I was happy to get my new 5D3 until I tried to open the files in Aperture version 2.1.4 - I was not happy to find out I need Aperture v. 3 or later to open the RAW files.
I also use NIK's Complete Collection of plug-ins for Aperture.
So now I need to address the host program for the plug-ins. If I upgrade to Aperture v.3, will my current library follow to the upgrade? Thoughts on Aperture 3 from users?
Is it worth going with Aperture v.3, or moving to Lightroom's latest, and again, will my current Aperture library be read by Lightroom? I can keep Aperture v.2 for use with my older RAW files if need be.
In either case, Aperture 3 or Lightroom 4, NIK tells me I will have to re-install the plug-ins...
Aperture 3 is a must have upgrade from v2. If Noise removal in app is important to you Lightroom 4 is better. I tend to prefer apertures raw decode of my 5d3 files over ACR, along with the non-linear workflow of aperture over LR.
Brushing on a curves adjustment layer in aperture 3 seals the deal for me - I save a ton of drive space not needing PSDs to do selective dodging and burning.
I expect aperture 4 to come out and have no fears of apple "abandoning it". Just look at any recent tv spot of their hardware and what apps they feature.
The safest upgrade path is to use referenced masters and "move" the images out of the library into a subfolder structure using the File->Relocate masters command. This way the upgrade process will not duplicate your entire library images and all, just the metadata in the library. This makes backing up the v2 library very simple and quick. You want to do this before installing aperture 3 - although You can have both installed at once if you rename aperture 2. The only conflict you'll run into is that each app will overwrite each others prefs.
And as always you want to disable all the "auto" stuff in preferences - faces, places, preview generation, etc.
Thanks for the replies. I am currently using DPP to convert 5D3 files to a TIFF file, which I can then import into Aperture for processing. I find this to be a little cumbersome, and the TIFF files are huge. The upside to this is it forces me to cull everything except what I absolutely want to save. I have to say that the final processed product doesn't look too bad, but I hate DPP, and am very used to Aperture.
So I suppose if I want to upgrade to Aperture v3, I have to relocate each and every master, one at a time, to another folder? Or to a separate folder for each project?
