I really have come to expect a single program that edits, backups, organizes, yeh, all of it in one big shiny box. Am I dreaming, or is Lightroom the best way to spend my $200?

 

[Plymouthbreezer]

My g4 mini won't run Aperture, and Lightroom is the easiest to use of all the other editing software, runs good alongside PSE 4... but soon Adobe is going to want some moolah for me to keep using LR.

What are the chances of Leopard, or iLife '07, I should say, having an iPhoto with decent editing power for at least jpeg and tiff files, if not raw image data? As slick as Apple is, I really have come to expect a single program that edits, backups, organizes, yeh, all of it in one big shiny box. Am I dreaming, or is Lightroom the best way to spend my $200?

Eh. Not good. Just spend the cash on Lightroom, it's only $200 now anyway, hardly a large sum when dealing with modern, professional software.

I'm AT the minimum requirements for Lightroom (768MB RAM, 1GHz G4), yet it still runs okay, with minor lag on my 17" iMac. Nonetheless, for those of us with older, yet usable machines, it's our only option now and into the foreseeable future.

...Anyway, Apple wouldn't bolster iPhoto's features simply because it would take away some of Aperture's market.

 

[Abstract]

Lightroom is the best way to spend your money. I like it more than Aperture in many ways, but it'll depend on what the absolute final student or special price is in Australia. If they really expect me to pay $350 AUD for it (that's after the $150 discount.....regular price is around $500), they're dreaming. According to the Conversion wiki, $199 USD = $255 AUD, not $350 AUD. I don't like companies that are willing to screw me simply because of geography.
If I download it rather than request a physical copy of the software, the extra $100 I pay is really just like paying for air.

On principles alone, I may buy Aperture.

 

[xtopher]

a little off topic but is it just me or do other people HATE how aperature stores and handles photos?

 

[sjl]

Lightroom is the best way to spend your money. I like it more than Aperture in many ways, but it'll depend on what the absolute final student or special price is in Australia. If they really expect me to pay $350 AUD for it (that's after the $150 discount.....regular price is around $500), they're dreaming.

I seem to remember (but my memory is very unreliable at the best of times) an Apple store in Melbourne telling me that the academentia price of Lightroom will be around the $AU190 mark.

*googles*

Clicky! (NB: not an official price, but still, it's an indication.)

 

[Abstract]

Is that a trustworthy store?


It says "Buy $134.00" below it. That's nuts. That's like $100 USD or something.

And besides, what's the catch with EDU pricing and Adobe products? Am I not allowed to do a major upgrade or something, or does it only limit my use of the software for non-commercial purposes? I can't live with the former, but I can live with the latter.

 

[0007776]

IAnd besides, what's the catch with EDU pricing and Adobe products? Am I not allowed to do a major upgrade or something, or does it only limit my use of the software for non-commercial purposes? I can't live with the former, but I can live with the latter.

I think that you can't do an upgrade on EDU software.

 

[sjl]

Is that a trustworthy store?

Don't know. They were just the first store hit on "lightroom academic site:au" (google).

It says "Buy $134.00" below it. That's nuts. That's like $100 USD or something.

Well, a further search reveals City Software (whom I know to be a legit business) doing it for $AU145, so it's not out of the realm of possibility.

I can't comment on restrictions on Adobe education software, but it's very common for edu software in general to not be eligible for upgrade pricing to later releases.

 

[epicwelshman]

You could always try Photomechanic... some photojournalists I know swear by it, especially for speed.

And I love how Aperture stores photos... what's wrong with it?

 

[xtopher]

And I love how Aperture stores photos... what's wrong with it?

the fact that i makes a file for a thumbnail and another file for one your editing and just in general alot of copies and it also catagorizes them kinda weird. unless theres a setting i can change that i havent discovered yet lol

 

[robbieduncan]

the fact that i makes a file for a thumbnail and another file for one your editing and just in general alot of copies and it also catagorizes them kinda weird. unless theres a setting i can change that i havent discovered yet lol

The thumbnails are tiny compared to RAW masters so they load very quickly. They are necessary if you want to share the data with other apps as they cannot understand the RAW+Recipe way of dealing with images that Aperture uses. If you have referenced Masters they let you see what's in your off machine Library...

You can completely turn them off in the Preferences as well as controlling the quality and size of them.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

And besides, what's the catch with EDU pricing and Adobe products? Am I not allowed to do a major upgrade or something, or does it only limit my use of the software for non-commercial purposes? I can't live with the former, but I can live with the latter.

I think there's actually very little restriction... I cannot seem to get it confirmed, but it seems like Adobes product line (sans the old Macromedia applications) can be used for whatever you want, as long as you qualify for EDU pricing when you buy it:

What are the restrictions in using education versions of Adobe products?
A customer may only purchase one copy of any product. Education versions of Former Macromedia products only (Studio 8, Dreamweaver, Flash, etc.) are intended for instructional and administrative purposes only and may not be used for any commercial purpose.

[Link]

And this hints that you may even upgrade later, even if you're no longer a student, at (more or less) regular upgrade prices:

No longer a student?

An important note about upgrading your software: Your personal investment in Adobe products may continue to be valuable, even if you no longer meet the qualifications for Adobe Education pricing. Please contact the online Adobe Store or your local reseller for information about upgrades to commercial versions of your products.

