Will Aperture 3 be anounced tomorrow?
NOTE: This was originally posted on shutterstation.com, but since decommissioning that site I've pulled some of the articles here so they don't get lost.
We haven't been posting much to the site lately and I need to apologize for that. Three things happened:
- I had a baby a couple of months ago and I've spent all the time I can with her.
- Work. Lots of it. Which is good, but has left me with no spare time.
- My doubts about sticking with Aperture as my photography management application.
The third one is the relevant for this site. I've been using Aperture for a few years and have really loved it to the point that I've been sharing my workflow and some tips & tricks I've learned here. But lately I've been having some issues that I can't ignore:
- It's been unstable ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard. The main issue is that previews often turn into a green mess and I can't work with the photo. Rebuilding the Library works, but it just happens again after a day or so of heavy usage.
- It feels significantly slower on my MacBook Pro than it used to be. I don't know if this is just me, but it just seems to have become unusably sluggish lately. Maybe it's because my MacBook Library is over 60GB, but a pro app should be able to handle it.
- I've been playing with the Lightroom 3 beta and although I just don't like the interface and the organizational features, I'm enjoying the extra features that Aperture lacks. I can see why there are so many Lightroom fans.
- The seeming lack of Apple's commitment to Aperture. I'm OK with long release cycles. In fact, I'd rather not have to upgrade too often as it can introduce stability issues, requires a round of learning new things, and is honestly a pain in the ass. But the competition has moved far faster and Lightroom is today a great option, and the absolute silence from Apple is frankly annoying. I just don't want to keep putting my work into an application that may be dead.
So, that brings me to today. I'm eagerly waiting for the announcement in a few hours. If a new version of Aperture is announced AND it's available straight away AND it has significant improvements, I'll check it out and may just fall in love with Aperture again.
Otherwise I'll seriously consider getting Lightroom for all new stuff from now on.
PS. Aperture 3 better let me rename my files or I'm almost definitely out.
UPDATE: Well, no update to Aperture. Time to seriously reconsider my workflow.
UPDATE 2: Aperture 3 arrived just in time and I'm loving it. So happy I didn't do anything drastic!
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Reader Comments (4)
I'm waiting too. I hope they release it and I hope it's good. I am just a user, but Bibble 5 is also an interesting alternative. Bibble's a small company though, and so things take time.
Regards,
Rick Cogley
Yes... we'll see in a few hours. I really love Aperture, but it just feels abandoned.
Aperture 2 is painfully slow with Snow Leopard, especially after having my graphics card replaced under warranty. It is inconceivable that anyone who uses it for business could tolerate it. I just downloaded the Lightroom 3 Beta to start trying out, so I hope there's an announcement coming.
Sigh. Just the iPad (iMeh) announcement. Nothing about updating any of the pro apps. Apple remains a hardware company with software only a tool to sell the hardware.