So who is going to upgrade to Aperture 3?

[anubis]

As much as I like discussion thread on the main page story of Aperture 3 (sarcasm), it would be nice to have a thread that's mainly just the "Digital Photography Forum" regulars like myself.

So, are you going to upgrade to Aperture 3? Is anyone jumping ship from LR2? Just going to wait until LR3?

For me, while it's nice that Apple has brought Aperture into the 21st century with localized nondestructive edits ("Brushes" as Apple calls it), Lightroom has had this feature since the beginning. I started out using Aperture 2, but as a semi-pro photographer, the lack of nondestructive local edits was killing me, and I reluctantly made the switch to LR2. Although the Lightroom interface is much clunkier than Aperture, I needed those features more than I needed ease of use.

Unfortunately for Apple, I have built a massive Lightroom library and can't make another switch back to Aperture, so I'm just going to wait until LR3 comes out. On the other hand, if I had a huge Aperture library, I'd be chomping at the bit to get that update ASAP!

 

[JDDavis]

I've been with Aperture the whole time so I'll stick with it for the upgrade. The brushes are a welcome add as well as the editing presets. Faces and Places are neat but I may not use them much. The two biggest things that I am happy about is the 64 bit which will hopefully improve the speed and now it handles video. The video will be nice for the occasional video I take with the D90. I'm looking forward to the upgrade.

I will say though, Apple is giving me less reasons to upgrade iLife. I've stopped using iPhoto and all I really use now is iMovie and iWeb. Aperture 3 may give me enough to give up on iMovie...

 

[Grimace]

The clunkiness of LR has been the biggest source of kryptonite for me. Aperture is a bit more of a resource hog, but the workflow/UI are so much better. I'm definitely upgrading as soon as Apple starts sending out the download links.

Given that it is ONLY for Intel computers, I expect to see major support for multicore/multithreading/multiwhatever. So far, Snow Leopard hasn't done too much for me...

 

[NeuralControl]

I've never had Aperture before, but I am sure that I will purchase Aperture 3 in the next few months. I really like some of the new features in this revision.

 

[chrono1081]

I started out with Lightroom, and when I switched to Mac I gave Aperture a try and really liked it (it runs much faster then LR) and I love the UI, but stuck with Lightroom because of the exposure brushes.

Now that Aperture has them I'm going to give it another shot. I may end up being a convert.

 

[Artful Dodger]

I will wait for some good strong feedback from others before taking the plunge for the upgrade as I have Aperture 2. I have used LR before and since I have CS4 (PS in there of course) I think I'm covered just fine for the things I do and need at the moment. My big thing will be moving my old iPhoto library (15GB) over once I'm ready to as that is my main concern at this point

 

[cube]

I see this more as an iPhoto upgrade.

Does it have the cool web publishing of Lightroom?

It states that Kodak DCS/Pro n is supported. Does this mean 14n too?

 

[robbieduncan]

I'll be upgrading. I've been pretty happy with Aperture 2 and this looks better all round.

 

[VirtualRain]

I'll definitely be upgrading. I hope the performance has improved.

Can someone explain what you can do with the new brushes?

 

[wheelhot]

I for one will definitely be upgrading cuz now the fullscreen mode will be much more usable, especially with the shift key

Anyone tried the trial yet? I registered but not getting any email from Apple yet.

 

[SayCheese]

ME ME ME, I will be upgrading.

I have just had a look at the new features in Aperture 3 and two of them really stand out for me.

The first is the merging of two libraries and the ability to switch without restarting Aperture. I reguarly take images out and about and edit them. When I get home I then upload to my main library on an external HDD. At the moment to do this I have to export from my local library as a project then import to the external. This should solve the issue for me.

The second is some of the brushes features. Had a look at the Chase Jarvis video on the Aperture page and it looks like they could be useful.

Oh and the other one that could be good is Geotagging. My camera is not GPS enabled (1D Mk II), however it looks like I can take a single image with my iPhone, then import the GPS data from there.

Lets hope that Apple have also improved the sharpen tool and it'll be near enough perfect.

 

[SayCheese]

I'll definitely be upgrading. I hope the performance has improved.

Can someone explain what you can do with the new brushes?

Have a look at Chase Jarvis utilising the brushes here

 

[spice weasel]

I'll be buying Aperture 3. I never upgraded to Aperture 2 from 1.5, and then realized that 1.5 doesn't work on Snow Leopard. I was expecting an update, so I never bothered buying 2.0.

I'll have to wait a bit for the university computer store to stock it, though. According to the Apple Store page, the upgrade price is not available to the academic 1.5 version, and I'm not going to pay $200 for it; the computer store usually sells Aperture (and Final Cut Express, which I'm also hoping will be updated soon) for $75.

