Comments on: The Next Aperture?

By: Jochen

Jochen — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 18:20:17 +0000

RB,

here it is: the new Aperture plug-in “Catapult” from Brushed Pixel. They claimed that this plug-in allows you to use Adobe Camera Raw or Nikon Capture (or other Raw-converters) to perform RAW conversions with images from your Aperture library. Catapult will stack the converted images with your RAW masters in Aperture, and archive the settings used to produce the converted image for later use.

At the moment I use Phase One and I’m very happy with it for the pure Raw conversion but it fails when it comes to cataloging, archiving etc. My hope is, that with catapult I can use the best things of both worlds, Aperture and Phase One.

I would be very happy, to hear your opinion.

Jochen

By: dalegaspi

dalegaspi — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:42:15 +0000

you, sir, are my hero for making the NEF support on top of the list of things that need to be fixed. i believe that instead of Nikon wasting time on the gawd-awful UI that is Capture NX, they should focus their efforts on creating a plug-in for Aperture or LR…or just like what Elliot says, drop-in RAW converters…that would be awesome.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/38477/saturday-night-live-update-thursday-fix-it

By: MIKE

MIKE — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:20:20 +0000

Man I hope Apple is listening!

I for one can manage with most of Aperture’s faults.. I do however really want a more complete book designer.. as of right now its a good start and nothing more.. sadly they left out some of the most important elements in a design tool.. like selecting multiple mattes and batch changing dimensions, or having movable guides and alignment tools. Although if you want to design in Pages.. then you have all of that and more (just not your photos managed).. go figure. It is very sad what is happening to Aperture.. such potential. I certainly feel like the lone Aperture supporter.. when my wife tells me she’s fed up with Aperture’s quarks and wants to buy Lightroom because other photographers we know did exactly that and are SOOO happy they did.. errr!

Oh, and yes the slideshow does suck! It takes way too long to produce anything as does some cool batch effects that Lightroom has.. so lets say I’m at a wedding and I want to wow the guests at the reception.. with Lightroom I can do it in moments after importing.. with Aperture.. not too sure if I can even do it before all the guests leave – that is make images look cool and organize and run a slide show. And I did this with Lightroom 1.. don’t even know how improved Lightroom 2 is? So frustrating Apple! While I’m at it please update Final Cut Studio.. HELLO!!! PRO APP USERS CALLING.. THEY WANT THEIR APPS BACK!

By: Robert

Robert — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:00:54 +0000

Printing 1. Colour and 3.
Mr. Bowyer, eloquently stated. You express the frustration that I too feel.
I made a post on the support Forum once about how, in Apple, the direction is clearly Ipod’s and iPhones. With such a corporate emphasis, it is probably the place where anybody who is anybody, wants to be. Aperture is in the opposite direction and I suspect it is where the naughty ones are sent to work and where budgets get cut first. Strangely, Apple removed my post.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:13:56 +0000

As far as NEFs go, I think Apple licenses RAW conversions from one of the 3rd-party conversion software companies because it’s just too much work (redundant work at that) for Apple engineers to try to keep up with all the new cameras coming out.

First and foremost Apple needs to match Lightroom in local edits. Without that I’m going bye-bye. Second, they need to improve NEFs and third the way plugins interace. #2 & #3 can be SOLVED if Apple is able to open the RAW pipeline: think about drop-in RAW converters and non-destructive plugins directly working on RAW without roundtripping. Probably too much of an engineering challenge even if Apple wanted to do it, though.

What will we really see? Of course Apple will integrate iPhoto’s Faces and Places, and with the advent of video there may be some sort of database linkage to iMove/Final Cut. Aside from that I suspect Apple won’t try to leapfrog Lightroom, which is a shame since that Adobe product is only gaining traction in the market.

By: Lawrence

Lawrence — Wed, 27 May 2009 20:49:22 +0000

I have to agree that I share your frustrations (like the rest of the aperture users out there). I have used Aperture since the week it came out and I have to say I wish I had not invested all the time developing my photos in Aperture so I could make the jump to lightroom. But regardless, I probably will make that jump soon if they don’t show aperture 3 at wwdc…

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 26 May 2009 13:02:51 +0000

I agree with Michael.

I’ve wondered why Apple is allowing the consumer apps to drive the pro apps. I understand that focus must be on the majority, but when you use the minority (professionals, and professional apps) to sell and reinforce your majority, you had better make sure that your pro stuff shines.

The thing that I’ve seen about most professionals is that they will gravitate towards what works and what is recommended by those they see as peers regardless of brand. They will tell you when something sucks (see above). Their time is money.

Apple had damn sure better realize that this reputation among the professional crowd is hard won and easily lost. It took Nikon nearly 20 years to come back among professionals after ignoring auto focus and lens development (at least among sport shooters). Apple could be in the same boat with Aperture.

It doesn’t necessarily bother me that the same development team does both programs as long as it is developed with the right input from pros to make it a pro app and the understanding that iPhoto and Aperture are two completely different programs aimed at two completely different market segments.

By: antwerpenR

antwerpenR — Mon, 25 May 2009 21:27:16 +0000

RB – you are right! We are due a significant upgrade in A2 and as a power user people like you are best placed to have a loud voice.

Still, I love A2 and would not be without it….but an A3 that does some of the above would be very nice….hell, I would even pay for it….as long as it will run on my Apple Netbook!

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:57:16 +0000

RB,
Do you remember those old Memorex commercials with the guy sitting in front of his stereo, and the sound is so powerful that it’s blowing his hair, his tie, his face, and he has to grip the arms of his chair to keep Himself from from blowing away too?
Well now I can relate.
You started your piece by saying “Somehow I feel like the sole Aperture cheerleader out there and am feeling a little lonely.”
And you have been. You have always written from a “glass is half full” point of view.
You have always been the best source on the web for “making Aperture work” with focused and concise articles.
You have always responded to criticisms of what’s wrong with Aperture, with an upbeat “yes, but here’s how you get around that.”
You have obviously reached a tipping point where your frustrations are about to overwhelm your advocacy.
You’ve reached the point where you wonder if maybe the glass is half empty.
This is sad for Apple and for us.
And who can blame you? Certainly not me.
You are the latest victim of Apple’s condescension, “We’re Apple, we have every right to ignore you, and even though you buy our products, we’ll tell you what you need, and when you need it”
For the most part they get away with it, because for the most part they’ve been right. They make mostly great products.
They have a problem now because they have been very successful on many fronts, and now many different products need to be maintained and updated.
They can’t keep up, and their pride keeps them from admitting it. They focus resources on the biggest opportunities, which makes corporate sense, but starves “niche ” products like Aperture. They save money by having the iPhoto team develop Aperture,which dilutes the used experience, they save money by having the discontinuity of development in “fits & starts” with no schedule.
They also rely on the premise that if the original concept is brilliant enough, people will have no choice but to wait for the update. We are “strung along” by our own desire to use a product that will “someday” fulfill the brilliance of it’s original conception.
And here we sit, watching the program that showed all others that software can work the way a photographer thinks, languish while other products, less brilliant in concept but ever more practical to use, pass it by.
That in my opinion is the biggest source of our frustration, we are forced to watch as something we loved and admired, fails to realize it’s potential, and we realize that our trust has been betrayed, and our work learning the product will have to be repeated on a different one.
We feel let down, and Apple apparently doesn’t care.

Perhaps a triumphant Aperture 3 will arrive behind Snow Leopard, but even if it does, in terms of market share and the development resources that it would imply, it might be too little too late.
They can always add a loupe tool to iPhoto and change it’s name.