Aperture 2 launched

[Haanes]

http://www.apple.com/aperture/

Excerpt from Apple store US:

«Over 100 new features in Aperture 2, including:
Image adjustment controls such as Highlight Recovery, Definition, Vibrancy, and Vignette
Retouch tool with soft-edged brush to remove unwanted elements from photos.
Next-generation RAW image processing for highest-quality images
Quick Preview mode for rapid-fire photo browsing
Simplified user interface that maximizes screen space and provides direct access to your iPhoto library from within Aperture
Integration with .Mac Web Gallery to instantly publish your photos, allowing visitors to view and download images.»

For Aperture users this is a payable upgrade, for others it's $199. The question is whether this is an actual performance upgrade (ie, will there be curves adjustments?) or if it's mainly an attempt to integrate Aperture better with other Apple software.

Edit: added URL

 

[Haanes]

Apple store claims it will ship in 1-3 business days. Btw, the upgrade is $99. I've been wanting to switch from LR to Aperture for quite some time, but the lack of curves adjustments and support of Epson R-D1 dng's is holding me back. The interface is beautiful, though.

 

[infrequent]

i thought curves adjustment were there already?

 

[Haanes]

Good news: Aperture now supports my Epson r-d1 raw files.

Infrequent: no, unfortunately they're not. There's advanced level controls, though.

 

[mr_phillip]

The good news is that it's WAY faster. The bad news – still no curves (although the levels controls are excellent). They've also released an API for third party image adjustment add-ons, although there's no way of telling what that'll throw up until a few plug-in hit the decks.

 

[BillBingham2]

Does anyone know if supports the RAW files from the GR-D? I looked online and did not see that or the any Epson cameras, is there a better place other than the apple site for compatibility?

Thanks.

B2 (;->

 

[Larky]

All I know is it's still way too slow, and the tools aren't anywhere near as good as Lightroom when combined with Photoshop. Sure, it's pretty, but you'll need a top of the line machine to make it run the speed it does in the demo. I have a quad core G5 here with 8gb RAM and it's slow. I tested it on a MBP dual 2.6ghz with 4GB RAM and it's slow. LR is way faster. But, I do like the iPhoto type stacking in Aperture.

 

[DelDavis]

Has anyone noticed that the retouch tool in Aperture doesn't work on grayscale images, or is it just me?

I'm trying to think of a good reason they would exclude that capability.

 

[pukupi]

All I know is it's still way too slow...

I was nervous about the upgrade to Aperture 2.0 as 1.x on a MacBook Pro was slow and I'm now using a MacBook (not Pro) without the benefit of a dedicated video card but have found 2.0 to be very fast. My library is around 4,000 images.