Aperture 1.5 announced today at Photokina

[DouglasUrner]

There is new info at the Apple web site. The upgrade will be free for users with 1.0 or later.

The best feature in my book is that they appear to have abandoned their packages model of image archiving and will allow you to reference your images in their current location -- much like Lightroom

The new version also supports all of the current Mac hardware, and from the promo materials it sounds like some effort has gone into optimizing performance for them.

If you have the opportunity to attend one of the Aperture test drive sessions that are going around, I would recommend it -- it's three hours of hands on time with a 17" MacBook Pro and Aperture, it was very impressive.

Doug

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Apple has not abandoned their packages model of image archiving, but they have added the ability to reference files outside the managed Aperture library. What's nice is that they appear to have devised a transparent approach where you can mix and match as much as you like between the managed library and your own file system. Thus, you can arbitrarily move any image in or out of "management" at any time. The only major consequence (that I've found, yet) to an image being outside the Aperture library is that the "vault" backup system in Aperture cannot back it up. You have to handle your own backups for non-managed images some other way.

I'll also add that Apple has updated all the "Quick Tour" and "Tutorial" videos on the Aperture site to reflect v.1.5. Those videos are a good way to see what they've done. I think it looks pretty darn slick.

[Bob Varipapa]

Looking forward to the update later this week (and comparison with Lightroom beta).

[greg fee]

Anybody know of instruction on aperature in vancouver (BC), seattle or pacific northwest area?
tks greg

[DouglasUrner]

You might check in with Dana or Dartanyon at Glazer's Camera or Steve at Luminous Works. Both are in Seattle. Glazer's has an excellent digital department and just hosted the Aperture Test Drive in Seattle. Luminous works is well regarded Adobe training center catering to the graphics community. It seems like Aperture training would be right up their alley, but I don't know if they are doing anything yet.

From looking at Apple's web site, it appears that there may not be much in the way of Aperture training anywhere yet -- I didn't see any user level programs and the "train-the-trainer" class is scheduled for November in Boston.

Good luck, Doug

[David_Buzzard]

The Emily Carr Institute down on Granville Island does all the Apple certified training in Vancouver, so check with them. Most of what they do is video editing, but you never know.

Aperture isn't hard to get the hang of, but is a little counter intuitive compared to other RAW applictions out there. With a little time and poking around, it's not that hard to get moving on it.

David Buzzard

[greg fee]

David I did check EC and they do not offer it at this time, it is quite amazing that knowone in this area trains this program, will check out DouglasUrners suggestions today. tks