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Aperture 2

still no X3F support

Written by RV from HARDERWIJK

Aug 26, 2009

While Apple still doesn't support X3F Raw-files, this product isn't usefull for me.
Just started with Adobe Lightroom which support X3F.
If you have a superior Sigma camera, don't buy Aperture!
I am a great fan of Apple, but I am fan of digital Sigma camera's too.
It's a pitty Apple doesn't support such a good camera for such a long time.
I hope Apple will fix this problem in the near future.
Aperture is a very nice packet, it's probably the best there is.
If I had another camera I would go for Aperture.
See the compatability-list before you buy this product.

62 of 85 people found this useful

Aperture 2

disapointing

Written by LS from Moose Jaw

Oct 29, 2009

lacks a lot of features that i used in elements 7. I should have done more research before purchasing this program.

44 of 78 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Worst software on my mac

Written by JD from Dover

Dec 16, 2009

If I could give this zero stars, I would. The software is difficult to use and does not interface well with iphoto. Never in a million years would have thought Apple could have come up with something that does not work will with it's own software/hardware. Go with Photoshop.

2 of 11 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Snow Leopard messed up my Aperture

Written by GF from Needham

Sep 10, 2009

My Aperture program was wonderful until I upgraded to Snow Leopard. Now it has problem's including sending out photo's in the mail program that don't change size and blink on the screen 3 times before it stops the moment.

129 of 151 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Aperture 2: Weak on Performance & Stability

Written by CB from Columbia

Oct 3, 2009

I've been using Aperture for years, updating from 1.x to 2.x and always been impressed with its rich feature set and polished interface. However, there are chronic performance and stability problems.

My library isn't that large (certainly not on par with a pro) and I'm glad to have Time Machine backups because the library has become corrupted on more than one occasion. Unexpected crashes, increasingly slow load times, and periods were it goes unresponsive while seemingly to do nothing (CPU, disk, memory, and network practically idling) are increasingly motivating me to try Lightroom.

58 of 67 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Mine has a bug

Written by GR from Diamond Creek

Aug 21, 2009

I really like it . . . but, my version has a bug that is incredibly annoying. About every 5 photos when I perform adjustments light coloured streaks appear. I have to quit and re-open the app and they go away. This wastes time. I have paid for and used the incredibly expensive Apple Care to fix this problem. I was advised to do a consistency check and then rebuild the library. This worked for a few days but then the problem returned. I have searched for solutions on-line - again to no avail. Now when I run a consistency check and rebuild the libraries (each task taking and wasting more time) I find that it fixes the problem, but only for a couple of days before it returns.

Ugh!!!! Back to Apple Care and the waiting in line and the painstakingly slow process of finding and "fixing" the problem.

63 of 81 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Not for Everyone

Written by CT from Durango

Dec 4, 2009

I've a prosumer type photographer and was excited to add Aperture 2 to my new Mac when I bought it in 2008. Since then, I've uploaded all my photos using Aperture's import feature. I've also used Aperture to organize my photos. While I've been pleased with the software's editing capabilities, I don't recommend it as the best way to organize and back-up photos. When I'm inside Aperture, life feels pretty organized as I've created folders, albums, and projects to put photos where I can easily find them. The problem is the way Aperture organizes them on the hard drive. The folders created inside Aperture don't always show up as folders on the hard drive. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. I've not been able to figure this one out yet. The problem it's created is that it makes it difficult to back up my photos on the hard drive in an organized fashion. To avoid boring everyone with the details of this, I'll simply say that I got so frustrated with the messy organization created by Aperture that I took all my photos off the Mac and put them on my 8 year old Windows PC so I could re-organize them. Believe it or not, this is easier in Windows that it is in Leopard. The other thing Aperture does not do is allow direct burning of DVDs. I've read this complaint from others as wells. Apple has a work around for this on their website, but it's really not designed for large scale backups. This just seems like a ridiculous oversight for a high-end photo processing software package. Bottom line is I would NOT recommend this product.

42 of 46 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Aperture is great... but... ... ...

