New guy....so many questions.

[tjmay8]

Hello,

Just joined the forum this morning after reading a thread on the speculative release of Aperture 4. I just purchased a Canon Rebel T4i as my first DSLR camera. I also just upgraded my old MacBook to a 15" MacBook Pro with the retina display. I have been leaning towards Adobe LR4 and Photoshop as my post processing tools but was surprised to find out that LR4 will not recognize my camera in tethered mode or my retina displays resolution. In exploring Aperture 3's capabilities...I discovered that Aperture 3 supports both of these already. I haven't purchased either of these pieces of software but was wondering if anyone has any input regarding shooting tethered in Aperture?
As I'm able to read on the web....Adobe could take a long time to add the T4i to the list of tethered compatible cameras... if at all. T3i is not even available yet. I have a strong desire to use this capability.

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

[fcortese]

Hello,

Just joined the forum this morning after reading a thread on the speculative release of Aperture 4. I just purchased a Canon Rebel T4i as my first DSLR camera. I also just upgraded my old MacBook to a 15" MacBook Pro with the retina display. I have been leaning towards Adobe LR4 and Photoshop as my post processing tools but was surprised to find out that LR4 will not recognize my camera in tethered mode or my retina displays resolution. In exploring Aperture 3's capabilities...I discovered that Aperture 3 supports both of these already. I haven't purchased either of these pieces of software but was wondering if anyone has any input regarding shooting tethered in Aperture?
As I'm able to read on the web....Adobe could take a long time to add the T4i to the list of tethered compatible cameras... if at all. T3i is not even available yet. I have a strong desire to use this capability.

Thanks in advance for any input.

according to this artricle from apple support, the T4i is capable of tethering with A3. Hope this helps.

 

[robgendreau]

The Aperture vs. LR debate has been raging forever, and I've used both.

But I'm going back to LR. And a big part of the reason is something you've already noted: there's no way to tell what Apple is up to. While secrecy and splashy launches and whatnot might be cool for some products it is NOT a good idea for software your work relies upon. Even if you're a hobbyist. We don't even know what it will cost, so you can't compare it to LR or others. And you can't demo it anymore. And you don't know how long between upgrades. And I’m not even sure Apple will stick with it.

I've got a lot more confidence in Adobe. And you can try before you buy if you are in the market. And they release updates more transparently; for example, the release candidates for LR 4.2 and ACR with your camera's support are available for download now.

 

[tjmay8]

The Aperture vs. LR debate has been raging forever, and I've used both.

I've got a lot more confidence in Adobe. And you can try before you buy if you are in the market. And they release updates more transparently; for example, the release candidates for LR 4.2 and ACR with your camera's support are available for download now.

Thanks for the feedback. I was using the 30 day free download of LR4 (a big plus I agree) and downloaded the RC 4.2 update that showed support for my camera but found out that did not mean support for tethering. It was this discovery that made me start looking at Aperture as an alternative. Having no previous experience with either program...I am not jaded yet Apple had to have just updated Aperture to include the T4i and the retina display on the new MacBook Pro's...didn't they? Both are only a few months old.

 

[fcortese]

Thanks for the feedback. I was using the 30 day free download of LR4 (a big plus I agree) and downloaded the RC 4.2 update that showed support for my camera but found out that did not mean support for tethering. It was this discovery that made me start looking at Aperture as an alternative. Having no previous experience with either program...I am not jaded yet Apple had to have just updated Aperture to include the T4i and the retina display on the new MacBook Pro's...didn't they? Both are only a few months old.

Disclaimer: I am an Aperture user and looked at LR3 but never downloaded it or used LR.

The latest update to A3 was fairly significant and IMO made it a little more robust. Some of the blogs that I have been following regarding Aperture suggest that it may have led to a push-back in the release of A4 and others claim that it moves Apple more to merge iPhoto and Aperture. As has already been mentioned, Apple tends to be really tight-lipped about things. There's lots of post-processing that you can do in both LR and A3 short of the layering and advanced processing tools that apps like PS or NIK add. The main reason I chose Aperture was the file management system that for me has worked great and made things easier organizationally and flow wise. I have several libraries and additional older photo files on a portable HD, all easily accessed through A3. I can load my pictures onto Aperture, clean them up by working with curves and/or levels, etc then use the PS plug-in to further edit them if necessary. I really don't think you can go wrong with either except for your desire to tether. So I guess you have to weigh how much a factor that is.

