I stand by my first impression: Aperture 3 is a great update. That said, now that the dust has settled and I’m over the rush of new technology, there are things appearing that are less than what I anticipated - as well as the inevitable bugs of any new version.
- Current 32 bit plugins don’t run in 64 bit: this was to be expected but it’s a pain. Aperture needs to be opened in 32 bit mode to use the current crop of plugins. So if you use any sort of plugin on a day to day basis this means no 64 bit for you (me). It probably also means we’re going to need to buy new versions of every plugin we own.
- Faces: I was never excited about this feature and I’m still not convinced. First, it needs to scan the entire library. This, my friends, takes a looong time on a large library. After three hours it had gone through 4000 pics (from 65000) and had made some pretty odd choices. It also crashed my iMac to the point where my main library would no longer open and had to be rebuilt. Some 30 sweat-filled minutes later, I decided to disable it altogether. Not sure it’ll come back on.
- Flickr: this is the exact same export module you get in iPhoto 09. I was hoping to at least be able to choose from my own custom export presets (size, watermark) but can’t. This may be fine for a consumer product but I’d expect more from a pro app. And yes, I know Flickr isn’t geared towards pros. But these days social sites are a big part of marketing - like it or not.
- Web Pages: no change from version 2. Same templates and layouts. Not too hot.
- Export: no sharpening on export. I was really hoping for this one.
- Help: the user manual is no longer a pdf but a Help Viewer (html) doc. And for some reason it’s incredibly slow. Not only am I not a fan of the help viewer, but this means I can’t put the manual on my iPod for some night reading (tried: doesn’t work).
- Skin Retouching: most brushes and bricks are smooth as silk but this one runs like molasses. It also tends to make the skin look like chalk. Maybe I haven’t found the right settings yet but the slow speed makes it hard to experiment with.
- On the bug front: the Blank setting on my second display doesn’t stick. It keeps reverting back to Alternate even though the menu still says Blank. Annoying.
As I said, Aperture 3 is still a stellar upgrade and an absolute no brainer. There are tons of enhancements that are truly worth the price of entry. But as expected a 3.0.1 version will be needed.