 

[Grimace]

I'll definitely be upgrading. I hope the performance has improved.

Can someone explain what you can do with the new brushes?

It's localized non-destructive editing. Before, you could change brightness (etc.) overall to the entire image, but to do a specific area, you had to use dodge-and-burn which would give you a TIFF image.

Web page export options are the only thing I like better about LR. Let's hope Ap3 ponies up for some new options that aren't tied to MobileMe.

 

[spice weasel]

Oh and the other one that could be good is Geotagging. My camera is not GPS enabled (1D Mk II), however it looks like I can take a single image with my iPhone, then import the GPS data from there.

Check out the iPhone app called "Tracks." It's a geo-logger. Start up Tracks and wait for it to get a GPS lock, then start taking photos with your 1D Mk II. You can then email the gps log to yourself and use that to geotag your photos. I use it in conjunction with HoudahGeo to match up the gps log and the time stamps and tag the EXIF data, but it seems like you might be able to run the track log through Aperture 3.

 

[pit29]

Why is the trial 800MB+??

 

[robbieduncan]

Why is the trial 800MB+??

Probably includes a sample project...

 

[spice weasel]

Probably includes a sample project...

Actually, according to the download box, it doesn't. You can only get sample images by purchasing the retail box version. Also, the trial download is only showing up as 558 megs for me.

 

[Westside guy]

I will probably wait a short while, but in all likelihood I'll be upgrading to Aperture 3. Everyone's different; but Lightroom never did it for me - it always felt like it got "in the way" and forced me to follow its regimen. Aperture just gets out of the way and lets me do my work (most of the time).

I'm happy the "non pro" features like Faces got added - that'll be useful with cataloging a lot of old family shots. Since Aperture and Lightroom have had red-eye reduction since day one, it's always been obvious they weren't intended to be strictly pro apps - not that I've needed red-eye reduction, but there's nothing wrong with making apps user friendly!

I'm sure the localized adjustments will be useful, but it's not something I need all that often. It just means my trips to Photoshop may dwindle from infrequent to almost never.

 

[gfiz]

can someone explain to me like I'm a 10 year old exactly why I might want Aperture as a non-professional consumer? What benefit would I get out of it that I don't already have? I for some reason feel compelled to buy this software but can come up with zero justification for it...just an itchy "buy now" finger...

 

[Westside guy]

can someone explain to me like I'm a 10 year old exactly why I might want Aperture as a non-professional consumer? What benefit would I get out of it that I don't already have? I for some reason feel compelled to buy this software but can come up with zero justification for it...just an itchy "buy now" finger...

I'd say "download the trial and see for yourself". And while I'm not a Lightroom fan, I'd suggest the same for that program as well.

I am strictly a hobbyist, not a pro - but I find the Aperture workflow and editing tools to be extremely useful. Having the editing, cataloging, and other management tools all rolled into one app makes it easier to think more about my actual photography.

It takes some getting used to, though. A lot of people continue to fight with the idea that the app becomes their organization/management tool - they still want to put things in their own folders, name the images the way they want, etc. So be aware that, if you want to try it (or Lightroom), you should give it more than a 2-minute chance. Also note if you're very used to Photoshop already then Lightroom will probably feel more comfortable at first, since its tools are very much like Photoshop's. I encourage you to give Aperture a good chance, though. You may still end up preferring Lightroom; but some of us find Aperture's "get out of the way and let the photographer do his/her thing" style to be just the ticket.

 

[robbieduncan]

can someone explain to me like I'm a 10 year old exactly why I might want Aperture as a non-professional consumer? What benefit would I get out of it that I don't already have? I for some reason feel compelled to buy this software but can come up with zero justification for it...just an itchy "buy now" finger...

Do you use iPhoto? Wish that it could do stuff that it can't? The consider Aperture.

 

[Westside guy]

Looking through the new features... nice to finally have "official" management of multiple libraries. I use Aperture both for work and for my own stuff, so it'll be one less thing I have to think about in terms of organization.

All in all, it appears to be a worthy update.

 

[Ish]

I'd been looking at Aperture then read the threads on here and decided to wait as it seemed an upgrade was imminent. Think I'll have a look at the free trial and maybe make a request for my birthday.

If I download the free trial, I'm assuming it won't automatically reorganise my existing folders, leaving me to resort them if there's a gap between trying and buying it?

 

[SayCheese]

Check out the iPhone app called "Tracks." It's a geo-logger. Start up Tracks and wait for it to get a GPS lock, then start taking photos with your 1D Mk II. You can then email the gps log to yourself and use that to geotag your photos. I use it in conjunction with HoudahGeo to match up the gps log and the time stamps and tag the EXIF data, but it seems like you might be able to run the track log through Aperture 3.

You don't happen to have a link to that app do you? I did a search for tracks and couldn't find it.