I am an intense user of Aperture as a sports photographer. In addition, I take photos to support the marketing of sports events. In an event or a season I will take well over 2,000 photos. I then log them into various categories and cull the poor shots and work on the best shots.
I am using a Mac Mini w.53 GHz Core 2 Duo with GB memory. I store all but the most current files on external hard drives. When I am working on my current files it sometimes gets really slow which is at best aggravating.
What, other that the Mac Pro is the best set up for quick processing of RAW files.
Thanks.
Camm’s Photography
Im thinking a “maxed out 27” iMac”
at least 16GB ram, SSD and i7
I have a photographic memory but never got it developed
Well spec’d iMac or MacBook Pro will serve you well. I have both and have no problems with either.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Im running a 2.9GHz i7 8GB RAM on a SSD and i have no problems.
You need to look at RAM and a SSD for speed with no lagging. Processor Speed is negligble wsoi wouldnt worry what that is. Get the best you can afford, is my advice for situations like you.
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I just upgraded from a 2008, 3.1, Mac Pro to a “maxed out” (or it will be when I finish adding RAM) 27” iMac. I have 6 T of images on a Drobo in multiple Libraries. The iMac for me is a dream pulling up Libraries, going to plugins and back and flipping through images.
Would I have liked a new Mac Pro? Sure, but I have saved some money and have all the machine I need.
Stan
sbysshe.smugmug.com
I feel so behind the times … I’m running a 2011 iMac 2.5 Ghz i5 12GB RAM running 10.9.1 … I have about 12TB of RAW and 16 bit PSD files in my active archive, connected via two four-drive JBOD FW800 towers … often I run Aperture, FCP X, Motion 5, Ps, ID, Safari, Mail, etc. simultaneously … I experience very few spinning wheels or delays … I think Mavericks did a lot under the hood to address multi-tasking house cleaning which improved app switching and memory swapping …
I will be upgrading my external drives to Thunderbolt once OWC starts shipping their new Mercury Elite Pro Dual boxes … I plan on two of them, each with 2 4TB drives in stripe mode … one for working files, the second for in house clone of the working files.
Butch .. do you maintain offsite or cloud backups too? Cloning 12TB, but keeping it under the same roof could leave you with nothing if a catastrophic event like a fire occurred.
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Of course I keep an offsite backup … I use a set of bare SATA drives stored in WiebeTech DriveBoxes transported in a padded Pelican case. I bring them in at least once a week, or as needed following large jobs and update them with a FW800 SATA drive dock.
The initial BU set in the studio is for hardware emergencies … they are only online during the actual daily BU process … that way I have instant access without fuss should the primary drives fail.
If a disaster claims my studio … I can get up and running with little effort using the offsite BU set …
I’m not much for cloud options … even with high speed internet … for 12TB, you are talking weeks, if not months in some cases of transferring data …
While it could be considered not “safe” enough to have my third copy so close by (four miles from the studio) because a large disaster could claim both sets … I figure if there is that massive of a problem … I’ll have far more to be concerned with than my archives …
According to MacWorld’s Benchmark testing the iMac is fastest with Aperture, faster even than a brand new 8 core MacPro:Lab tested: New Mac Pro is the speedster we’ve been waiting for (finally) | Macworld
This means that Apple has not updated Aperture to take advantage of the latest hardware which feels like they really don’t view it as a Pro App the way they do Final Cut.
Perhaps they will in the future but we probably shouldn’t be holding our breath.
mjperini
This means that Apple has not updated Aperture to take advantage of the latest hardware which feels like they really don’t view it as a Pro App the way they do Final Cut.
Or they will have a new major version update that makes this leap :)
Photographer | https://www.walterrowe.com | https://instagram.com/walter.rowe.photo
Walter,
I certainly hope that you are correct, it would indeed be nice. I am a long time user both personally and professionally. Aperture’s basic structure is brilliant, and I have long been a fan.
Nothing would make me happier than a solid and drama free (Aperture 3, 3.0.1,3.0.2 Final cut Pro X) release that took full advantage of Apple’s latest hardware.
It’s a bit of a dilemma for me because I’m now running 2 systems, one with Mavericks and Aperture 3.5.1 on MBP for personal work , but our main studio machine is an aging MacPro 1,1 (Quad 3.0 16GB Ram, Boot SSD, 5770, Raid libraries Dual 23” CD’s) which has been frozen at 10.6.8 and Aperture 3.2.x (not sure off the top of my head) because it is stable there, and was not stable higher than that.
My plan has long been to upgrade to the next MacPro/Thunderbolt etc and new 10Bit displays. So I was more than a bit surprised to learn that Currently, Aperture runs faster on an iMac than on a new 8 core Mac Pro with dual fire pro 700’s. And, Apple offers no guidance about when/if Aperture will be updated, and when it is, will it support a 10bit workflow, and I haven’t been able to ascertain if an iMac can (Apple just says ‘millions of colors’ which is Not 10 bit)
My wife already owns a MBP retina & Thunferbolt display and frankly while they are great in most respects I would rather edit on a pair of non-glossy displays capable of hardware calibration and a 10 bit workflow.
I don’t change very often, so it makes more sense to go with the highest standard I can. I’ve gotten used to identical dual displays and was hoping to keep that setup.
One would have thought that even the base configuration of the New MacPro would smoke everything else in the lineup, but it does not. (at least not with Aperture) further , it is at least possible that Apple could write a very nice update to Aperture but does not address either the 10bit workflow or the machines for which it is optimized.
So in my case at least I just have to wait and see what apple does before I replace the Hardware, and hope my hardware keeps kicking along until we get some clarification.
There is nothing I would like more than being able to run the same (latest) version of Aperture on both machines , and have it run really well on both. And you must admit that having Applications like Aperture tested to run Slower on Apple’s latest workstation than on it’s consumer desktop is a bit counter intuitive, No?
mjperini
I just bought the cadillac iMac 27. Running my 1 TB aperture managed library like a champ. I have the 3 TB fusion drive. Aperture opens in just about 3 seconds. I use a bunch of post processing software (mostly PS and Nik suite); all run great. I considered the Mac Pro, but the dual GPUs won’t do much for me with photography as I understand.
Jeff,
I think you did the right thing, and I may end up doing exactly the same. I have been told several times over the years that Aperture does not address more than one graphics card, and benefits from a fast processor and memory– all of which the iMac provides.
What we don’t know is if an Aperture update will allow for the type of cutting edge color and display technology that Final Cut supports, or take the iPhoto with more features approach recent Aperture updates have seemed to follow.
Personally I would much prefer to use true wide gamut displays like the Eizo’s and NEC Spectraview series which are all 10 bit displays (without glossy screens) So I have to wait to see what Apple does with Aperture, and hope my old Mac Pro keeps chugging along until then.
mjperini
MJPerini,
I’m on the same boat. I will wait to see what Apple will bring us with Aperture 4, then will make my decision. No doubt it will still run very nicely on iMacs though.
Cheers
Rafael
Rafael
http://www.mydarkroom.ca