[Link]

I'm actually considering enrolling in my old Univerity for the sole purpose of getting a bunch of Adobe products...

 

[Mydriasis]

What are the chances of Leopard, or iLife '07, I should say, having an iPhoto with decent editing power for at least jpeg and tiff files, if not raw image data?

I think it is very likely that iPhoto under Leopard will have the ability to edit raw image data directly, as there is a new camera raw core image filter in leopard. And if iPhoto 07 uses NSGridview its gonna kick some serious behind.

I personaly use Aperture, because of its intuitive workflow and awesome data management. I have played around with Lightroom as well and love the speed and rich feature set.

Its a tough choice mainly because now a days the interaction between apps is so important: iPhoto and Aperture work so nicely with the iLife suite and Lightroom with the CS. So if you use you pictures mainly to edit in PSE and print them and your going to stick with that computer much longer get Lightroom, its a good deal. But if you use your pictures in Apple Apps a lot then I'd say wait till iPhoto 07 comes out.

 

[srf4real]

I will probably wait for the iLife '07 release and Leopard, but then they better hurry or the introductory offer of 100 bucks off will expire on Lightroom. -Do ya think they plan it that way on purpose?

 

[compuwar]

What are the chances of Leopard, or iLife '07, I should say, having an iPhoto with decent editing power for at least jpeg and tiff files, if not raw image data?

Slim to none, Aperture fills that market pretty well.

Is that a trustworthy store?


It says "Buy $134.00" below it. That's nuts. That's like $100 USD or something.

And besides, what's the catch with EDU pricing and Adobe products? Am I not allowed to do a major upgrade or something, or does it only limit my use of the software for non-commercial purposes? I can't live with the former, but I can live with the latter.

You used to be able to do straight upgrades with the commercial packages, but then again .edu licenses used to be fully transferable.

 

[srf4real]

Slim to none, Aperture fills that market pretty well.

But my 2 year old mini doesn't meet aperture's hardware requirements. Nobody told me that the video card was an achilles' heel. (I hadn't discovered MacRumors yet, or I'msure I'd have gotten a warning...

 

[compuwar]

But my 2 year old mini doesn't meet aperture's hardware requirements. Nobody told me that the video card was an achilles' heel. (I hadn't discovered MacRumors yet, or I'msure I'd have gotten a warning...

I feel your pain, but I really can't see Apple canabalizing the Aperture market for iPhoto. That's not to say they *won't*, it just doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, you know you want a new Mac with lots more memory for photo editing...

 

[Mydriasis]

iPhoto already has camera raw support, to some extent at least!

By improving iPhoto, Apple will not canabalize the Aperture market. Aperture does so much more and in a totally different way. They target a completely different audience. And besides they're probably improving and adding features to Aperture as well.

Now about that graphics card... I am sorry to say but there are a lot of things, espeacially in Leopard, that wont work with old graphic cards. Core Animation and Core Image are just a two of them. And its not all eyecandy, see aperture. I feel your pain though, I still use a PowerBook G3 from 1999 (as a laptop)! The HD is basically full just because of the OS.

 

[compuwar]

By improving iPhoto, Apple will not canabalize the Aperture market. Aperture does so much more and in a totally different way. They target a completely different audience. And besides they're probably improving and adding features to Aperture as well.

On the pro side, they're different markets, but a lot more amateurs are buying Aperture- probably more than Apple envisioned given their original marketing material. The DSLR upswing really grew the market for what's traditionally been pro photo software, and Apple can sell lots more Aperture if they keep the status quo.

 

[Mydriasis]

On the pro side, they're different markets, but a lot more amateurs are buying Aperture- probably more than Apple envisioned given their original marketing material. The DSLR upswing really grew the market for what's traditionally been pro photo software, and Apple can sell lots more Aperture if they keep the status quo.

Sure, but people who say: 'Now that I have this Canon 400D, I need some real pro image organizing tool.' and then go and spend another 300 bucks on aperture, will do it no matter how good iPhoto is. (trust me I belong to this group )

just my very humble opinion

 

[compuwar]

Sure, but people who say: 'Now that I have this Canon 400D, I need some real pro image organizing tool.' and then go and spend another 300 bucks on aperture, will do it no matter how good iPhoto is. (trust me I belong to this group )

just my very humble opinion

Oh, I don't doubt it, however in my experience that's not how product managers think-- and I'd bet that the Aperture product manager is higher on the food chain than the iPhoto product manager simply because Apple relizes more revenue from Aperture per-copy and it's gotten them serious visibility in the pro photography market. Since iPhoto is bundled it can't get the same level of sales/marketing, and let's face it- iPhoto is almost good enough for most pro cataloging (backups were the major deciding factor for me, that and lightroom didn't like even a couple hundred images at once,) but it's not a flagship product, and I see Aperture as a flagship product. Very few software companies can resist deliberately crippling a good application in return for selling functionality in a flagship product.


BTW: It was about $258 with shipping from B&H- every bit helps!
I've been wrong before, I'd like to be wrong on this, but I wouldn't bet against it.

 

[srf4real]

I will have a g5 powermac by late summer, with aperture. (if my uncle leaves it there for me) Sometimes I wish I could just be more patient, like I have this big crisis today when in reality I'm getting a killer machine in a few months for $1000 - so my photographer uncle can get his new mac pro!