Apple introduces Aperture 2.0
updated 08:45 am EST, Tue February 12, 2008
Apple Aperture 2
Apple on Tuesday released Aperture 2.0, a major revision of the company's professional photo editing and management application. The upgrade brings in a new, sleeker user interface that allows users to flip between Browser and Viewer modes with a single key press and a heads-up display that makes the most of the screen area while still allowing quick access to editing or navigation controls. A completely new RAW image processing engine is also said to bring out more detail and more faithful color accuracy for imported shots. Performance has likewise been improved with faster loading times and a Quick Preview mode that lets users browse their libraries at speed without loading each entire image.
New editing tools also let editors enhance special qualities of an image: Recovery reduces overblown highlights, while Vibrancy boosts saturation without hurting the skin tones crucial to portraits. A Repair/Retouch function similar to that from iPhoto lets users quickly remove cosmetic imperfections just by dragging across affected areas.
The Aperture update is also designed to integrate more smoothly with Apple's modern web tools: users can more readily post photos to their .Mac Web Galleries with formatting for the iPhone and other handhelds. Apple launches the software immediately for $199 through the company's online Apple Store.
upgrade
02/12, 09:11am reply
upgrade is $99
ccrider
Mac Enthusiast
Joined: Mar 2001
@ccrider
02/12, 09:15am reply
thanks.. nice to know someone can do some decent reporting on this site :)
eldarkus
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2004
Old serial number
02/12, 09:41am reply
It would be nice if Apple sent you the proper serial number for Aperture 2 as opposed to 1.5 for the trial version!
Philippe
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2008
$99
02/12, 09:45am reply
This is a great program. It does require a powerful machine though. On my 17" macbook pro with 2GB, it works fine, but I had to upgrade my G5 1.8 to 6GB to make it acceptable.
Hopefully they added more features to slideshow (including Ken Burns effect) so that I do not have to export previews to iPhoto.
dynsight
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: May 2005
APPL April Fools
02/12, 11:18am reply
Not only do you have to de-commission your old Aperture but then the new serial number won't work.
I'd rather see a text layer added so I don't have to move everything into PS as a final save.
Mr. Fartleberry
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2003
The Prime Issue
02/12, 11:44am reply
with this software is that Apple has NO commitment to really keeping it updated. And I'm not talking about features or bugs, I'm talking about support for camera RAW files.
Yes, this doesn't mean much to the casual shooter, but is a death knell for pros. Take the Nikon D3/300, still no RAW support, but many have been using these cameras for 3 months already. Adobe had support for them almost before the first one shipped.
2.0 MAY have support for these cameras, but what about going forward? ANY commitment from them to keep the RAW portion updated in a timely manner? Without that, this is nothing more than a more expensive iPhoto only for amateurs.
paulc
Junior Member
Joined: Aug 2000
Not excusing Apple but...
02/12, 12:16pm reply
If your game is being sacked by not having D3 raw support, wouldn't you at least try to get by using dcraw? I mean, I shoot raw on my point and shoot Canon A640 using a hack, so Aperture would never recognize those files. "dcraw -T -4 /blah/*.CRW" to the rescue, and I have awesome pictures. Don't expect for everyone to support the bleeding edge. It would be nice, but s*** needs to be tested, folks.
Despite what people say, I still think Aperture is more useful than Lightroom (which feels like a little toy, IMHO)
DrunkenTech
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2005
RAW support...
02/12, 12:27pm reply
...is no longer provided by the application, but is now a basis of the operating system, and is being rolled out with OS updates.
Yeah, I do understand that the resultant lag in support is a serious grip, and I would hope that Apple would do something about it, but just explaining how it's handled.
ZinkDifferent
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2005
finally...
02/12, 01:04pm reply
... i had reverted back to iPhoto. be nice if I can go back to having everything in one robust catalog.
Aperture 1.x was a pig. hopefully this will be snappier!
rtbarry
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
update
02/12, 01:54pm reply
Trial serial mistake seems to be corrected. I guess they read Macnn.
D3/D300 are now supported but only with 10.5.2 installed.
Trouble is it really needs 2 monitors. 2 big monitors.
Mr. Fartleberry
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jul 2003