Apple Updates Aperture to Version 3

[Calxoddity]

Hi,
Aperture 3 has just been released. Localised non-destructive edits etc etc etc. Worth a look if you have a Mac!

Regards,
Calx

[Mircula]

Hehe,

I just got used to using Lightroom, so i guess i might stick with that.....

Any idea when lightroom 3 is coming? I heard the beta is over.....

[coolie21]

No killer feature there - not sure I see enough in there to want to pay to upgrade. Face recognition and geotagging are already in iphoto, where they belong (face recognition is a fairly useless gimmick IMHO). Already have the Nik Suite and photoshop for the other stuff

[R1titan]

Thx for the heads up :th3:

[Calxoddity]

No killer feature there - not sure I see enough in there to want to pay to upgrade. Face recognition and geotagging are already in iphoto, where they belong (face recognition is a fairly useless gimmick IMHO). Already have the Nik Suite and photoshop for the other stuff

I disagree - non destructive localised editing without having to create a tiff is a big plus, as is the ability to have pre-sets. Improved printing has to be a good thing too. I haven't downloaded a trial yet, so I'm yet to figure out if any of the other claimed 200 new features has a wow factor.

I'm with you though on the Faces thing - that's an answer in search of a question as far as I'm concerned.

If I get around to downloading the trial I'll post a mini-review.

Regards,
Calx

[MarkW]

Ordered my upgrade last week - should be sitting at work waiting for me on Monday :)

[IainBest]

I downloaded the trial. My mini review: Slow as a wet week, RAM hog, CPU hog. Having said that, I love that pretty much any adjustment can be brushed.

I'm waiting for LR3 to be released before I make my mind up. I've been using LR3 beta and it's pretty nice.. interested to see what tricks Adobe have up their sleeve.

[Calxoddity]

Hi,
On Friday I tried out the trial version of Aperture 3. On Saturday I purchased the upgrade license key online and upgraded my Aperture 2 library to Aperture 3.

The Upgrade:

if you already have aperture installed, rename it from aperture.app to something else if you just want to try it out first
make a backup of your current aperture library (ie the *name*.aplibrary file
before you convert your Aperture 2 library to Aperture 3, go into the Aperture 3 preferences and turn Faces and geotagging OFF
also before conversion, close down all other applications and make sure you have a lot of disk space free for swap space
Believe Apple's statement that the conversion will take a long time
Make sure Aperture 3 is working before you try converting anything - create a simple new library just for kicks and import some pikkies


The Result:

conversion took 40 mins for a 10,000 item references library
everything migrated cleanly
all the features worked
Aperture 3 is noticeably faster than Aperture 2
the localised adjustment brushes are fast and work really nicely - the edge detection is great


The Aftermath

Just for kicks, today I upgraded from Leopard to Snow Leopard. It also went flawlessly. Aperture is now running 64-bit and has sped up a little more.

What to Watch For

You've gotta RTFM. If you try to convert with Faces and/or geotagging turned on, it will end in tears. Faces will continue to work in the background after conversion even if you manage to survive the conversion, and make everything slow down, including your nice shiny new Aperture.

If you try to migrate a library containing corrupted or very large images (say big tiffs) it may well crash/freeze.

Use commonsense - take a backup of your library. Yes, this is the second time I said it. The support forums are full of halfwits that believe (correctly or otherwise) that the upgrade process has eaten their library. This is only true if you had no backups!

Regards,
Calx

[MarkW]

Hi Calx
I run a seperate HDD with all my images on it - not the MBP drive where only the Aperture app resides. But my images are all big TIFFs and about 5000 to 7000 images per drive with multiple drives - each one an aperture library in its own.

Do I have one of the libraries attached whilst I do the upgrade or can I leave them detached until the upgrade is completed then upgrade each library as I'm ready for it.

Also is the upgrade done to the Vault?

[Calxoddity]

Mark,
A3 is now multi-library aware, so you can have as many libraries as you like and switch between them inside Aperture.

I gather from your description you're using managed mode? If that is the case, take a backup of each library before doing the conversion. Mine is referenced, so the library file was "only" just over 8GB, containing only the thumbnails, pointers, adjustment records, and metadata - but not the images themselves. You will be able to convert each library as you choose.

I don't know about the vault. I think (and it's not a certainty) that an A2 vault is readable by A3 but not the reverse. Same for A2 libraries, obviously (not sure if you can use an A2 library without converting though...).

With big tiffs and managed library, your risk profile is higher than my setup. Lotsa free hard disk on your primary drive (for swap space) and lotsa unallocated RAM is going to be vital for a smooth migration.

Regards,
Calx

[MarkW]

Thax Calx
I've also read on the Apple support forum that its better to import a library than to try the conversion, so that might be my way to go as I have plenty of spare external HDDs.