 

[tjmay8]

Disclaimer: I am an Aperture user and looked at LR3 but never downloaded it or used LR.

The latest update to A3 was fairly significant and IMO made it a little more robust. Some of the blogs that I have been following regarding Aperture suggest that it may have led to a push-back in the release of A4 and others claim that it moves Apple more to merge iPhoto and Aperture. As has already been mentioned, Apple tends to be really tight-lipped about things. There's lots of post-processing that you can do in both LR and A3 short of the layering and advanced processing tools that apps like PS or NIK add. The main reason I chose Aperture was the file management system that for me has worked great and made things easier organizationally and flow wise. I have several libraries and additional older photo files on a portable HD, all easily accessed through A3. I can load my pictures onto Aperture, clean them up by working with curves and/or levels, etc then use the PS plug-in to further edit them if necessary. I really don't think you can go wrong with either except for your desire to tether. So I guess you have to weigh how much a factor that is.

Thanks again,

I am planning on getting PS CS6 as most people seem to agree that this is the end all in post processing partially because of the layers capibility you mentioned. I have recently read a lot of Scott Kelby's books and as you would suspect...he raves about LR. They both appear to have certain advantages over one another in different areas. From a novice point of view...they both appear to be surprisingly similar in appearance...much more so than I would have thought. I am a big Apple fan and have used iPhoto for years to store my point and shoot photo's so Aperture would be easier to adjust to than LR but the PS connection made me choose LR at first. Didn't get too far before hitting the tethering limitation for my new camera.

Tethering is a definite requirement on my part so I guess Aperture is the only choice right now...too bad but I can't be sure that Adobe will ever add the T4i to the tether list. If anybody has any experience with Aperture and tethering..I would love to hear it.

 

[ijohn.8.80]

Relative newbie trying to help another here...

Why not just import from the card/s?

I never tether, I always use the cards to read from. There again I've got a 27" iMac, so it has a slot on its side already. However, a card reader is cheap these days.

 

[tjmay8]

Relative newbie trying to help another here...

Why not just import from the card/s?

I never tether, I always use the cards to read from. There again I've got a 27" iMac, so it has a slot on its side already. However, a card reader is cheap these days.

Tethering just doesn't eliminate the transfer step, it allows you to see more clearly what the photo will look like on a larger screen immediately which I think has value. The new MacBook Pro also has a SDHC slot built in.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[ijohn.8.80]

Okay, I get what tethering is now, thanks for the explanation. It's not that different to me looking with preview at my RAW files, I guess.

 

[TheDrift-]

I have used both. Both are decent programs you wont go to wrong with either.

Aperture is easier to use so it may be a good place to start, I also reccomend its autotone to get good results most of the time.

I ended up moving to lightroom, imo its a better program, not by much though...but its tougher to pick up and run with.

Unless you shooting loads of studio stuff and need the defo need the tethering i would let that be the deciding factor.

oh yeah there is that new wifi eyefi ???? card...that can send pictures wirelessley to a computer...might be a solution to avoid tethering all together???

 

[robgendreau]

Yeah, the EyeFi is a partial solution to tethering cameras that otherwise wouldn't be supported. I originally thought it was a big meh, since you can just use USB or a card reader to get the photos to a computer, so why wifi? But since I have a non-tetherable camera I found that with an EyeFi it can now beam photos as they're shot straight to a computer, or even better, to my iPad. I used it to monitor time lapses and remote shooting. Of course I had to fit a remote shutter release as well.

There is also dedicated software for tethering that may be more useful than LR or Aperture; has more bells and whistles depending on what your camera supports; IIRC Nikon makes their own for example. Even tethering to mobile devices. I'm waiting for all cameras to use an iPad or iPhone as a monitor/controller....