Written by SR from Altadena

Nov 14, 2008

I tried the 30 free trials of both Aperture and Lightroom. Most of that time I found myself in Lightroom because Aperture did not have the RAW update for my camera yet. I have to say, Lightroom is quite impressive. Works like a champ and has some really nice non-destructive masking tools which I used constantly. But so great was my allegiance to Apple, when Aperture came out with the update for my camera I fled from Lightroom and purchased Aperture with the thought that they'd be pretty much the same product and that Aperture would link into my Apple work-flow much better. Which turns out to be true. It's great. But seems to be missing some really important items, the biggest is non-destructive masking and editing of specific parts of my photo. Aperture has NO masking. Aperture does have a lot of plugins which allow you to do this (at enormous expense; some plugins cost more than Aperture itself) but the plugins are "destructive." The plugin actually launches another window where you tweak and adjust but when you save, a duplicate TIFF version is saved in Aperture. At this point you are hosed. You cannot go back into that plugin and tweak any adjustments you made. You have to do it all over again. It's a HUGE weakness. If I'd known ahead of time, rather than just jumping on the Apple wagon when the RAW .cr2 update showed up, I would have remained in Lightroom. So the bottom line is this: Aperture and Lightroom both have the same basic adjustments for photos (RAW being the most important), so they're on even ground there. Aperture excels at metadata and organization tools which makes it feel more like a great database program with the most basic photo adjustment tools thrown in. Lightroom isn't so great at handling huge libraries, but has much better control over image and is much less "destructive" to your images. In the end, for me, it doesn't matter how well a photo developing program allows me to find my photos. What matters is the end product: the photo. Lightroom, for now, really seems to have the upper hand. So, Aperture, it was nice knowing you (and too bad I spent the 200 bucks) but I'll be moving back to Lightroom (and spending another 300 bucks). Oh, well. You live, you learn, you spend...

11 of 14 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Raw support for Leica d-lux 4

Written by WM from SAN FRANCISCO

Dec 7, 2009

I'd give the software 4 stars in a heartbeat... I was hoping to replace iPhoto with Aperture, but still no Raw support for the D-Lux 4 camera after more than a year. This is supposed to be a pro application, and the DL4 is a compact camera a good many pros would choose because of it's outstanding quality. I'm wondering why such a long delay?

7 of 12 people found this useful

Aperture 2

No sharpening tool?

Written by ST from Brunswick

Nov 4, 2009

Is this not important tool? Or it's extra, not neccecity?
But overall, i like the interface...

26 of 55 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Not Photoshop

Written by KD from Albuquerque

Jun 13, 2009

I really like this software but I thought it would do more photoshop type editing. You cannot add text or put borders around pictures. I should have researched Aperture a further but I expected more. It does a lot of cool advance editing and features but I also thought it did photoshop type editing too. I am sure I will enjoy this product more the longer I use it.

146 of 195 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Excellent Value

Written by TF from tempe

Nov 8, 2008

I upgraded from an iBook PPC based laptop to the late 2008 macbook pro and wanted a pro application for it. I'm an amateur photographer so Aperture was a no-brainer. I've heard about this Aperture for quite awhile and wondered how it differed from iPhoto. I downloaded the trial and bought a key less than a week later. Basically, iPhoto is a consumer product, Aperture being pro. What I love about Aperture is that it integrates seamlessly with iPhoto, which I still love to fall back on for the 'fun' stuff. You can share libraries with just a few mouse clicks. All of iPhoto's elements(i.e., albums, events) can be imported into Aperture. However, Aperture is so much richer and robust than iPhoto even as it's features make it's way into iPhoto. For example, Aperture is much more configurable than iPhoto. The controls are more finely tuned (especially for RAW). Searches are amazing with almost any metadata capable of being searched. This is useful for large libraries of images. Projects can be saved and backed up elsewhere. Whole libraries can be saved in special files called vaults which can also be backed up. The interface is clean and uncluttered. Dual monitor support is available which is nice when I can afford that new LCD Cinema Display(on my wish list.) Best of all is the value. The features built into this software are worth so much more than $199.99USD. I recommend buying the book 'Aperture2' from Peach Pit Press to guide you through this feature rich application. It is part of the Apple Pro Training Series and is Apple Certified. The only reason I didn't give this product 5 stars was because I think it still has room to grow.

