Apple hints at forthcoming Aperture update

There's been much debate on the interwebs on what lies in store for users of Aperture (Apple's professional-level photo management software). I'm not suggesting that we mourn Aperture's passing, but it has been a little neglected of late, and as someone who uses Aperture almost daily that makes me intrigued by Apple's plans for the application.

Apple has been hounded for a little while about some cameras not having RAW support in OS X: colleague Chris Ullrich's Nikon D300 is still unsupported, for example. So you can imagine the widespread surprise when Joe Schorr, Apple's Senior Product Manager for Photo Applications posted a thread on the Aperture Discussion Groups:

"We're constantly working to make Aperture an even better tool for users, and will soon release an upgrade that includes RAW format support for new cameras and other exciting new features. Please stay tuned."

This is where the plot thickens, dear readers, as the updates for Aperture's camera support actually hinge on updates to OS X. So if a new camera comes out, Apple puts out an OS X RAW Support Update for these new formats, and Aperture just works -- as do any other applications that utilize the OS X image frameworks. Now add into that the use of the word 'upgrade', not update, but upgrade. While perhaps hinting at a paid upgrade, it's good to know that the frustration of photographers everywhere isn't falling on deaf ears.

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Source: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=184

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There's been much debate on the interwebs on what lies in store for users of Aperture (Apple's professional-level photo management...

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alexis

The link to "photographer frustrations" is broken. Ironic?

January 31 2008 at 2:36 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

NutMac

My wish list:
- Plug-in open framework
- Better noise reduction
- Barrel distortion correction
- Chroma aberration correction
- Faster overall operation
- improve RAW engines with user defaults
- Improve meta data handling, including lens type, custom meta templates
- Meta data browser
- HDR
- Improve printing capabilities (so barebone, it's not even funny)

January 30 2008 at 8:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

macjonny

Don that's why I use Lightroom as well. Who wants to wait while Apple gets off their ass to update it. I run lightroom on a SR MBP, and it flies. Aperture does not.

January 30 2008 at 8:24 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Don

What a waste of time.

Apple cares more about the "splash" of their marketing campaign than about supporting their users.

If Apple truly wants to support their customers with Pro Apps, they need to drop some of their mis-begotten habits.

We're not asking for Features & Products to be pre-announced, as we all know what that can do to sales of current products. What the users of Apple's Pro Apps are asking for is announcement of when their hardware will be supported. A week, a month, a year? So we can make decisions.

Support for the D300 & D3 is in the OS. Not Aperture. So those cameras COULD have been supported when the cameras were shipped. Apple had the cameras before the rest of us did.

Apple COULD design their support for RAW files so that the update could be a simple install, instead of being tied up in a full OS bug-fix release. Or a release of Aperture

This is merely bad software release planning within Apple, at the expense of their High-End users.

Whatever, I own Lightroom as a result. And I'm using it on my new Dell.

January 30 2008 at 7:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

1 reply to Don's comment

NutMac

Tying RAW engine to OS is not necessarily a bad thing. It enables other applications (e.g., Preview, iPhoto) with RAW capability. That said, RAW updates should be a separate release, much like monthly Security Update.

January 30 2008 at 8:34 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jeff

Hopefully they will fix the horrible image output quality of the current version, and add CMYK and Greyscale support.

January 30 2008 at 7:33 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

The General

Just give me chromatic aberration correction, black and white converion, and noise removal as good as that of Adobe Lightroom ... Then I will use Aperture. I love the interface, but the lack of those features, especially the chromatic aberration correction keep me using Lightroom.

January 30 2008 at 6:43 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

David

Apple really needs to start releasing RAW support updates separate from these OS X major point updates. Still not supporting cameras like the D3 and D300 is just sad. I know many people that have or are seriously considering moving to Lightroom because of things like this. I've preferred Lightroom since I first tried trials of both programs myself for this and a number of other reasons.

January 30 2008 at 6:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mat Lu

I've been waiting to buy for 2.0; hurry up Apple! The PMA starts tomorrow...

January 30 2008 at 6:15 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply