Arizona Treks

Last week Apple release Aperture 3.  Although I do very little digital work now I use Aperture to manage my photos.  Even the film is scanned and kept in Aperture.  So after seeing the impressive list of new features I downloaded a trial version, big mistake.  Apple is known for it's innovative, stable products.  This is the least stable software I have ever seen from Apple.  It crashes a lot if there are any inconsistencies in the Aperture 2 library you import, and if you have been using Aperture much at all, there will be inconsistencies.  

My library had a total of about 30,000 images in 3 different projects.  The import took about 2 days running day and night.  Then after a few crashes, the file system had to be repaired.  After importing the new libraries it upgraded the images which took many hours, then to fully do the conversion I reprocessed the masters which took many more hours, then another upgrade images, build previews, and generate thumbnails.  All told it took 5 full days to complete that task.

Aperture made organizing photos and finding them later much simpler but still had some weaknesses in organization.  This new version has many features that will enhance the digital workflow but also many that will make it better for my film organization as well.  Libraries may now be switched on the fly.  Folders may be placed at the top level and may contain projects.  Overall it is a very nice upgrade but I sure hope they address the instabilities soon.

On another note, Kodak announced they will be releasing my favorite color film in sheets now.  Kodak Ektar in 4X5 and 8X10 sizes may actually get me shooting some color again.