141 of 150 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Lack of RAW support

Written by LC from AMERICUS

Feb 6, 2009

I can only give this application 4 stars due to the lack of X3F RAW support. It doesn't fully cover all major RAW formats as advertised, it seems only mosaic RAWs may apply.

62 of 92 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Prety Good!

Written by HH from Qualicum Beach

Oct 13, 2008

Apple has done it again! making some more Great software for mac's!! This software is good but i think it is overpriced for what it is. Ok so i can edit my pics etc. But i think it should be somewhat cheaper. Other then that this is a great program! and it is easy to put my pictures in it. I simply plug-in and, it starts, and they are in the program!! great job! 4 stars.

41 of 62 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Great product if you don't care about Nikon Picture control.

Written by OP from Prescott Valley

Dec 9, 2009

I ran Aperture 2 and LR2 side by side, and even though both utilize an different approach to cataloging and processing, they are great programs. I believe it is just a matter of taste and workflow. The only drawback for me is the fact that in LR2 I can use the Camera Profiles/ARC so when I import my shots, they look pretty close to what I see on my Camera Display, where as in Aperture 2 I would have to adjust a pic and then lift and stamp the adjustments. If Apple would integrate this into the new Aperture X, I might switch.

7 of 9 people found this useful

Aperture 2

INCREDIBLE

Written by PB from Austin

Dec 8, 2008

I'm new to shooting in RAW format. I spent years shooting JPEG because they looked great, small file size, nice prints. Never really understood RAW, primarily because I never took the time to find out what the buzz was all about.

Aperture 1.0 came out. A friend gave me a copy. I HATED IT. Continued using iPhoto. Simple, easy to use. My cup of tea.

Another friend who was a professional photographer for 20 years and continues shooting for pleasure told me that I should switch to RAW. I asked why? He said because it will give you the best images possible.

I kept shooting JPEG.

Aperture 1.5 came out. I did the upgrade. Well, enough of that. Back to iPhoto.

Aperture 2.1.1. was released. I waited. Read every single review and commentary from customers I could find, then, I decided to give it another shot.

And this is worth noting: One of the deciding factors in purchasing 2.1.1. for me was the 50 mini video tutorials posted on Apple's website. I was able to find out how to handle very specific issues just by watching these tutorials.

I found a copy of 2.1.1. on Amazon for $156.49 w/ free shipping.

Reset my camera to RAW + JPEG FINE. Did a walkabout the neighborhood and shot everything.

Today, Aperture arrived. I installed it, dumped a couple of hundred photos in it and started using the editing tools. So easy to use. Incredibly powerful. Probably old hat for the DSLR photographers out there, but, it was a day of revelations for me.

What an incredible product. I just can't believe it. I can do things in minutes that would takes hours in a darkroom.

Great job Apple.

1283 of 1366 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Way ahead of the competition

Written by CC from Ottawa

Oct 19, 2008

There are several amazing features about this product that makes it the best in its class (for quick photo edititng and organization). First of all, its interface is extremely clean and well organized so that it makes it very easy for the user to find everything that he needs. Also, this product has great features for organizing your phtots and finding them very quickly, viewing your photots in full screen mode and making quick but important adjustments to your photos. Overall, their is nothing tht compares to this product. Plus, it is virtually bug free and works the way you would expect an apple product to work. Keep up the good work apple!!!!

568 of 643 people found this useful

Aperture 2

Worth and useful for photographers

Written by VC from Brooklyn

Oct 2, 2008

I am an amateur photographer, and this has proven to be more useful to me personally than iphoto w/more functions in terms of its software specializes in filing, comparing, editing, exporting your work. In a metaphor it's a cabinet that holds all your pictures in an orderly manner; it allows you to lay it out on a light table digitally, photoshop is there to polish the specifics of individual pictures. It's worth an investment.

571 of 662 people found this useful