I usually stay away from general technology news, however, here are a couple bites of information that are quite relevant to photographers.

Toshiba to stop production of HD-DVD
The format war for an High Definition DVD format is effectively over. Reuters is reporting that Toshiba will “stop production of equipment compatible with the HD DVD format for high-definition video”. This news comes as over the last few months nearly all of the major movie studios have switched over to only sell HD movies using the competitor Blu-Ray technology. On Feb 15th, Walmart announced that they would only sell Blu-ray and on Feb 11th Best Buy recommended the Blu-ray format. Those of us who have been looking for a solid standard to archive large amounts of files on a removable media may now have a standard.

Apple Releases Aperture 2.0
On February 12th, Apple announced the release of Aperture 2.0, its photo editing and management software. The suggested retail price is $199, and only $99 for an upgrade.

In a press release, Apple describes the enhancements in Aperture 2.0:

Featuring a new, easier user interface designed to be more intuitive and accessible, Aperture 2 now lets users navigate between Viewer and Browser modes with a single key command. Screen real estate is maximized for images with an all-in-one heads up display that allows users to toggle between library, metadata and adjustment controls in a single tabbed inspector. The All Projects view, modeled after iPhoto’s Events view, provides a poster photo for every project and the ability to quickly skim through the photos inside, and the integrated iPhoto® Browser offers direct access to all the events and images in the iPhoto library.

Performance has been enhanced in Aperture 2 so it’s faster to import, browse and search large volumes of images. Embedded previews let photographers caption, keyword and rate images as they are being imported, and with the ability to export images in the background, photographers can continue working while images are processed to JPEG, TIFF, PNG and PSD file formats. Quick Preview allows users to browse RAW images in rapid succession without having to wait for files to load, and the Aperture library database has been re-architected to provide fast project switching and near instantaneous search results, even when working with extremely large libraries of 500,000 images or more.

I’m sad to see that they’re still not supporting Raw files from PhaseOne digital backs. The only work around is to process the files out to DNG’s in another software and bring them back into Aperture. Though Apple’s Raw Support Page says that they support 2 Hasselblad digital backs and 8 Leaf digital backs, the fine print says that the DNG workaround is required also.

The fine print reads:

Aperture works with most DNG files generated from cameras that support this format and DNG files generated by the Adobe DNG Converter with the “Convert to Linear Image” option turned off.

One very nice feature added is support for Tethering of several digital camera, including most of Canon and Nikon’s high end and prosumer level cameras.

I intend to test out Aperture 2.0 over the next couple months, however until there is real support for digital backs I will be unable to work it into my workflow.

About the author

Kevin Michael Reed
Kevin Michael Reed (Google+, Facebook) is a fashion & beauty photographer and producer/director based in New York City and Los Angeles, CA. He is the President/CEO of RedFOG Visual Media, a production company in New York City, and a partner in Passion of Photography, Inc, a company dedicated to teaching photographers and sharing our passion through charitable causes. Kevin has lectured and hosted workshops throughout the United States and the world teaching photographers the business and creative sides of photography. (Kevin's Fashion & Beauty Photography Portfolio can be seen here).